The Asymmetry of Short and Long wh-Extraction in German

When subject to short extraction, wh-movement in German neither triggers a Weak Crossover effect nor does it show any Superiority effect. This situation changes if wh-movement undergoes long extraction. In this case, Weak Crossover effects as well as Superiority effects can be observed. This paper p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRecherches linguistiques de Vincennes Vol. 33; pp. 35 - 53
Main Author Grewendorf, Gunther
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.01.2005
Subjects
Clauses
German
Minimalist Program
Movement
Syntactic Analysis
Wh Phrases
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ISSN0986-6124

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Summary:When subject to short extraction, wh-movement in German neither triggers a Weak Crossover effect nor does it show any Superiority effect. This situation changes if wh-movement undergoes long extraction. In this case, Weak Crossover effects as well as Superiority effects can be observed. This paper proposes a minimalist analysis of German wh-constructions which is designed to explain these properties. By exploring various constructions which involve the left periphery of the clause & making use of multiple features associated with wh-elements, it is shown that short extraction & long extraction target different positions in the left periphery. 33 References. Adapted from the source document
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ISSN:0986-6124