Wh-questions in Kitharaka

This paper explores question formation in Kitharaka (E54; Bantu; Kenyan) within the crosslinguistic approach developed in Sabel (2000, 2002, 2003). According to Sabel, variation in the positioning of wh-phrases in languages can be explained if it is assumed that wh-movement is universally triggered...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inStudies in African linguistics Vol. 34; no. 1
Main Author Peter Kinyua Muriungi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published LibraryPress@UF 01.06.2005
Subjects
focus
Kitharaka
questions
wh-movement
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Summary:This paper explores question formation in Kitharaka (E54; Bantu; Kenyan) within the crosslinguistic approach developed in Sabel (2000, 2002, 2003). According to Sabel, variation in the positioning of wh-phrases in languages can be explained if it is assumed that wh-movement is universally triggered by [+wh] and [+focus] features, both of which are [+interpretable] and can be specified as [±strong]. For Kitharaka, I argue that wh-movement is triggered by a strong [+focus] feature in a functional head (Foc). The strong [+focus] feature on a focus head is morphologically manifested by a focus marker which attaches to a fronted wh-phrase, and in case of long wh-movement, by the focus markers that may appear on embedded clauses crossed by overt wh-movement. Wh-in situ occurs when no strong [+focus] features are introduced in the syntax (Muriungi 2003,2004).
ISSN:0039-3533
2154-428X
DOI:10.32473/sal.v34i1.107332