Deriving Superiority Effects in Multiple WH-Fronting without Determiners.

This paper analyzes multiple wh-fronting with superiority effects in Mi’gmaq, an Eastern Algonquian language, to Bošković’s (2008, 2012) generalizations between languages with and those without the presence of overt articles. When the Mi’gmaq is compared to generalizations on scrambling, quantifier...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schuurman, Matthew
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: Scholarship@Western 2016
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Online Access:https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/wpl_clw/vol3/iss1/7
Description
Summary:This paper analyzes multiple wh-fronting with superiority effects in Mi’gmaq, an Eastern Algonquian language, to Bošković’s (2008, 2012) generalizations between languages with and those without the presence of overt articles. When the Mi’gmaq is compared to generalizations on scrambling, quantifier scope, and multiple wh-fronting with superiority effects, problematic contradictions arise, specifically with the latter generalization. According to Bošković's predictions, Mi’gmaq should be both an NP-only language based on scrambling, numeral classifiers, and quantifier scope, and a DP language based on multiple wh-fronting with superiority effects. Therefore, I propose there is no relationship between the presence of articles, the D feature, and appearance of superiority effects in obligatory multiple wh-fronting languages.