On the Syntax of Yes-O Questions in Bulgarian and Portuguese

• Main Author: Dimitrova, Margarita Stefanova
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2020
• Subjects: East European Studies; Licenses; Linguistics; Logic; Semantics; Syntax
• ISBN: 9798342334686

In recent years the syntax of yes-no questions has been subject to some intriguing discussions capitalising on the relation between questions and polarity and on the existence of a Pol(arity) head that encodes the polarity value of the structure (Holmberg 2012). Adopting the idea that polarity is in the core of yes-no questions formation, here we explore the properties of yes-no questions in Bulgarian and Portuguese.Portuguese has traditionally been addressed as a language in which the licensing of yes-no questions relies on the rising intonation with which they are produced (Frota 2000, 2002). Bulgarian, on the other hand, displays the particle li, which follows the Verb or XPs different from the verb, the latter being the case of the so called focused yes-no questions. Nevertheless, the question of what exactly the syntactic expression of V-li and XP-liquestions is and what triggers the focused meaning of the latter is yet to be settled.Contrary to the traditional assumptions on Portuguese yes-no questions, we argue with Ambar (2012, 2013) that these structures display V-movement to Int(errogative)P and project PolP (Holmberg 2012). A similar line of inquiry is adopted for Bulgarian li-questions: we propose that li is externally merged in PolP and denotes the polarity algorithm [x, ⌐x] (Hamblin 1973). Based on some well-known assumptions on pronominal clitics, we claim that li can be both an Xº and an XP (Chomsky 1994). The distinction between Bulgarian V-li and XP-li questions is accounted for accordingly: in V-li questions, the verb attaches to li in Polº while in XP-li questions, an XP different from the verb attaches to liin Spec, PolP. Both structures display movement to IntP triggered by the existence of given features in need of valuation.Besides the properties of standard yes-no questions, in this work we also explore data from negative and subjunctive yes-no questions focusing on the way yes-no questions codify speaker-related properties. The discussion of these structures thus stresses on the relation to evaluation and (non)veridicality(Ambar 1996, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2016, Cinque 1999, Giannakidou 2016).