Abstract
This chapter is a further illustration of how Quantifier Raising (QR) is constrained by minimal Search and Minimize chain links (MCL) applied to Float. It is argued that the so-called pair-list reading of a multiple wh-question in Japanese is derived from an LF representation in which the lower wh-phrase is covertly merged with the higher one. This proposal is empirically motivated by the fact that the availability of a pair-list reading is sensitive to the c-command requirement on the two wh-phrases involved and that such a reading is unavailable when one of the wh-phrases is embedded in an island and the other is located outside. Under the assumption that a wh-phrase carries a [WH] feature as well as an existential feature expressed as , it is argued that it is the feature that triggers the application of internal Merge in question. This leads us to conclude that pair-list readings are special cases of cumulative readings; both readings are derived from LF representations in which the two phrases involved undergo covert internal Merge.
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