Universal #1383

Legacy number: 1383

 Number  1379
 Original  Question-word Movement Universal:
All languages that move WH-question word to clause-peripheral position move it to the left, not the right.
 Standardized  Question-word Movement Universal:
IF there is a WH-question word movement to clause-peripheral position, THEN it proceeds to the left, not to the right.
 Keywords  question, wh-movement
 Domain  syntax
 Type  no genuine implication; rather: provided that
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  merged sample of 87 languages from Greenberg 1963 and Ultan 1978c
 Source  Hawkins 1999: 273, claimed also in Bach 1971: 160, 164

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Discussion
Counterexamples
In Tangale (Chadic, Afro-Asiatic), wh-expressions must be moved to the right peripheral position of the clause (Kenstowicz 1987).
Notes
1. Hawkins argues that this universal can be explained by Fodor’s (1983) principle “Fillers First” (The human processor prefers to process fillers before their subcategorizors or gaps).2. Bach (1971: 160): If a language has a movement rule for interrogatives then it will always move the interrogative to the left, never to the right.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
1. Hawkins argues that this universal can be explained by Fodor's 1983 principle "Fillers First" (The human processor prefers to process fillers before their subcategorizors or gaps).

2. Bach 1971: 160: If a language has a movement rule for interrogatives then it will always move the interrogative to the left, never to the right.