Non to Interrogative Subordinate Wh to Clauses

This volume examines subordinate wh-clauses that lack an interrogative interpretation, particularly those in which the wh-word seems to deviate from its literal meaning. These include subordinate manner wh-clauses that have a declarative-like meaning, locative wh-clauses expressing kinds, and headed relatives that serve as recognitional cues, among many others. While regular interrogative embedding has been widely studied in recent years, little is known about the circumstances under which non-interrogative (subordinate) wh-clauses are licensed, nor why some, but not all, wh-phrases can be polyfunctional.

The chapters in the book combine the study of cross-linguistic variation in patterns of subordination with formal semantic and syntactic analyses, with data drawn from a wide range of languages including Basque, Czech, English, Mandarin, Romanian, and Taiwan Southern Min. They provide novel insights into the ways in which wh-phrases can be used to introduce complements, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses, and show how the meanings associated with wh-words are exploited beyond their standard distribution. The findings have implications for our understanding of both the phenomenon of subordination as a whole and the relationship between form and meaning in wh-clauses.

Lukasz Jędrzejowski, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of German Language and Literature I, University of Cologne, Carla Umbach, Senior Researcher, Department of German Language and Literature I, University of Cologne

Lukasz Jędrzejowski is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of German Language and Literature I at the University of Cologne. His research interests include comparative syntax, formal diachronic semantics, and the syntax-semantics interface, and he has recently worked specifically on the diachrony of subordinate clauses and habituality.

Carla Umbach is a Senior Researcher in the Department of German Language and Literature I at the University of Cologne. Her main research interests are in semantics and cognitive science, with a particular focus on the expression of similarity in natural language, equative comparison, metalinguistic comparison, evaluative predicates, and exclamative utterances.