Question-word Fronting and Basic Word Order: A fronted WH-question word will be preferred across languages in proportion to the distance between WH and the subcategorizing verb in its basic order: the smaller the FGD, the more the WH-word is fronted.
Standardized
Question-word Fronting and Basic Word Order: A fronted WH-question word will be preferred across languages in proportion to the distance between WH and the subcategorizing verb in its basic order: the smaller the FGD, the more the WH-word is fronted.
1. Filler-Gap Domain [FGD]: An FGD consists of the smallest terminal and non-terminal nodes dominated by the mother of a filler and on a connected path that must be accessed for gap identification and processing; for subcategorized gaps the path connects the filler to the gap’s subcategorizor and includes, or is extended to include, the gap’s dependent and disambiguating arguments (if any); for non-subcategorized gaps the path connects the filler to the gap site; all constituency relations and co-occurrence requirements holding between these nodes belong to the description of the FGD.2. The distributional pattern (VSO > SVO > SOV) below gives a clear account of this (Hawkins 1999: 274). WH-fronting and verb position: V-initial: 17/20 languages = 85%; SVO: 25/34 languages = 73.5%; SOV: 7/33 languages = 21% .
1. Filler-Gap Domain [FGD]: An FGD consists of the smallest terminal and non-terminal nodes dominated by the mother of a filler and on a connected path that must be accessed for gap identification and processing; for subcategorized gaps the path connects the filler to the gap’s subcategorizor and includes, or is extended to include, the gap’s dependent and disambiguating arguments (if any); for non-subcategorized gaps the path connects the filler to the gap site; all constituency relations and co-occurrence requirements holding between these nodes belong to the description of the FGD.2. The distributional pattern (VSO > SVO > SOV) below gives a clear account of this (Hawkins 1999: 274). WH-fronting and verb position: V-initial: 17/20 languages = 85%; SVO: 25/34 languages = 73.5%; SOV: 7/33 languages = 21% .