The intervention effect in suzhounese polar questions

Abstract

Abstract The Suzhounese polar question exhibits intervention effects, manifested by the linearity constraint barring anti-topical expressions against c-commanding the polar particle. This paper proposes to derive the intervention pattern from two assumptions. Namely, the polar operator is interpreted higher than the C-domain Q operator, and topics project a secondary illocutionary act independently of the primary act associated with the comment. I further show that the Suzhounese pattern is linked to linearity constraints elsewhere (e.g. in why-adjuncts) that crucially draw upon the exceptional wide scope of topics. I point out that the connections I have drawn motivate a novel class of scope effect that is distinct from the better understood focus-induced intervention.