Island-sensitivity of two different interpretations of why in Chinese

Abstract

It has been assumed that thewh-elementweishenme“why” in Chinese has two distinct interpretations: a reason reading, which typically yieldsyinwei“because”-answers, and a purpose reading, which typically triggersweile“in order to”-answers. It is claimed that the two interpretations differ in island sensitivity: the reasonweishenmeis sensitive to islands while the purposeweishenmeis not. Assuming that the reasonweishenmeis awh-adverb without finer internal structure, while the purposeweishenmeis awh-PP consisting of the prepositionwei“for” and awh-DPshenme“what,” this contrast in island sensitivity can be considered as an instance of a broader generalization: the so-called argument-adjunct asymmetry (or the DP-adverb asymmetry) ofwh-in-situisland sensitivity. However, recent experimental studies provided mixed findings on whether the argument-adjunct asymmetry ofwh-in-situisland sensitivity actually holds. The current study focuses on the two interpretations ofweishenme“why/for what” in Chinese, and provides evidence using a formal acceptability judgment experiment that the twoweishenmes are both sensitive to islands, contrary to previous generalizations. Our results provide further empirical challenge to the so-called argument-adjunct asymmetry ofwh-in-situisland sensitivity.