Where ’ s wh-? Prosodic disambiguation of in-situ wh-phrases

1. Where’s wh-? Prosodic disambiguation of in-situ wh-phrases Iain Giblin & Sam Steddy igiblin@mit.edu steddy@mit.edu The Queen’s College, Oxford, Thursday, 4th September 2014

2. Ambiguity and wh-in-situ • When a wh-in-situ language embeds a clause containing a wh-phrase, the result is an ambiguous sentence: (1) [CP__ [TP … [CP __ [TP … wh- … ]| (2) ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaarani rjən ʔai (Khmer) Boran know-say Rany learn what ‘What does Boran know Rany learns?’ matrix wh-scope ‘Boran knows what Rany learns’ embedded wh-scope [CP ___ ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa [CP ___ rani rjən ʔai]]

3. Disambiguating wh-scope with prosody • Our proposal In languages where such ambiguity arises, there are systematic prosodic means of disambiguating the two readings. • Background Connections between prosody and scope or movement • Case Studies Telugu Khmer American Sign Language

4. Prosody, scope, and C • Numerous proposals make the claim that syntactic structure bearing particular features must be linked by prosodic means to associated phrases, often in the C domain. • In general terms - Hirotani (2005): “When a term X requires a c-commanding licensor Y, X should be contained in the same major (phonological) phrase as Y.” • For contrastive topics - Constant (2014): “The Contrative Topic operator and the phrase it associates with are realized in the same intonational phrase.”

5. Richards’ (2011) Condition on wh- & C “Given a wh-phrase  and a complementizer C0 where  takes scope,  and C0 must be separated by as few Minor Phrase Boundaries as possible, for some level of minor phrasing.” This condition can be satisfied in more than one way: (3) [CP …c… [TP … [VPwh]| (Φ c ) (Φ ) (Φ wh ) (4) Modify structure (ie. wh-movement) (5) Modify prosody [CPwhc [TP … [VPtwh ]| [CP …c… [TP … [VP wh ]| (Φwhc) (Φ ) (Φ …)(Φc wh)

6. Prosodic linking of in-situ-wh- to C • Japanese - SOV, with wh-in-situ • Japanese dialects are a well studied case for which the proposal has been made that in-situ wh-words must be contained in the same phonological phrase as their respective C head. • Tokyo Japanese (Ishihara 2003, Richards 2011) • Fukuoka Japanese (Smith 2013, 2014 & refs. therein).

7. Tokyo Japanese • (6) Declarative Sentence • a. Náoya-ga nánika-o nomíya-de nónda • Náoya-nom something-acc bar-loc drank • ‘Naoya drank something at the bar’ (Ishihara 2003)

8. Tokyo Japanese • (6) Interrogative Sentence • b. Náoya-ga náni-o nomíya-de nónda no ? • Náoya-nom what-acc bar-loc drank Q • ‘What did Naoya drink at the bar?’ (Ishihara 2003)

9. To Recap • Wh-, and other sorts of features, require some sort of prosodic connection to the C-domain where they take scope. • Some languages move wh-phrases to satisfy these conditions. • But others (eg. Japanese) modify the prosody of material coming between the wh-phrase and C. • We now apply this type of analysis to wh-in-situ languages, to show how ambiguity of wh-scope is resolved.

10. Disambiguation of in-situ wh-phrases • Based on our own research, we now provide evidence, in line with the theories referenced earlier, that there are systematic prosodic means for disambiguating in-situ wh-scope. Telugu- Dravidian Khmer (Cambodian) - Mon-Khmer • For further theoretical linguistic study of these languages, see Krishnamurti & Gwynn (1985) for Telugu, and Haiman (2011) for Khmer

11. Telugu -SOV, C follows TP • (7) Declarative sentence kaljaaninaraajanagaare-luwandeeduanianukondi KaljaaniNaraajanadoughnuts cook c think ‘Kalyaani things Naraayana is cooking lentil doughnuts’ • (8) Embedded wh-sentence (ambiguous) kaljaaninaraajanajemiwandeeduanianukondi KaljaaniNaraajanawhat cook c think ‘What does Kaljaani think Naraajanais cooking?’ matrix wh- ‘Kaljaani wonders what Naraajanais cooking’ embedded wh-

12. Declarative Prosody • (7)kaljaaninaraajanagaare-luwandææduanianukondi Kaljaani.FNaraajana.Mdoughnut.PLcook.3M c think.3F ‘Kalyaanithinks Naraayana is cooking lentil doughnuts’ • Each XP has rising intonation, the utterance has a final fall

13. Matrix wh-prosody • (8a)[ kaljaani[ naraajanajemiwandææduaniCP] anukondiCP] [ Kaljaani.F[ Naraajana.Mwhatcook.3McCP] think.3Fc ] ‘What does Kaljaani think Naraajana is cooking?’ • Prosody of ‘wandæædu’ and the utterance-final fall are flattened

