List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of symbols
List of abbreviations
Chapter 1 Introduction
- Main ideas
- Questions and Chinese questions
- The meaning of questions
- Inquisitive semantics
- Chapter overview
Chapter 2 LF Movement and Binding in Chinese Questions
2.1 Chinese wh-in-situ
2.2 The LF movement theory
2.3 The binding theory
2.4 The status of the particle -ne
2.5 The diachronic semantics of the particle -ne
Chapter 3 Alternative Semantics of Questions in Chinese
3.1 The alternative semantics theory
3.2 Manner and causal wh-questions
3.3 Verbal zenme questions
3.4 A-not-A questions
3.5 Alternative questions
3.6 Polar questions
3.7 The grammaticalization of the particle -ma
3.8 Alternative semantics and inquisitive semantics
Chapter 4 Scope Marking of Questions by Phonological Prominence
4.1 Scope marking of questions phonologically in Chinese
4.2 Experimental data for the scope-marking strategy
4.3 Cross-linguistic comparisons of scope marking of wh-questions
4.4 Focus and wh-pronouns
4.5 Scope isomorphism of focus and its computational derivation
Chapter 5 Revisiting the Argument-Adjunct Asymmetry
5.1 Argument-adjunct asymmetry of Chinese wh-in-situ
5.2 The nominal-adverbial asymmetry
5.3 Operator movement and its problems
5.4 A correlational account of island sensitivity
5.5 A phonological reason for adjoining to scope positions
5.6 Island constraints of A-not-A questions explained
Chapter 6 A Distributional Account of Existential Wh-indefinites
6.1 Distributions of interrogative and existential wh-indefinites
6.2 Alternative semantics and existential readings of wh-indefinites
6.3 Syntactic and phonological factors that disfavor existential readings
6.4 Pragmatic reasoning and licensors of existential readings
6.5 Scope variability of Chinese existential wh-indefinites
Chapter 7 Concluding Remarks
7.1 Theoretical contributions of the interface approach
7.2 Limitations and further research directions
Appendix
References
Index
