Scope and Prosody in Multiple Wh-Questions

Abstract

The prosodic marking of the wh-scope has been a good testing ground to shed light on syntax-prosody mapping. Many accounts have been proposed based on various theoretical models, including the E-feature agreement system, the Multiple Spell-Out Model, Contiguity Theory, and the Wrap-XP Model. However, most previous studies focused on the constructions with a single wh-phrase, and few studies paid attention to multiple wh-questions. This paper presents novel data from production experiments to show the prosodic patterns of multiple wh-questions in Korean, for which none of the previous accounts makes correct predictions. This study proposes a new alignment constraint considering the scope relations between wh-words. The necessity of such a constraint suggests that the prosodic structures for wh-scope interpretations are not the direct outcome of syntax and phonology but the aggregation of syntax, phonology, and semantics.