Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today

This book addresses the question of how in-situ wh-phrases are licensed from a minimalist perspective in which the basic assumptions about narrow syntax need to be reduced to the bare minimum. I propose that in-situ wh-phrases are licensed by way of either minimal Search or covert internal Merge: while in-situ wh-adjuncts are uniformly licensed by covert internal Merge, in-situ wh-arguments have a choice between the two options, depending on whether the licensing C head is overtly manifested. I also discuss sluicing, an ellipsis construction with a remnant wh-phrase, and address the question of how the remnant wh-phrase is licensed. I support the in-situ approach to sluicing, advocated in my previous book The In-Situ Approach to Sluicing (John Benjamins), according to which the remnant wh-phrase stays in situ. I argue against the more standard analysis, endorsing the main claim of this previous book that island repair by ellipsis is a myth.