Wh-Questions in English and Chinese: A Phase-Based Approach

doi:10.4236/oalib.1107272

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Open Access Library Journal 8 2021

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Wh-Questions in English and Chinese: A Phase-Based Approach

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1107272, PP. 1-14

Zheng Gao

Subject Areas: Linguistics

Keywords: Wh-Questions, Phase Model, Minimalist Program, Merge, English and Chinese

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Abstract

Wh-question has aroused considerable attention of linguists around the world. English is a wh-movement language, while Chinese is commonly recognized as a wh-in-situ language. By the advent of the Minimalist Program outlined by Chomsky, the syntactic derivation in a phase-based approach has reduced the computational operation. The syntactic structures are built in a bottom-up and one-phase-at-a-time way. Merge and Agree are the most basic syntactic operations. The paper presents how Phase Theory works and clarifies a computational model of generation of wh-questions. This model accounts for how the uninterpretable [WH] feature of wh-phrases is checked and deleted and when phrases are sent to Spell-Out. The paper tries to explore the similarity and difference of nominal wh-words between English and Chinese in matrix and embedded wh-questions, which will help provide further evidence of the power of universal grammar, and the usefulness of the approach to syntactic operation of other languages.

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Gao, Z. (2021). Wh-Questions in English and Chinese: A Phase-Based Approach. Open Access Library Journal, 8, e7272. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1107272.

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