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1) Sentences 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 are wh-questions. All these start with wh-words. These questions take their name from the fact that the words that introduce them  begin with the letters <wh> in English: who, what, when, where, why, which, and how. The wh-phrase appears in a position far away from the position where its theta role is assigned. In sentence 5, the question word is the subject. Sentence 7 is a yes-no question, which doesn’t contain a wh-word.

In wh-questions, different operations take place:

wh-movement

do-support

I to C movement

subject auxiliary inversion

The first operation that takes place in sentences 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 is I-to-C movement as the features/affixes under Inflection move to C.  From C, the affixes cannot lower to V because the subject DPs block strict adjacency. That’s why we need Do-support. An auxiliary is inserted under Inflection to get attached to the stranded affix. This is a rescue operation because if affix hopping fails the affix is left stranded under Inflection, which is a violation of the Stranded Affix Filter. So, an auxiliary is inserted as a last-resort operation to support the affix. In question 7  Did Mary kiss John?, the auxiliary verb “did” moves to the C position. Sentences 3 and 4 are ungrammatical as they lack I to C movement and do-support. In these two sentences, the features under Inflection haven’t moved to C and an auxiliary hasn’t been inserted. That’s why, they are ungrammatical.

Then another operation that is present in sentences 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 is Wh- movement. This is a syntactic process that is present in wh- questions. In this process, the wh-phrase, which originates in the D structure, moves up to a higher position in the sentence: the CP specifier position.  For example, in sentence 1 What did Mary buy?,  the deep structure is Mary bought [WHAT]. “What” is the object of the verb “buy” whose theta role is <theme>. This object moves to the specifier position of the CP as it is empty. In sentence 8, the deep structure is The exam will be [WHEN]. The advP “when” moves to the specifier position of the CP.

An operation that is also present in wh-questions and yes-no questions (sentence 7)  is subject auxiliary inversion. This implies the movement of an auxiliary to a position in front of the subject. In sentences 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9, subject-auxiliary inversion takes place/occurs because the auxiliary verbs raise to the complementizer position (C). Sentences 3 and 6 are ungrammatical because they violate subject-auxiliary inversion. It is necessary to invert the order of the subject and auxiliary verb. The auxiliary must come before the subject. In sentence 3, an auxiliary is missing and do-support must take place. Once do-support occurs, the auxiliary “did” must invert the order with the subject. Sentence 6 is ungrammatical as the auxiliary is not necessary as it is a subject question. These don’t require an auxiliary verb. Sentence 6 should be Who invited Mary? as in sentence 5.

2)

All these sentences are embedded questions as they are questions within a statement. They are considered questions as they ask something. These types of questions don’t have a question mark at the end of the sentence and they follow a sentence pattern: SUBJECT+ VERB+ OBJECT. In these sentences, we have an introductory phrase (I wonder) + a question word (which)+ subject + verb. In all these sentences, an internal thought is being reported. That’s why the verb “wonder” is used. Sentences 4 and 5 are ungrammatical as they don’t respect the word order of embedded questions which is subject+ verb+ object. In sentence 4, the subject is placed after the modal verb “should” and it should be before the modal verb so as to respect the word order of embedded questions. Sentence 5 is ungrammatical as it lacks “whether” or “if”. In embedded questions, many operations don’t take place such as subject auxiliary inversion, I to C movement, Wh-movement and do-support. In these types of questions, the structure is similar to one of a declarative sentence.

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Dirié, Lucía - Properties of Questions in English.docx

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Properties of Questions in English

1. Questions in English show different syntactic operations which involve certain movement rules. However, not all the questions in English undergo the same processes; there are different structures and elements involved, such as WH- elements, auxiliaries, do-support, among others.

There are two main types of questions: WH-questions and yes/no questions. The first ones seek information that will be determined by the WH-element that introduces the question (when, what, why, who, where, whose, which, how). The second ones look for confirmation, rather than information and they typically begin with an auxiliary verb. For example question 1 “what did Mary buy?” is a WH-question and question 7 “did Mary kiss John” is a yes/no question.

In relation to the first type of questions, WH- elements (when, what, why, who, where, whose, which, how) are words that are used to obtain specific information and they can have different roles, depending on the sentence. Moreover, WH-elements are considered to be constituents because they function as independent units in a sentence and they replace elements in sentences like noun phrases, occupying specific syntactic roles. These constituents can function as subject or object in sentences. For instance, in question 1 “what did Mary buy?” the WH- element WHAT functions as the object of the verb BUY, but, in question 5 “who invited Mary?”, the WH-element WHO functions as the subject while the DP [Mary] functions as the object of the verb INVITE.

