multiple wh-questions

[Martin Haspelmath]

Dear Edith,

There seems to be a fairly extensive generative literature on this 
topic, which I think is definitely worth looking at. But you are right, 
we are only just beginning to investigate the various restrictions on 
multiple parametric questions from a cross-linguistic perspective.

Incidentally, multiple wh-relative clauses are also attested (and 
discussed e.g. by Christian Lehmann in his 1984 "Der Relativsatz", p. 
341-345). And in my Lezgian grammar, I also mention multiple parametric 
concessive conditional clauses of the type "Whatever letters she writes 
to whomever, she doesn't get any answers" (1993:399). I haven't seen 
this latter type anywhere else, but I doubt that Lezgian is the only 
language that allows it.

Martin

Edith Moravcsik wrote:
> A doctoral student here at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is 
> carrying out a crosslinguistic survey of multiple wh-questions. So far 
> we have not found much published material on the topic. If you are 
> able to provide either data or literature references, this would be 
> much appreciated.
>  
> The following are the basic research questions.
>  
> 1/ SELECTION OF MULTIPLE WH-WORDS
>    What wh-words can cooccur in a question? There are clearly some 
> constraints here; for example, in English, (some) wh-words that are 
> verb complements can cooccur but adjuncts resist the pattern; compare 
> "Who read what?" but "*Who read the book why?"
>  
> 2/ THE LINEAR ORDER OF MULTIPLE WH-WORDS RELATIVE TO THE REST OF THE 
> SENTENCE
>     Are multiple wh-words "in situ" or do they occupy some other position?
>  
> 3/ THE LINEAR ORDER OF MULTIPLE WH-WORDS RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER
>    Do multiple wh-words that are not "in situ" have a preferred or 
> required order relative to each other?
>  
> 4/ DO MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS ALWAYS HAVE A DISTRIBUTIVE INTERPRETATION?
>    For example, English "Who read what?" assumes more than one subject 
> and more than one things to read and asks about the distribution of 
> the reading materials over the set of subjects.
>  
> 5/ WHAT DOES IT DEPEND ON WHETHER A LANGUAGE DOES OR DOES NOT HAVE 
> MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS?
>    This is a question about typological implications linking mutliple 
> wh-questions to other properties of languages.
>  
> Thank you.
>  
> Edith A. Moravcsik
> Professor of Linguistics
> Department of Foreign
>      Languages and Linguistics
> University of Wisconsin-
>      Milwaukee
> Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413
> E-mail: edith at uwm.edu <mailto:edith at uwm.edu>
> Tel: (414) 229-3068
> Fax: (414) 229-2741


-- 
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at eva.mpg.de)
Max-Planck-Institut fuer evolutionaere Anthropologie, Deutscher Platz 6	
D-04103 Leipzig      
Tel. (MPI) +49-341-3550 307, (priv.) +49-341-980 1616

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