HUMANUS DISCOURSE Vol. 4. NO 1.

2024
ISSN 2787-0308 (ONLINE)
A Minimalist Inquiry into Interrogative Wh-Movement in English and
Urhobo

Mede, Avwarosuọghẹnẹ Emmanuel

Department of English,
Delta State College of Education, Mosogar,

Emama Ogheneakpobor Emmanuel

Department of English & Literary Studies,
Delta State University, Abraka
Abstract

This paper investigates the motivation for interrogative wh-movement in English

and Urhobo, the latter a South Western Edoid Nigerian language. The adopted
theoretical framework is the minimalist program (MP) of generative grammar.
Primary data is selected from English wh-interrogative sentences and their
Urhobo translation equivalent. The translation equivalence is based on the
grammaticality judgment of coordinate bilingual speakers of English and Urhobo.
Two research questions guide the analysis: (i) What triggers the movement of the
wh-word/phrase (WH-) or its translation equivalent from the VP-internal position
to the specifier position of an adjoined complementiser phrase (Spec-CP), and (ii)
why is this movement licensed or allowed when WH- is already assigned an
interrogative interpretation at the VP-internal position? The data analysis
suggests that in wh-optional languages such as English and Urhobo, the trigger or
motivation for wh-movement is the presence of a strong illocutionary force
question affix [+IFQ], which imposes both an interrogative interpretation (at LF)
and movement of WH- to Spec-CP (at PF).

Keywords: bilingualism, complementiser, equivalence, minimalist, wh-

interrogation.

Introduction

Driven by globalisation, English's utility value is increasing globally in divergent

sociolinguistic contexts. The acquisition and learning of language has become
the primary language policy in the Kachruvian outer and expanding circles1.
The overarching influence of the language is evident in the critical indices of
globalisation: ICT, economy, science, and cultural hybridity. Arising from the
preceding, it is no surprise that English is a constant in the literature of
sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, and cross-linguistic studies. At the macro-
level, investigations of the variegations between English and other language
systems have been investigated from the perspective of sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, stylistics, pedagogy, and cross-cultural communication2.

1Emama, E.O. “The utility value of Urhobo, English, and Pidgin in selected rural Urhobo
Communities”. Abraka Humanities Review. (2017) 7 (3), 42 - 50
2Emama, E.O. “The influence of affixation on the international intelligibility of aspects SNE

lexicosemantics”Abraka Humanities Review (2018).8 (1), 201-214

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Significant investigative resources have also been invested in identifying micro-
level differences between English and other languages in the subsystems of
syntax, semantics, pragmatics3, and morphology4. The challenge of intelligibility
induced by the influence of the substrate languages and the pedagogical
challenges of acquiring the target language, usually English, has also spawned
many research endeavours in the Niger Delta region5. In the context of Africa,
particularly the Niger Delta, a further motivation for comparative cross-
linguistic studies is the marked linguistic distance between English and the
region's indigenous languages. The degree of linguistic isomorphism between
English and the disparate substrate languages of the region is especially
relevant to understanding the micro, cross-typological variegations between
the substrates and target language germane to achieving competence in English.
This paper investigates the motivation for interrogative wh-movement in
English and Urhobo, a South Western Edoid Nigerian language. The issue of the
trigger for interrogative wh-movement has been a subject of investigation in
minimalist syntax because, according to the minimalist Economy Principle (in
particular, the Last Resort/LR condition on movement), the movement of
constituents/features must be motivated by a formal reason; that is, the need to
satisfy some morphological or syntactic condition without which the derived
structure would be ungrammatical or crash at LF.

There are two basic types of questions or interrogative structures: those to

which yes or no (or their translation equivalent) is a legitimate answer, e.g. 'did
you see anyone?', and those which cannot be responded to logically with yes or
no (or their translation equivalent); e.g. 'who/m did you see?' The first type is
conventionally referred to as yes-no questions, while the second type is known
as wh-questions (because in English, the question-word or ‘operator’ is usually
a wh-item; e.g. who/m, whose, which, what, why, and so on). Cross-linguistically,
the derivation of wh-questions involves two basic strategies: wh-in-situ, where
the wh-item or its translation equivalent (henceforth WH-) remains at its
canonical or base-generated position (e.g. 1), and wh-fronting, where WH-
moves to the specifier position of an adjoined complementiser phrase (e.g. 2).

1. (a) Efe was doing what?

