Locality in Wh quantification
Subtitle: questions and relative clauses in Hindi
By: by Veneeta Dayal.
Series: Studies in linguistics and philosophy ;; v. 62
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Dordrecht; Boston
Language: eng
Number of pages: 249
Subjects: Hindi language -- Syntax; Hindi language -- Grammar, Generative; Hindi language -- Interrogative; Hindi language -- Relative clauses
Description: Locality in WH Quantification argues that Logical Form, the level that mediates between syntax and semantics, is derived from S-structure by strictly local movement. The primary data for the claim of locality at LF is drawn from Hindi but English data is used in discussing the semantics of questions and relative clauses. The book takes a cross-linguistic perspective showing how the Hindi and English facts can be brought to bear on the theory of universal grammar.

There are several phenomena generally thought to involve long-distance dependencies at LF, such as scope marking, long-distance list answers and correlatives. In this book they are handled by explicating novel types of local relationships that interrogative and relative clauses can enter. A more articulated semantics is shown leading to a simple syntax.

Among other issues addressed is the switch from uniqueness/maximality effects in single WH constructions to list readings in multiple WH constructions. These effects are captured by adapting the treatment of WH expressions as quantifying over functions to the cases of multiple WH questions and correlatives. List readings due to functional dependencies are systematically distinguished from those that are based on plurality.
Notes: English and Hindi.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-241) and indexes.