Focus fronting in wh-questions in Inuktitut

• Main Author: Sherkina-Lieber, Marina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto 2004
• Subjects: Inuktitut; Focus; Wh-Questions; Wh-Fronting; The Landing; inuktitut
• Online Access: https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6204

Contrary to previous work on word order in Inuktitut wh-questions (Gillon 1999, 2000), I argue that fronting of wh-words in Inuktitut is not wh-movement to Spec, CP for clause-typing or licensing, but it is focus-driven movement, most likely to a position adjoined to vP. I show that Inuktitut word order depends on the presence of topic/focus features. The unmarked order is subject-initial. The preferred position for wh-words and focused constituents is below the subject and above the verb. Following Rudin's (1988) analysis of multiple wh-fronting languages, I assume that wh-words bear contrastive focus, and this causes them to move. The landing site cannot be Spec, CP, because then the subject would have to move even higher, i.e. adjoin to Spec, CP, which is the position for contrastive topics (Rudin 1993), but not ordinary subjects. Thus, this position has to be lower than Spec, TP.