[TP [Spec-TP Efe [T was [V doing [WH-what]]]]]
(b) Efe ne ruẹ idie?
[TP [Spec-TP Efe [T ne [V ruẹ [WH-idie]]]]]
2. (a) What was Efe doing?
[CP [Spec-CPWhat1 [C was2 [TP [Spec-TP Efe [Tt2 [V doing [WH-t1]]]]]]]]
(a) ’Die Efe ne ruẹ?
[CP [Spec-CP ’Die1 [TP [Spec-TP Efe [Tne [V ruẹ [WH-t1]]]]]]]

3 Emama, E.O. “Folklore, cohesion, and meaning in Ojaide’s Agbogidi”. KIU Journal of
Humanities(2020).5 (3), 191-198
4Amuzu, E.K. “Socio-pragmatics of conversational code-switching in Ghana”. Ghana

Journal of Linguistics. (2012). 1(2)1-22

Hiroshi, Y. “International Intelligibility in World Englishes: Focusing on Idiomatic
Expressions ”Intercultural Communication Studies. (2008) Japan: Chukyo University.
5 Mowarin, M & Mede, A.E (2023). “A Minimalist Investigation of Ambiguity in English and

Urhobo Negative Sentences” Ethiope Journal of English, Literature, and Cultural

Studies.(2023) 1 (1)
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Only the wh-in-situ strategy is licensed or permitted in some languages, while
both strategies are licensed in others (such as English and Urhobo). (For a full
discussion of wh-in-situ and wh-fronted languages, (see Cheng, 1991; Ouhalla,
1996; and Aoun & Li, 1993.)6 Wh-questions may target an external argument,
that is, a constituent which functions as the specifier of a tense phrase, e.g. (3);
an internal argument, e.g. (4); or an adjunct, e.g. (5).

3. (a) Who was praising you?

(b) Ono (yi) ne jiru we?
4. (a) Whowere you praising?
(b) Ono wo ne jirẹ?
5. (a) When will Efeleave?
(b) Ọkevọ Efe cha vwọ yanran?

In English (3a) and Urhobo (3b) wh-questions, which target the Spec-TP
constituent, there is no overt movement of the wh-constituent or movement of
the tensed auxiliary (T-to-C movement). As shown in (6) and (7)―which are the
schematic representations of (3a) and (3b), respectively―WH- appears to be
base-generated at Spec-TP.

6. Who was praising you?

[Spec-TPWho [T was [V praising [N you]]]]
7. Ono ne jiru we?
[Spec-TPOno [T ne [V jiru [N we]]]]

On the other hand, in English and Urhobo wh-questions which target a VP-
internal argument, e.g. (4a/b) or an adjunct (5a/b), the VP-internal argument or
adjunct may undergo overt movement, as shown in (8) and (9), which are the
structural representations of (4a) and (4b), respectively.

8. Whowere you praising?

[Spec-CPWho1 [C were2 [Spec-TP you [Tt2 [V praising [WH-t1]]]]]]
9. Ono wo ne jirẹ?
[Spec-CPOno1 [Spec-TP wo [T ne [V jirẹ [WH-t1]]]]]

The focus of this paper is on those wh-questions whose derivation in English

and Urhobo involves overt wh-movement; that is, the type of wh-interrogation
that seeks an internal argument or an adjunct as a response.

Materials and Method

The data for the analysis consists of English sentences that instantiate wh-
questions and the Urhobo translation equivalent of the English wh-questions.
The translation equivalence is based on the grammaticality judgment of

6Cheng, L. On the Typology of Wh-Questions.PhD Dissertation.(1991) MIT, Cambridge

Massachusetts.
Ouhalla, J. ‘Remarks on the Binding Properties of Wh-Pronouns.’ Linguistic Inquiry,
(1996).27: 676–707.
Aoun, J. & Li, A. (1993). ‘Squibs and Discussion.’ Linguistic Inquiry, 24: 365–372.34-44

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coordinate bilingual speakers of English and Urhobo; that is, language users
who are ‘able to harness the advantages of the two languages by using them
fluently while separating their grammars’7. The analysis is guided by two
research questions: (i) What motivates or triggers movement of the wh-
constituent or its translation equivalent (WH-) from the VP-internal position to
the specifier position of an adjoined complementiser phrase (Spec-CP)? and (ii)
why is this movement licensed or allowed when WH- is already assigned an
interrogative interpretation at the VP-internal position?

