An Anti-contiguity Approach to Nupe Interrogative Distribution

Abstract

This chapter furnishes additional support for the Anti-contiguity theory of wh- prosody by demonstrating that it derives two surprising and mysterious asymmetries of Nupe wh- syntax. The first asymmetry concerns the fact that in embedded clauses the structurally lowest wh- item in a multiple wh- question may not appear in-situ. The second asymmetry concerns the availability of embedded non-interrogative focus and the impossibility of embedded interrogative focus. Both of these asymmetries are argued to be explainable in terms of the Anti-contiguity ban on contiguous wh- phrasing with overt C at the Intonational Phrase level, given that overt embedded C does not introduce an Intonational Phrase boundary in Nupe, as in Wasa and Asante Twi. As a consequence, no Intonational Phrase boundary insulates focused embedded wh- items from overt embedding complementizers, therefore running afoul of the Anti-contiguity prohibition.