Why Is 'Why' Unique?: Its Syntactic and Semantic Properties Contributor(s): Soare, Gabriela (Editor) |
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ISBN: 3110675110 ISBN-13: 9783110675115 Publisher: Walter de Gruyter OUR PRICE: $157.69 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: September 2021 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - Syntax |
Physical Information: 0.88" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (1.49 lbs) 324 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Why is 'Why' Unique? Its Syntactic and Semantic Properties considers the behaviour of this peculiar wh-element across many different languages, including Ewe, Trevisan, Italian, Basque, German, Dutch, Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Hebrew. In ten original chapters, the authors explore various aspects of why-questions, such as the way why interacts with V2 constructions in Basque, with a subject clitic in Trevisan or how its morpho-syntactic make-up determines its merge position in Ewe, to mention but a few. Furthermore, a clear-cut distinction is established between high and low reason adverbials which are subsequently examined in why-stripping environments in Dutch. Beyond why proper, the book explores a special class of wh-expressions in some in-situ languages which give rise to unexpected why-construals with a touch of whining force. The objective is to explain the unusual syntactic position of these wh-expressions as well as their association with peculiar pragmatics. The questions are addressed for Cantonese: are what-initial sentences genuine questions? To what extent are Cantonese what-initial sentences similar to how-initial sentences in Mandarin? Beside these what-as-why questions, a special class of rhetorical questions, the doubly-marked interrogatives in Hebrew, come under scrutiny. Why is 'why' unique also concerns the interface with prosody and several experimental studies investigate precisely this aspect. |