ABSTRACT

This article argues that an English split question consists of two parts, a wh-question and an it-cleft. The former serves as a topic and is located in [Spec, TopP] and the latter as a comment and is in the complement position of Top. In the first part, the wh-phrase moves from its base position within TP to [Spec, CP] for the purpose of typing the clause as WH-interrogative. The second part has an underlying structure of ‘Is it X that-clause’, where X is put into focus and receives a focus interpretation and the ‘that-clause’ expresses presupposition. In order to highlight the focused X of a cleft, the expletive it, the auxiliary be and the presupposition are all deleted at Phonetic Form, thus deriving a well-formed split question.

摘要

本文认为，英语拆分问题由两部分组成：wh-问题和it- cleft。前者用作主题，位于[Spec，TopP]中，后者作为注释，位于Top的补充位置。在第一部分中，wh-短语从TP中的基本位置移动到[Spec，CP]，目的是将该子句键入为WH-疑问句。第二部分具有“是X那个从句”的基本结构，其中X成为焦点并接受焦点解释，而“那个从句”表示预设。为了突出的聚焦X裂口时，咒骂它，辅助BE 和预设都以“语音形式”删除，从而得出一个格式正确的拆分问题。