This study set out to investigate how accent placement is pragmatically governed in WH-questions. Central to this issue are questions such as whether the intonation of the WH-word depends on the information structure of the non-WH word part, whether topical constituents can be accented, and whether constituents in the non-WH word part can be nontopical and accented. Previous approaches, based e...

In Japanese a certain kind of phrase, which Kuroda (1965) calls "indetenninate", can function as a wh-phrase, existential quantifier or universal quantifier depending on context and the use of particles. I argue that "indetenninates" are contrastive-focused, and that the meanings of existential and universal quantifiers are made of (in)finite application of disjunction ("ka") and conjunction ("...

Wh-questions are answered with a list of pairs when quantified expressions such as "every professor" interact with wh-phrases. The theory of branching quantification is extended to wh-quantifier interactions to account for the question reading associated with list answers. It is also shown that there are several phenomena which would be better explained when functional variables are incorporate...

In German, complex wh-interrogatives can optionally be formed by inserting the 3 person neuter wh-pronoun was in the matrix (Spec,CP) position, instead of long-distance wh-raising. It is generally assumed that 'expletive' was serves as a placeholder for a contentful whexpression lower down in the sentence, which substitutes for it at the level of semantic interpretation. It can be shown, howeve...