There are three main syntactic operations that take place in questions in English: WH-movement, I-to-C movement and do-support. In WH-movement, the WH-element moves to the Spec of CP position, that is to say, to the specifier of the Complementizer Phrase, introducing the question. In I-to-C movement, the features of person, number and tense move from their original position under I (head of I’) to C (head of c’) position, which is immediately below the Spec of CP position. Finally,  since features cannot be left stranded, auxiliaries are inserted and do-support takes place if there are no auxiliary verbs to rescue the features and form the question correctly; do-support implies the insertion of the auxiliary DO under C as a rescue operation to comply with the Stranded Affix Filter, among other principles.

For example, in question 1 “what did Mary buy”, the constituent WHAT moves from its original position as the object of the verb BUY to the Spec of CP. In this question there is also I-to-C movement since features of 3rd person, singular number and past tense move from I to C where also do-support takes place, so features get attached to the auxiliary verb DO. The DP [Mary] does not move, it remains under the Spec of IP.  In yes/no questions there isn’t WH-movement, but there is I-to-C movement, for example, in question 7 “did Mary kiss John”, where do-support also takes place.

There are cases in which do-support is not needed and it is included anyways, which also causes ungrammaticality, as in question 6 “*who did invite Mary”, where the constituent WHO occupies the subject position, without undergoing movement, and the DP[Mary] the object position; do support should not take place because the features should be attached to the main verb  INVITE, as in question 5 “who invited Mary”.

2.Questions 1,2 and 3 are indirect questions, which means that they can be considered to be questions but they are embedded, not direct ones. This type of questions do not require I-to-C movement; features are attached to the main verb because they follow the same pattern as declarative sentences, without undergoing any movement operation. Moreover, they do not seek answers, but they represent the process of thinking about a question.

Questions 4,5 and 6 on the other hand, are ungrammatical sentences that cannot be considered to be questions since they do not follow the syntactic rules of English. In sentence 4, the WH-element "which" is improperly positioned before the subject and verb, breaking the expected sentence structure. The omission of "if" in 5 leaves the sentence incomplete, preventing it from functioning as an indirect question. Finally, in 6 the constituent "which analysis" is placed incorrectly, as it should precede the subject "they".

As regards, their differences with the previous questions, that is to say, direct questions, indirect questions exhibit key differences from direct questions. Indirect questions do not feature the structure subject + auxiliary, but direct questions do have auxiliary + subject structure; for example, "the students wondered which analysis they should adopt" (indirect question: subject + auxiliary) vs. "Which analysis should they adopt?" (direct question: auxiliary + subject). Also, something important to highlight is that direct questions undergo movement while indirect questions don’t, so that is another difference.

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1) They are wh-questions and Yes/ No questions. Questions, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 are wh-questions. Number 7 is a Yes/ No question.

The function of the WH-element is the object of each main verb in each question. Also, the WH-element is a constituent in each question. For instance, in question 1, we can observe that the Wh-element is the object by answering to the question, a possible response might be ‘a gift’

In questions, one operation that takes place is Wh-movement. At deep structure, the internal argument, in these cases the Wh-element, moves from the TP to the spec position of the CP.

Another process that is involved in these questions is Auxiliary- Inversion. In this case, the features of the main verbs move from T to C (complementiser)

In questions, WH-elements occupy the spec of the CP and auxiliares are placed in the Complementiser.

2. They can be considered questions since even though they have the order of a statement (Subject + Verb+ Object), the speaker intends to ask for some information in a polite way.

