TY - BOOK ID - 77933032 TI - Unique focus PY - 2008 SN - 1282152181 9786612152184 9027291527 9789027291523 9781282152182 9789027255068 9027255067 6612152184 PB - Amsterdam Philadelphia John Benjamins Pub. Co. DB - UniCat KW - Grammar, Comparative and general KW - Focus (Linguistics) KW - Language and languages KW - Syntax KW - Discourse analysis KW - Interrogative (Grammar) KW - Questions and answers (Linguistics) KW - Interrogative. KW - Syntax. KW - Topic and comment KW - 801.5 KW - 801.5 Grammatica KW - Grammatica KW - Interrogative KW - Grammar KW - Linguistics KW - Philology KW - Grammar, Comparative and general Syntax UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77933032 AB - This monograph focuses on an interesting typological property shared by four languages: the ungrammaticality of multiple wh-questions in Irish, Berber, Italian and Somali. It contains a broad discussion of data related to the grammar of wh-questions, a comparative analysis of wh-constructions in the four languages, and a theoretical account for the observed phenomenon. The analysis is based on the minimalist syntax theory as developed by Chomsky since 1995. It takes up the standard assumption that wh-phrases are typical representatives of elements bearing new information, in theoretical terms referred to as information focus. Most importantly, in the languages without multiple wh-questions the information focus is licensed in a unique syntactic position. The basic claim is that languages with unique focus are languages without multiple wh-questions. The analysis makes possible the classification of the languages without multiple wh-questions into the crosslinguistic typology of wh-constructions. Furthermore, this book is a contribution to the better understanding of information structure in natural languages, especially of focusing phenomena. ER -