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WH QUESTIONS IN SINHALA

ARGUMENT

Sinhala WH facts motivate both overt and covert movement.

Relevant Heads for WH operations in Sinhala are

FORCE, INT, TOP, FOC, FIN

Overt WH movement is limited to embedded periphery and quantificational-

type WH phrases

There is Focus movement in the embedded periphery.

Verb morphology of Sinhala provides evidence for morphology-pragmatics

Interface.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: RIZZI (1997, 1999)

FORCE, (TOP), INT, (TOP), FOC, (TOP), FIN, IP

C-system is an Interface between two layers of an information system

Topic-Focus field is present only when it is activated

SOME BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SINHALA WH QUESTIONS

Question word remains in-situ

Question word is followed by Q-morpheme –da

-Da + E ending of the verb yields a Question interpretation

-Da alone yields only Yes/No question interpretation

-Da also functions as a disjunctive

EXAMPLES

Ram mokak da seeeduwE

Ram(Nom) what Q washed-E

What did Ram wash?

Ram mokak da seeeduwa

Ram(Nom) what Q washed

Ram washed something

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Ram potha kieuwa da?

Ram(Nom) book read(Pst) Q

Did Ram read the book?

Oyaa ta bath da paan da oona?

You(Dat) rice Q bread Q want

Do you want rice or bread?

THE SINHALA LEFT PERIPHERY:

FORCE INT TOP FOC FIN

-e -da nang tamai kiyala (The SAY complementizer)

Matrix WH:

Ram monava da gatte?

Ram what Q bought-E?

What did Ram buy?

ForceP

3

F’

3

IntP F gaththE (bought)

3

IP INT Ø

3

Ram I’

3

VP I [+Pst]

3

V’

3

QP V gath (buy)

3

WH Q

Monava da

What Q

3

EMBEDDED WH: WIDE SCOPE

Oya [Ram kauru hamuuna kiyala da]kiuwe

You [Ram who met Comp Q] said-E

Who did you say that Ram met?

ForceP

3

F’

3

IP F kiuwE (said)

3

Oya(you) I’

3

VP I [+Pst]

3

V’

3

IntP V kiyanava(say)

3

FinP Int DA

3

IP Fin KIYALA

3

Ram I’

3

VP I[Pst] hamuuna (met)

3

V’

3

QP V hamuvenana(meet)

3

WH Q

Kauru da

4

(who)

NARROW SCOPE

Ram [kauda gedara yanne kiyala] ahanava

Ram [who home go-E Comp] ask

Ram is asking who is going home.

c) ForcceP

3

IntP Force[+WH] ahanava

3 (ask)

IP INT

3

Ram I’

3

VP I [+Press]

3

V’

3

FinP V ahanava (ask)

3

FocusP Fin kiyala

3

Kauda(who) F’

3

IP FOC[WH][V] yannE (goE)

3

Kauda(who) I’

3

VP I[+Pres]

3

NP V

Gedara yanava

(home) (go)

5

FOCUSED DP

Lalith [Ram da gedara yanne kiyala] aehuva

Lalith [Ram Q home go-E Comp] asked

Lalith asked whether it is Ram/is it Ram who is going home.

d) ForcceP

3

IntP Force[+WH] aehuva

3 (asked)

IP INT

3

Lalith I’

3

VP I [+Press]

3

V’

3

FinP V ahanava (ask)

3

FocusP Fin kiyala

3

Ram da F’

3

IP FOC [Q][V]yannE (goE)

3

Ram da I’

3

VP I[+Pres]

3

NP V

Gedara yanava

(home) (go)

6

YES/NO QUESTIONS

Ram potha kiyavanava da?

Ram book read(Pres) Q

Does Ram read the book?

ForceP

3

IntP F

3

IP Int -da

3

Ram I’

3

VP I [+pres]

3

V’

3

NP V

Potha kiyavanava

(book) (read)

YES/NO WITH AN EMBEDDED FOCUSED CONSTITUENT

Oya [Lalith tamai eeka karE kiyala] hitanava da?

You [Lalith FOC it did-E COMP] think Q

Do you think that it was Lalith who did it?

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ForceP

3

Intp Force

3

IP Int -da

3

Oya (you) I’

3

VP I [+pres]

3

V’

3

FinP V hitanava (think)

3

FocP Fin kiyala

3

Lalith tamai Foc’

3

IP Foc [U:Foc][V] karE (did-E)

3

lalith tamai I’

3

VP I [+pst]

3

NP V

eeka kara (did)

(it)

EVIDENCE FOR MORPHOLOGY-PRAGMATICS INTERFACE

Gune [Janadhipati boruwak tamai kiuwe] kiyala hituwa (De Re)

Gune(Nom)[ president Nom lie Foc said E]Comp think Past

Gune thought that it was a lie that the president told.

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b. Gune [Janadhipati boruwak tamai kiuwe kiyala] hituwe (De Dicto)

Gune(Nom)[ president Nom lie Foc said- EComp] think Past-E

Gune thought that it was a lie that the president told

CONCLUSION

Relevant Heads for Sinhala WH are

FORCE, INT, (TOP, FOC), FIN

Sinhala has an articulate Left Periphery

Sinhala WH facts motivate both Overt and Covert movement

The articulate C-domain can accommodate Sinhala Focus facts too.

Sinhala verb morphology shows evidence for morphology-pragmatics interface

MG LALITH ANANDA

CENTRE FOR LINGUISTICS

JNU