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Which of the following is true about building wh-questions?

1) Inversion applies as it does in yes/no questions.
2) The QP may only be represented by one word.
3) There are no exceptions to T-to-C movement.
4) QPs never move to the beginning of the structure.

Answer :

Final answer:

Wh-questions in English involve moving the question phrase to the start of the sentence, differing from Subject-Aux Inversion in yes-no questions. This is because the auxiliary already occupies the C head position and what moves is not just a head but a whole phrase. These processes are not necessarily present in the syntax of other languages.

Explanation:

The construction of wh-questions in English involves a syntactic process that includes the movement of the question phrase (QP) to the beginning of the sentence. This movement is different from the typical Subject-Aux Inversion seen in yes-no questions, which is analyzed as T-to-C movement. In wh-questions, despite the inversion where the auxiliary precedes the subject, we cannot use the same T-to-C movement to explain how the wh-word (or phrase) reaches the sentence's initial position. This is due to two key reasons:

  • The auxiliary is already in the C head position, preventing any additional elements from occupying the same slot.
  • What moves to the sentence's front isn't merely a single word or head, but an entire phrase, which requires its own space in the syntactic structure.

When dealing with main clause subject questions, the question word serves as the subject and no subject-auxiliary inversion occurs. Furthermore, not all languages exhibit the same syntactic behavior with question word fronting as English does. Thus, while Subject-Aux Inversion and Question Word Fronting are common features in English question formation, they're not universally applied across all languages.

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