The Anaphoricity and Phonological Suppression of Wh-expressions in English and Korean

Abstract

This paper follows the lead of Chung (2013), examining the phonological suppression of the wh-expression in English and Korean. We argue that the wh-expression itself cannot undergo ellipsis/deletion/dropping, as it carries information focus. However, it can do so, when in anaphoricity with the preceding token of wh-expression, it changes into an E-type or sloppy-identity pronoun. This vehicle change from the wh-expression to a pronoun accompanies the loss of the wh-feature inherent in the wh-expression. In a certain structural context such as a quiz question there is no interrogative [+wh] complementizer that requires the presence of the wh-expression, thus the expression being optionally dropped.