On French Est-ce que Yes/No Questions and Related Constructions

Abstract

Abstract In addition to the Qu-est-ce que questions in (1) which, as their translations indicate, are mono-clausal despite their bi-clausal form, French has yes/no questions such as (2) in which the est-ce que sequence shows up again. (1) a. Où est-ce qu’il est parti? ‘Where is ce that he is gone?’ = Where did he go? b. Qu’est-ce qu’il fait? ‘Que is ce that he does ?’ = What is he doing? (2) a. Est-ce qu’il est parti? ‘Is ce that he is gone?’ = Has he gone? b. Est-ce qu’il fait beau? ‘Is ce that it is nice?’ = Is the weather nice? (2) are also ‘ordinary’ polar questions. Since French seems to be unique in the Romance domain in accepting the Qu-questions in (1) and the polar questions in (2) it is tempting to suggest that a proper analysis of the former should also shed light on the latter. This article will verify whether this a priori desirable generalisation is valid. As a first step, it will look at the analysis of Est-ce que as an interrogative head ESK merged in the CP domain suggested by Cheng and Rooryck (2000. Licensing WH-in situ. Syntax 3.1. April 2000, 3–19.) which expresses it in its strongest possible form: Est-ce que yes/no questions like (2) would seem to only differ from their Qu-counterparts in missing the Qu-element. The article will show that their ESK proposal should be challenged empirically and theoretically in sections 2, 3 and 4. It will investigate Est-ce que polar questions and related constructions in detail in section 5 and will show in 6 that they do indeed share one crucial property with qu’est-ce que questions, although the generalisation it arrives at in section 7 substantially differs from Cheng & Rooryck’s proposal.