On the readings of pourquoi in wh-questions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31513/linguistica.2020.v16nEsp.a38048Keywords:
Wh-questions, pourquoi, Experimental Linguistics.Abstract
The literature on wh-items such as why in English points out that this element can be associated with two readings, reason and purpose. Following Reinhart’s (2003) typology for causal relations between two events, Tsai (2008) assumes that the semantics of reason involves a relation called Enable, according to which one event is a necessary condition for the other. On the other hand, purpose reading involves a Motivate relation, in which one event either enables or causes the other, mediated by a mental state. Semantic and syntactic restrictions suggest that reason/Enable and purpose/Motivate are readings that involve different syntactic positions, the first being related to the CP system, and the second to the vP area. With regard to the French wh-item pourquoi, there are few studies that address this issue. According to these studies, the reason/Enable reading is the only possible reading for pourquoi. In order to deepen the matter in question, this work investigated the interpretation properties of pourquoi through a non-chronometric offline experimental study. The results show that this wh-item can have a purpose/Motivate reading in addition to a reason/Enable reading in interrogative sentences.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish in the Revista Linguí∫tica agree with the following terms:
The authors maintain their rights, ceding to the journal the right to first publication of the article, simultaneously submitted to a Creative Commons license permitting the sharing with third-parties of published content as long as it mentions the author and its first publication in the Revista Linguí∫tica.
Authors may enter into additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of their published work (for example, posting in online institutional or non-profit repositories, or book chapters) so long as they acknowledge its initial publication in the Revista Linguí∫tica.
The journal Revista Linguí∫tica is published by the Post-Graduate program in Linguistics of UFRJ and employs a Creative Commons - Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC).
