From northern Italian to Asian wh-in situ: A theory of low focus movement

The mainstream literature on the Romance dialects of northern Italy has explained morphosyntax clause-internal wh-elements in answer-seeking interrogatives as either result interrogative movement into lower portion high left periphery (Munaro et al. 2001, Poletto & Pollock 2015, a.o.), or a canonical instance scope construal (Manzini Savoia 2005;2011). New empirical evidence from suggests that there is more at stake computation wh-interrogatives than we used to think, and neither existing approaches Italian ‘wh-in situ’ can be maintained. Here, I argue Asian languages are, least this respect, similar originally thought, then offer new, derivationally economic cross-linguistically supported understanding wh-in situ: theory wh-to-foc. Accordingly, all cross-linguistic core properties phenomenon attributed different combinations setting universal micro-parameters related wh-elements.