Wh-Questions in Vietnamese

Abstract

The question of whether wh-in situ stays in situ, or undergoes some form of covert wh-movement that parallels overt wh-movement, remains controversial despite decades of research. We present data from Vietnamese which indicate that wh-in situ can be interpreted by either covert movement or unselective binding without movement. Covert movement takes place in matrix questions that lack a question particle, while unselective binding is used when there is a question particle and in embedded questions generally. The Vietnamese data also show that covert movement observes the same constraints—in particular, Subjacency—as overt movement. The correlation between unselective binding and the question particle in matrix questions appears to support recent theoretical views of question particles (e.g., Cheng, 1991), but we argue that this is only apparent. The question particle merely serves a syntactic licensing function, and this function is borne by a question-embedding verb in embedded questions, meaning that it is not inherent to question particles as such. The question particle in Vietnamese actually serves an unrelated semantic function: it indicates realis mood and induces a presupposition. The implication is that question particles are only indirectly related to wh-in situ, if they are related at all.