Re: THEORY: two questions

>At 03:17 PM 4/1/2000 -0600, Matt Pearson wrote:
>>My favourite example of a "decidedly non-functional" feature of grammar
>>is the constraint which says that a wh-phrase may not move out of
>>one half of a coordinate structure--i.e. the ungrammaticality of sentences
>>such as "Who did you see and Bill?".  There doesn't seem to be any
>>obvious communicative reason for the coordinate structure constraint.
>>Sentences like "Who did you see and Bill?" are not especially difficult
>>to process (no more so than many other constructions which are judged
>>grammatical).  And yet, in every language that I'm aware of where this
>>phenomenon has been tested, such sentences are judged ungrammatical,
>>and are rarely if ever produced spontaneously.  I find it hard to believe
>>that the coordinate structure constraint is the product of functional
>>parameters or darwinian selectional pressures.  It just appears to be an
>>arbitrary side-effect of language design.
>
>Does this constraint also apply to languages where wh-words aren't fronted?
Apparently so.  I seem to remember reading that in Chinese, where
wh-words remain in situ, the coordinate structure constraint is
respected.

In Chinese, wh-questions are systematically ambiguous in terms of
their function.  A question like "John visited who" can be interpreted
*either* as a regular question, equivalent to a fronted-wh question in
English ("Who did John visit?") *or* an echo question, equivalent to
a non-fronted-wh question in English ("John visited WHO?!").  A
question like "John visited who and Bill", however, cannot be interpreted
as a regular question; it only sounds good as an echo question (i.e. "John
visited WHO and Bill?"), suggesting that whatever principle blocks
movement out of a coordinate structure in English is also operating
in Chinese (perhaps as a constraint on 'covert movement', for those
who believe in such things).

Matt.