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1. Most of the questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9) are wh-questions which are characterised by the fact that they begin with a wh-element (what, who, why, when, where, how). These elements are interrogative pronouns that refer to the information that is being inquired about. As such, they originate as DPs in different positions in the structure (object, subject, indirect object, other complements and adjuncts), and raise to the Specifier of CP to form questions. This movement is triggered by a +Q feature found in SpecCP, which requires an interrogative element to match it. 7 is not a wh-question but a yes/no question, in which all the information is present and what is being asked is whether a statement is positive (yes, true) or negative (no, false). In this question, as in questions 1, 2 & 9, there is do-support. In this process, the dummy auxiliary "do" is inserted to support the tense features, which have been inverted with the subject and cannot be left stranded in their new position. A majority of questions (including 3, 4 & 8) require inversion or, in other words, trigger T to C movement of the grammatical features and this causes either modal or auxiliary raising, or do-insertion in the cases this is not possible. This is why questions like 3, where T has not raised, are ungrammatical. Furthermore, while in 4 movement has taken place, the sentence is ungrammatical because main verbs (with the exception of be and have) do not raise in English. 8 is a case of a modal (which carries tense features) raising from T to C. Finally, only in 5 no movement takes place. This is due to the fact that in 5 the wh element has the function of subject. 4 is ungrammatical because, despite it being a subject question that doesn't trigger T to C movement, do-insertion took place.

2. These sentences are indirect or embedded questions. Wh-movement takes place in cases such as (1), where the position of SpecCP is available. In the case of yes/no questions, a complementiser compatible with +Q (such as if or whether) fills the SpecCP position and no wh-movement takes place (since there is no missing information that can be referenced through an interrogative pronoun). The main difference between these questions and the direct questions analised in point 1 is that embedded questions do not trigger T to C movement and, as a result, there is no need for do support, modal inversion or auxiliary inversion (hence the ungrammaticality of 4). Besides this, the ungrammatical examples show that the complementiser cannot be omitted as the SpecCP position cannot be left empty.

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1) On the one hand, sentences 1,2,5,8 and 9 are WH-questions as they usually start with a WH- element and they need to be answered with a content word or a phrase. These WH-elements are the complements of the main verbs and they originate in object position where they get a theta role and case. In these questions, there is T-to-C movement given that the WH- element originated in object position moves to the Spec of CP in order to check a [+Q] feature present in C.On the other hand, sentence 7 is a yes/no question since it requires an answer of yes or no. In those kinds of questions, there is I-to-C movement, that is, the affix under I moves to C. Then, this feature must get attached to the verb under V to comply with the Stranded Affix Filter, but it is not possible because the spec of IP blocks adjacency. Do-support is applied in order for the affix to be attached. After that, Wh- movement takes place in which the complement of the verb moves from the object position to  the Spec of CP in order to check the [+Q] feature.

Question (3) is ungrammatical because there has not been movement of the features under I to C and, consequently, do-support is not applied. (4) and (5) are ungrammatical because there has been V-raising, that is, the verb under V has moved to C but this is not possible because this process can be applied only with the auxiliaries ‘be’ and ‘have’ but not with main verbs. (6) is ungrammatical because there is V-raising of the verb ‘invite’ from V to C  but it is not possible with main verbs.

2) Sentences 1,2, and 3 are indirect questions or embedded wh-questions because they have the word order of statements but they are interpreted as questions. In these structures, there is an embedded clause that depends on a main one. There is no I-to-C movement as in WH-questions because the main CP clause does not have the features of [+Q] and [+WH]. This has to do with the argument structures and the features of the verb used in the main clause. WH- movement takes place when the WH-element in the embedded clause moves to the Spec of CP. This element does not move upwards to the main clause because it is [-WH] while the embedded CP is [+WH].

Sentence (4) is ungrammatical because there has been I-to-C movement of the modal ‘should’ under I to C within the embedded CP but this is not possible because it has the features of [-Q], so there is no need for inversion. (5) is ungrammatical because there is no movement of the WH-element to C to check the [+WH] feature. Finally, (6) is ungrammatical because there is no movement of the WH-element from its base position to C.

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After reading the material I believe that:

a. The WH-phrase moves to the Specifier of the Complementizer Phrase (Spec CP) due to the requirement for the clause to meet the interrogative structure. This movement is triggered by the presence of a [+Q] feature in the Complementizer (C) head, which indicates that the sentence is a question. The WH-phrase contains a WH-feature that must match with the interrogative feature [+WH] of the C head. The C head checks and attracts the WH-phrase to its specifier position (Spec CP) to form a well-formed question. This movement ensures that the WH-element is in a position to scope over the entire sentence, marking it as interrogative.

b. Subject Wh-questions: These questions ask about the subject of the sentence. For example:

Who invited Mary?
In subject questions, there is no subject-auxiliary inversion because the WH-element is already in the subject position.