14. Matrix wh-prosody

15. Embedded wh-prosody • (8b)[ kaljaani[ naraajanajemiwandeeduaniCP]anukondiCP] [ Kaljaani.F[ Naraajana.Mwhatcook.3McCP] think.3FCP] ‘Kaljaani wonders what Naraayana is cooking’ • Prosody of ‘wandæædu’ still flattened, but final fall reinstated

16. Embedded wh-prosody

17. Telugu Summary Declarative Matrix Embedded • In Telugu, the regular rising intonation of each prosodic word, and the final fall, are flattened (de-accented) in a wh-domain. • When the wh-domain extends to the (rightmost) matrix C, the flattening continues to the end of the utterance • When the wh-domain only extends from the wh-word to the embedded C, regular prosody is observed after C

18. Khmer- SVO, C precedes TP • (9) Declarative Sentence ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaarani rjən ɓaraŋ Boran know-say Rany learn French ‘Boran knows Rany is learning French’ • (10) Embedded wh-sentence (ambiguous) ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaarani rjən ʔai Boran know-say Rany learn what ‘What does Boran know Rany learns?’ matrix wh-scope ‘Boran knows what Rany learns’ embedded wh-scope

19. Declarative Prosody • (9)ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaarani rjən ɓaraŋ Boran know-say Rany learn French ‘Boran knows Rany is learning French’ • Each prosodic word has a slight intonational dip. The utterance end in a fall

20. Matrix wh-prosody • (10a) [CPɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa[CPrani rjən ʔai ]] [CP Boran know-say [CP Rany learn what ]] ‘What does Boran know Rany is learning?’ • Matrix C (or rather the leftmost word) and the final wh- have pitch boosted

21. Embedded wh-prosody • (10b) [CPɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa[CPrani rjən ʔai ]] [CP Boran know-say [CP Rany learn what ]] ‘Boran knows what Rany is learning’ • Dip of matrix subject is emphasised, though the final fall returns

22. Khmer Summary Declarative Matrix Embedded • In Khmer, each prosodic word regularly contains a slight dip in intonation. • Matrix wh-scope leads to the matrix C and the wh-word being placed on a new level of phrasing with a pitch boost at either end. • Embedded wh-scope leads to an emphasised form of the regular prosody outside the wh-domain: there is a larger dip on the matrix subject than for the declarative

23. American Sign Language • Wh-questions in ASL are associated with a non-manual gesture in which the eyebrows are furrowed and the head slightly tilted: • (11)

24. American Sign Language • Aarons (1994) notes that the duration of this gesture varies depending on whether the wh-phrase takes scope with either the matrix or embedded CP: • (12a) Teacher wonder pass test who ‘Who does the teacher wonder (if) passed the test?’ • (12b) Teacher wonder pass test who ‘The teacher wonders who passed the test’ (Note, however, that the embedded clause has a rightward-moved subject.) wh wh

25. American Sign Language

26. To Conclude • Our research supports claims that wh-in-situ languages rely on prosody, rather than movement, when attempting to relate wh-phrases to C. • Furthermore, we have shown that this process is a suitable tool for disambiguating the linear strings that arise from not moving wh-phrases. • Additionally, wh-in-situ languages methodologically modify their regular prosody, typically flattening the intonation of phonological phrases inside the wh-domain, (but there may be other strategies!).

27. With thanks to… • Iain Giblin • Sudheer Kolachina, Pandu RV Kuchibhotla, & Padma Parakala • Rany Bradley • … and additionally to Sudheer Kolachina, Norvin Richards, & Jen Smith • Iain and I reserve all credit for any and all mistakes, errors, and misunderstandings

28. References • Aarons, Debra. 1994. Aspects of the Syntax of American Sign Language. PhD thesis, Boston University. • Constant, Noah. 2014. Contrastive Topic: Meanings and Realizations. PhD thesis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst • Haiman, John. 2011. Cambodian: Khmer. John Benjamins: Amsterdam/Philadelphia • Hirotani, Masako. 2005. Prosody and LF interpretation: Processing Japanese wh-questions. PhD. thesis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. • Ishihara, Shinichiro. 2003. Intonation and Interface Conditions. PhD thesis, MIT • Krishnamurti, BH & J.P.L. Gwynn. 1985. A Grammar of Modern Telugu. OUP: Delhi • Richards, Norvin W. 2011. Uttering Theory. Ms. MIT (email him for a copy!) • Smith, Jennifer. 2013. Fukuoka Japanese wh prosody in production and perception. Lingua 124: 96-130 • Smith, Jennifer. 2014. Wh prosody is not focus prosody in Fukuoka Japanese. In M Kenstowicz, T Levin, & R Masuda (eds.), Japanese/Korean Linguistics 23. Stanford: CSLI Publications