Abstract
1. The problem The central question for the analysis of “headless” relative clauses, also known as free relatives (henceforth FRs), concerns the position of the wh-phrase (what in (1)), and in particular whether it raises to a clause-internal or clause-external position (see van Riemsdijk 2006a for a survey and references). (1) (I eat) [FR whati you cook ti] The crucial property of (1) is its nominal character: It occurs in a position otherwise restricted to a DP argument. This is the way in which what you cook in (1) differs from what you cook in (2), where the same string is interpreted as an indirect question: (2) (I wonder) [Q whati you cook ti] In languages like German, where nominal elements can occur in the middle field but (finite) clausal categories can do so only very marginally, the asymmetry between FRs and embedded questions comes out clearly: (3) Ich werde [FR was ich gefunden habe] niemandem (t) zeigen I will what I found have nobody show 'I won't show to anybody what I found' (4) ??Mir hat sie [Q wer es gesagt hat] ja nicht (t) gesagt me has she who it said has PRT not said
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