Object Wh-questions: These questions ask about the object of the sentence. For example:

Who did Mary invite?
In object questions, subject-auxiliary inversion occurs, and the WH-element moves to Spec CP.

Adjunct Wh-questions: These questions inquire about additional sentence information like time, manner, or place. For example:

When did Mary leave?

Where is John?

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Refinement:

4. In question formation, the tense and agreement features under Infl move down to attach to the main verb. However, if the verb and the affix are not adjacent, the process known as "affix hopping" cannot occur. This lack of adjacency results in the need for "do-support," as seen in questions like "What did Mary buy?" where "did" is inserted to carry the tense.

4. Wh-elements move to the Specifier of CP in the sentence tree. This position, which is at the top of the structure, signals that the sentence is a question. By occupying the Specifier of CP, the wh-element ensures that the question is easily identifiable.

5. In (4), the sentence is agrammatical because it incorrectly shows subject-auxiliary inversion, which does not take place in an indirect question. The auxiliary "should" appears before the subject "they," as if it were a direct question. However, in indirect questions, the structure should follow the declarative word order (subject before the auxiliary), as in "which analysis they should adopt."

6. Indirect questions do not require subject-auxiliary inversion or other operations used in direct questions. This is because their structure is declarative, even though they imply an inquiry. The sentences present the question as part of a statement, without directly asking for an answer, as in "The students wondered whether they should adopt this analysis," which doesn’t involve transformations like those seen in direct questions.

Questions:

a. The wh-phrase moves to Specifier of CP because this position is crucial for marking a sentence as a question. It signals the scope of the question by moving the wh-element from its original position to the beginning of the clause. This movement is triggered by the need to encode interrogative force in the sentence, allowing the wh-phrase to occupy a prominent position that helps the listener recognise the sentence as a question.

b/c. There are two main types of wh-questions: subject wh-questions and object wh-questions.

Subject wh-questions are when the wh-element asks about the subject of the sentence, like "Who invited Mary?" In these questions, the wh-phrase is the subject of the sentence and stays in its canonical position, and there is no subject-auxiliary inversion.

Object wh-questions, on the other hand, ask about the object of the verb, such as "What did Mary buy?" In these questions, the wh-phrase is the object of the verb, and there is subject-auxiliary inversion (the auxiliary verb moves to the left of the subject while the wh-element moves to the Specifier of CP).

d. Indirect questions are formed without subject-auxiliary inversion and maintain a declarative word order, even though the sentence implies a question. For example, in "They asked where she went," the wh-element "where" moves to Spec CP, but the verb "went" remains in its position after the subject.

e. In Spanish, both direct and indirect questions do not involve subject-auxiliary inversion, unlike in English. For example, "¿Qué compró Juan?" (What did Juan buy?) does not need an auxiliary verb for inversion, whereas in English, you need "did" for the question to be grammatically correct. Also, indirect questions in Spanish, like "Me pregunto qué compró Juan," follow the same structure as direct questions, without inversion, while English differentiates more clearly with word order.

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Below I include some of your ideas that need some refinement!! Can you refine them?

1. The auxiliary verb “did” moves to the C position.

Actually, The presence of the auxiliary verb “did” in WH-questions and yes/no does not mean that the auxiliary verb “did” moves to the C position; in fact, the process that takes place first is I-to-C movement, which means that the features of person, number and tense move from their original position under I (head of I’) to C (head of c’) position, which is immediately below the Spec of CP position. After this, do-support takes place if there are no auxiliary verbs; this is because features cannot be left stranded, so do-support appears as an operation to rescue the features and to form the question correctly. In other words, it is not that the auxiliary verb "did" moves to the C position; rather, "did" is inserted through do-support so the features of person, number and tense can get attached to a verbal root after I-to-C movement.

2. An operation that is also present in wh-questions and yes-no questions (sentence 7) is subject auxiliary inversion.  (Is it different from I-to –C movement? because  you include them as different operations)

Subject-auxiliary inversion is a process that occurs both in WH-questions and yes-no questions. In both cases, the auxiliary verb moves to the C position. It is not a separate operation from I-to-C movement; instead, subject-auxiliary inversion is the outcome of I-to-C movement in interrogative sentences.

