A Prosodic Account of Parametric Variation in Object Wh -Question Formation

Abstract This paper focuses on cross-linguistic differences in the obligatoriness of wh-object fronting in wh-ex-situ languages. In English, wh-objects may generally remain in situ in echo questions, whereas in Russian the fronting of simplex wh-objects has been claimed to be obligatory in request-for-repetition echo questions (Stepanov 1998, Bošković 2002). This fronting is generally attributed to inherent features of Russian wh-categories such as [+focus] or Op (Stepanov 1998, Bošković 2002, Bailyn 2012). However, Russian wh-objects may remain in situ in request-for-repetition echo-questions when the wh-variable, in its base position, does not align with the right edge of an intonational phrase at PF. Given the postsyntactic nature of PF, I argue that an interface-based analysis, treating syntactic representations as subject to filtering constraints at the interfaces, provides a more accurate account of the Russian data. I extend this analysis to wh-movement in wh-ex-situ languages and explore its potential application to wh-in-situ languages, aiming to show that parametric variation in the placement of wh-objects in single wh-questions requires a prosodic account.