Grammar of Q
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€80.99
A01=Seth Cable
Author_Seth Cable
Category=CFG
Category=CFK
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Product details
- ISBN 9780195392265
- Weight: 544g
- Dimensions: 234 x 156mm
- Publication Date: 16 Oct 2010
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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The Grammar of Q puts forth a novel syntactic and semantic analysis of wh-questions, one that is based upon in-depth study of the Tlingit language, an endangered and under-documented language of North America. A major consequence of this new approach is that the phenomenon classically dubbed "pied-piping" does not actually exist.
Cable begins by arguing that wh-fronting in Tlingit does not involve a syntactic relationship between interrogative C and the wh-word. Rather, it involves a probe/Agree relation between C and an overt 'Q-particle' (or 'Q') c-commanding the wh-word. Fronting of the wh-word in Tlingit is a mere by-product of fronting the QP projected by this Q. From this core observation, he develops a syntax and semantics for Tlingit wh-questions.
Given the strong similarity between the wh-constructions of Tlingit and those of more widely studied languages, Cable applies his analysis to a range of other languages and finds that such a 'Q-based' theory holds a number of interesting consequences in syntax and semantics.
Assistant Professor of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
