Anti-contiguity : a theory of wh- prosody /
"This book develops a theory of wh- prosody according to which wh- expressions must avoid forming prosodic constituents with overt complementizers at the level of Intonational Phrase. The theory is inspired by Richards' (2010, 2016) Contiguity Theory and is based empirically on asymmetries...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY:
Oxford University Press,
[2020]
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| Series: | Oxford studies in comparative syntax.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "This book develops a theory of wh- prosody according to which wh- expressions must avoid forming prosodic constituents with overt complementizers at the level of Intonational Phrase. The theory is inspired by Richards' (2010, 2016) Contiguity Theory and is based empirically on asymmetries in the distribution of wh- items in five West African languages: Krachi (Kwa: Ghana), Bono (Kwa: Ghana), Wasa (Kwa: Ghana), Asante Twi (Kwa: Ghana), and Nupe (Benue-Congo: Nigeria). The observations and analyses stem from original fieldwork on all five languages and represent some of the first prosodic descriptions of the languages. The theory is shown to successfully derive a number of famous and less well-known asymmetries in wh- in-situ distribution in a variety of languages unrelated to those the theory was originally designed to analyse. Against the backdrop of data from eighteen languages, the theory is parameterized to account for wh- item distribution across typologically diverse languages"-- |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xiv, 152 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9780197509753 0197509754 0197509762 9780197509760 9780197509777 0197509770 |