3. Sentences 3 and 6 are ungrammatical because they violate subject-auxiliary inversion

Question 3 (*Who Mary met?) is ungrammatical because it violates subject-auxiliary inversion. In WH-questions, when there is only a  main verb and no auxiliary, do-support is required so the features of person, number and tense can get attached to a verbal root after I-to-C movement. Since do-support does not take place, the features are left stranded and subject-auxiliary inversion cannot take place, giving as a result an ungrammatical sentence.

Question 6 (*Who did invite Mary?) is ungrammatical too, but because of a different reason: do-support takes place when it is not required. In this case the constituent WHO occupies the subject position, without undergoing movement, and the DP[Mary] the object position; do support should not take place because the features should be attached to the main verb  INVITE, as in question 5 “who invited Mary”.

6. (Indirect questions) In terms of operations, these sentences do not exhibit any operation, as they are declarative in form and do not solicit an answer.

Indirect questions don’t involve subject-auxiliary inversion or the other operations typically found in direct questions because they keep a declarative structure. Although they imply a question, they present it in the format of a statement. This is what happens in the sentence “The students wondered if they should adopt this analysis” in which clearly there are no transformations like the ones found in direct questions.

2. Food for thought!! Keep on working on the following questions and aspects. Now READ the bibliography (Carnie 2021, Haeggeman (2006) to complete this section.

a. Why does the WH-phrase move to Spec CP? What triggers WH-movement?

The WH-phrase moves to the Specifier of CP because this is the position used to turn a sentence into a question. In this process, the WH-element moves from its original position to the front of the clause, signaling the scope of the question and giving the sentence an interrogative force. This movement is triggered by the need to satisfy the need to include an interrogative force in the sentence, which allows the WH-word to occupy a position that helps people identify that what they are reading/listening/writing is a question.

b. What types of wh-questions can you distinguish?

There are two types of WH-questions: subject WH-questions and object WH-questions.

c. Compare object and subject questions and characterize them.

Subject WH-questions seek information in relation to the subject of the sentence, as in the sentence "Who invited Mary?"; in this question, the WH-phrase replaces the DP that functions as the subject in the declarative version, so the WH-word “who” functions as the subject of the question and there is no subject-auxiliary inversion, which means that the WH-element remains in its original subject position.

On the contrary, object WH-questions seek information in relation to the object of the verb, as in the sentence "What did Mary buy?"; in this question, the WH-word “what” refers to the object of the declarative sentence, and subject-auxiliary inversion takes place (the auxiliary verb moves in front of the subject and the WH-element moves to SpecCP).

d. Characterize the structure of indirect questions in more detail.

Indirect questions follow a declarative word order and do not require subject-auxiliary inversion, even when they convey a question. For example, in "mum asked when she left," the WH-element "when" moves to Spec of CP, but the verb "left" remains after the subject, without inversion or do-support.

e. Think of different examples of questions in Spanish and describe their structure in comparison to English questions.

Spanish and English have several differences and similarities in the structures of their questions. For example, in subject WH-questions in Spanish, as in ¿quién invitó a Pedro?, the WH-word "quién" remains in the subject position, and there is no need for subject-auxiliary inversion. The verb "invitó" follows the same order as in a declarative sentence. The equivalent of this question in English is “who invited Pedro?” and, similar to Spanish, the WH-word "who" functions as the subject, and no auxiliary verb is required. Both languages maintain the same order, with the WH-word in the subject position.

Regarding object WH-questions, in Spanish object WH-questions the WH-word is placed at the front, and the verb directly follows the subject asi in “¿qué comió María?”. In this case, there is no auxiliary verb required. The equivalent of this question in English is “what did María eat?”; here the WH-word "what" also moves to the front. However, subject-auxiliary inversion occurs in this case, needing do-support to form the question. The main verb "buy" is left in its base form.

As regards indirect questions, the structures in both languages remain declarative. For example, in Spanish “me pregunto cuando salió Juan”; in this example, the WH-word "cuando" is fronted, but the order follows the on of a declarative sentence, without any subject-auxiliary inversion. An example in English would be “she asked where María went”; similarly, the indirect question in English also maintains a declarative structure. The WH-word "where" is placed at the front, and the sentence does not require inversion.

Finally, in Spanish yes/no questions, the verb is positioned at the beginning of the sentence, without the need for an auxiliary verb, as in “¿comió Marcos la manzana?”. On the other hand, English requires do-support and subject-auxiliary inversion to form yes/no questions; do-support is necessary to create the question, with the main verb remaining in its base form, as in “¿did John eat the apple?”.