Theoretical Framework

The adopted theoretical framework―the minimalist program (MP) of

generative grammar―seeks to account for the tacit knowledge that enables the
native speaker to generate, produce, and interpret an infinite number of novel
utterances. The choice of MP as the research paradigm is informed by two
considerations. The first is that MP seeks to account for reason/s languages
having the properties they do; thus, it provides a platform for giving a
principled explanation for the behaviour of all languages. The second
consideration is that MP incorporates technical innovations derived from
exploring minimalist questions. Two such innovations are the economy of
derivation and the economy of representation. Concerning the economy of
derivation, MP delineates only two basic operations: ‘merge’ and ‘move’. Merge
is an operation which (successively) joins or merges pairs of constituents into
larger structures. (Thus, unlike earlier models such as X-bar, which permit both
unary and binary branching, MP allows only binary branching.) On the other
hand, move is concerned with transformations or movements motivated by
some formal reason, such as the need to match interpretable with
uninterpretable features. Concerning the economy of representation, MP
dispenses with the distinction between deep structure and surface structure in
favour of a more explicitly derivational approach; in other words, MP has no
preconceived phrasal structure.

In MP, language processing is viewed as a complex interaction between two

complementary systems: speech and thought systems. While the formation of
utterances is the primary function of the speech system (articulatory and
perceptive organs), the interpretation of utterances is the function of the
thought system (mind/brain). Chomsky8 suggests that language is an optimal

7Osakwe, M. Corpora and Bilingual Translation in Achebe and Soyinka’s Creative Usages.
In: R. Xiao (Ed.) Proceedings of the International Symposium on Using Corpora in
Contrastive and Translation Studies, 27–29 July 2010 Proceedings.
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects.
8 Chomsky, A. N. ‘Problems of Projection.’ Lingua,(2013).130: 33–49.

www.sciencedirect.com.
Chomsky, A. N..‘On Phases.’ In: Otero, Carlos, Robert Freidin and Marie-Luisa Zubizarreta
(eds.), Foundational Issues in Linguistic Theory: Essays in Honour of Jean-Roger
Vergnaud. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press;(2008) 133–166.
Chomsky, A. N. ‘Approaching UG from Below.’ In: Gӓrtner, Hans-Martin and UliSauerland
(eds.), Interfaces + Recursion = Language? Chomsky’s Minimalism and the View from
Syntax-Semantics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter; (2007). 133–166.
Chomsky, A. N. ‘Three Factors in Language Design.’ In: Linguistic Inquiry, (2005a)36: 1–
22.
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(that is, a perfectly designed) system that links sound and meaning. The system
comprises a lexicon(a list of all the lexical items in the language, together with
their phonetic, semantic and grammatical properties) and syntax―the
computational component which consists of the principles of universal
grammar (UG) and parameterised rules. The lexicon and syntax constitute the
generative component. Lexical items selected from the lexicon are combined
(by a series of merger and movement operations in the syntax) to form
syntactic structures. The derived syntactic structures are then fed into two
different components: PF, which processes the phonetic features by mapping or
converting the structures into phonetic form (PF) representations, and LF,
which processes the grammatical and semantic features of the derived syntactic
structures by converting them into logical form (LF) representations. While the
former specifies the pronunciation of the derived structures, the latter specifies
their linguistic interpretation.

Review of Related Literature

On the issue of the trigger or motivation for interrogative wh-movement,

Chomsky9 suggests that in wh-questions, the complementiser (C) 'may have an
operator feature and that this feature is a morphological property of such
operators as wh-. For an appropriate C, the operators raise for feature checking
to the checking domain of C’ (i.e. Spec-CP) to satisfy the operators' scopal
properties. In other words, the trigger for wh-movement is located on a target,
namely the operator feature on C: While a strong operator (i.e. wh-) feature on C
triggers overt wh-movement, a weak operator can only trigger covert
movement.

In Minimalist Inquiry, Chomsky10 modifies his earlier11proposal; he argues that

in wh-structures, ‘the wh-phrase has an uninterpretable feature [wh-] and an
interpretable feature [Q], which matches the uninterpretable probe [Q] of a
complementiser'. In other words, the probe [Q] on C seeks a wh-phrase as its
goal to check and delete the uninterpretable features on both the probe and the
goal, leaving only the interpretable [+Q] feature on the goal in place. Thus,
Chomsky (2004) attributes wh-movement to an Extended Projection Principle

