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

Iain Giblin & Sam Steddyigiblin@mit.edu steddy@mit.edu

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The Queen’s College, Oxford, Thursday, 4th September 2014

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-tʰaa rani 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 ]]

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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

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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.”

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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 … [VP wh ]| (Φ c ) (Φ ) (Φ wh )

(4) Modify structure (ie. wh-movement) (5) Modify prosody

[CP wh c [TP … [VP twh ]| [CP …c… [TP … [VP wh ]|

(Φ wh c) (Φ ) (Φ … ) (Φ c wh )

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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).

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Tokyo Japanese

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(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)

Tokyo Japanese

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(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)

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.

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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

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Telugu - SOV, C follows TP

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Declarative Prosody

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Matrix wh-prosody

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Matrix wh-prosody

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Embedded wh-prosody

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Embedded wh-prosody

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Telugu Summary

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• 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

Khmer - SVO, C precedes TP

• (9) Declarative Sentence

ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa rani rjən ɓaraŋBoran know-say RanylearnFrench‘Boran knows Rany is learning French’

• (10) Embedded wh-sentence (ambiguous)

ɓoranɗʌŋ-tʰaa rani rjən ʔaiBoranknow-say Rany learn what

‘What does Boran know Rany learns?’matrix wh-scope‘Boran knows what Rany learns’embedded wh-scope

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Declarative Prosody• (9) ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa rani 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

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Matrix wh-prosody• (10a) [CP ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa [CP rani 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

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Embedded wh-prosody

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• (10b) [CP ɓoran ɗʌŋ-tʰaa [CP rani 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

Khmer Summary

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• 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

Declarative MatrixEmbedded

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)

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American Sign Language

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• 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

American Sign Language

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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!).

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With thanks to…• Iain Giblin

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• 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

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

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