On Multiple Wh-Fronting

Abstract

I show that multiple wh-fronting languages (MWFL) do not behave uniformly regarding wh-movement and eliminate MWFL from the crosslinguistic typology concerning wh-movement in multiple questions. Regarding when they have wh-movement, MWFL behave like non-MWFL: some behave like English (they always have wh-movement), some like Chinese (they never have it), and some like French (they have it optionally although, as in French, wh-movement is sometimes required). MWFL differ from English, Chinese, and French in that in MWFL even wh-phrases that do not undergo wh-movement still must front for an independent reason, argued to involve focus. The fronting has several exceptions (semantic, phonological, and syntactic in nature), explanation for which leads me to posit a new type of in-situ wh-phrase and argue for the possibility of pronunciation of lower copies of chains.