Wh-questions in Hodeidi Arabic: A Phase-based Approach

Abstract

The study investigates the syntax of wh-questions in Hodeidi Arabic, presents a satisfactory account of their syntactic behavior, and provides an answer to the following questions within Chomsky's (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, and 2006) Phase-Based approach. 1. Does Hodeidi Arabic allow the fronting of wh-questions to the left periphery of the clause in overt syntax? 2. Can wh-questions in Hodeidi Arabic be accounted for neatly within Chomsky's Phase-Based approach? It shows that wh-phrase movement in Hodeidi Arabic is an obligatorily syntactic movement where the wh-phrase has to undergo fronting to the left periphery of the clause. In exploring the interaction between wh-questions in Hodeidi Arabic and the Phase-Based analysis, it has been shown that the minimalist analysis proposed in Hodeidi Arabic can provide further support to Chomsky's Phase-Based approach. It can be observed that Hodeidi Arabic obeys the Phase Impenetrability Condition proposed in Chomsky (2001); it has been observed that when all syntactic operations in a given phase have been completed, the complement or the domain of the phase becomes impenetrable to any further syntactic operations. This happens when the structure is sent to the interface levels for interpretation. Furthermore, in the syntactic derivation of subject and object wh-questions, it can be observed that both the subject and object wh-phrases have to pass through certain phases till they reach [Spec, CP]. At the end of the derivation, the head C and its specifier (the subject/object wh-phrase) undergo transfer to the PF and LF levels for proper representations, and hence the clause is interpreted as an interrogative.