Chomsky, A. N. ‘On Phases’. In C.P. Otero et.al. (Eds) (2006). Foundational Issues in
Linguistic Theory.(2005b)Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Chomsky, A. N ‘Beyond Explanatory Adequacy.’ In: Belletti, Andriana (ed.), Structures and
Beyond: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.(2004),
104.–131.
Chomsky, A. N. (. On Nature and Language. Cambridge, 2002)MA: Cambridge University
Press.
Chomsky, A. N. Derivation by Phase. MIT Occasional Papers in Linguistics, (1999),18.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Chomsky, A. N. “Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework” MIT Occasional Papers in
Linguistics, (1998),15. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Chomsky, A. N. “The Minimalist Program. Cambridge” (1995).MA: The MIT Press
9 Op cit
10 Chomsky, A. N. ‘Beyond Explanatory Adequacy.’ In: Belletti, Andriana (ed.), Structures

and Beyond: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures. Oxford: Oxford University

Press;(2004), (104.–131.
11 Chomsky, A. N. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, (1995).MA: The MIT Press

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(EPP) feature at C, which requires Spec-CP to be filled by WH-. Finally, in 'Three
Factors in Language Design', Chomsky (2005a) attributes wh-movement to an
edge feature (EF) at C, which requires C to be extended in a complementiser
phrase (CP) projection containing a specifier on the edge of CP.

Radford (122)12 adds that in languages such as English, a clause is interpreted

as a non-echoic question if (and only if) it is a CP with an interrogative specifier
(i.e. a specifier containing an interrogative word)'. An echoic question does not
(strictly speaking) seek information but expresses incredulity, surprise, and
disappointment. Radford's (2006) claim implies that the edge feature (EF) on
interrogative C attracts an interrogative wh-expression to Spec-CP so that the
clause can be given a non-echoic interrogative interpretation. Once the wh-
expression arrives at Spec-CP, the EF requirement is satisfied and thus deleted.
His13suggestion that English wh- in-situ structures are inherently echoic is open
to debate. Consider the dialogue below.

Speaker A: ‘I’m sorry I didn’t hear you clearly… John was doing what? Reading?’
Speaker B: Not reading. Smoking.
Speaker A: ‘Good heavens! What was John doing? Smoking? You saw John
smoking?’

With the appropriate intonation, the italicised wh- in-situ structure ‘John was
doing what?’ may be assigned a non-echoic or interrogative interpretation;
conversely, the wh- fronted structure ‘What was John doing?’ may be assigned
an echoic (that is, a non-interrogative) interpretation. Suppose our reasoning is
along the right lines. In that case, the type of interpretation (echoic versus non-
echoic) assigned to a wh-question is not a consequence of the structural
location of WH- (in-situ or fronted) but rather, and ultimately, a consequence of
the context of communication. Therefore, his14 argument that English
interrogative wh- in-situ structures are inherently echoic is not tenable.

Moreover, by limiting the motivation for interrogative wh-movement to an

assumed idiosyncratic feature of English―namely, the need to derive a non-
echoic interpretation―Radford’s15 suggestion falls short of a cross-linguistic
explanation for interrogative wh-movement. A third objection that may be
urged against his16 position is that in wh- in-situ languages (i.e. those languages
which do not license interrogative wh-movement), it must be the case that, for
cognitive and pragmatic reasons, wh-expressions (which in such cases are
invariably in-situ) are assigned not only echoic but also non-echoic
interrogative interpretation.

Since, as argued here, WH- can be assigned a non-echoic interrogative

interpretation at the VP-internal position, why should an edge feature/EF (as
proposed by Chomsky17) exist at C to trigger the movement of WH- or its

12 Radford, A. Minimalist Syntax Revisited. (2006). http://courses.essex.ac.uk./1g/1g514.

13 Opcit
14 Opcit
15 Opcit
16 Opcit
17 Chomsky, A. N. ‘Three Factors in Language Design.’ In: Linguistic Inquiry, (2005a) (36)

1–22.
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translation equivalent from the VP-internal position to Spec-CP? Since the in-
situ wh-constituent is already typed interrogative, subsequent movement to
Spec-CP would be superfluous and, to that extent, a violation of the minimalist
Last Resort (LR) condition on movement, which bans superfluous steps in the
derivation of syntactic structures. Given the preceding, we may legitimately
pose the following questions:

(i) What triggers the movement of the wh-expression or its translation

equivalent (WH-) from the VP-internal position to the specifier position of an
adjoined complementiser phrase (Spec-CP)?
(ii) Why is this movement licensed or allowed when WH- is already assigned an
interrogative interpretation at the VP-internal position?

Data Presentation and Analysis

To answer these two questions, namely (i) What triggers movement of the wh-
expression or its translation equivalent (WH-) from the VP-internal position to
the specifier position of an adjoined complementiser phrase (Spec-CP), and (ii)
Why this movement is licensed or allowed when WH- is already assigned an
interrogative interpretation at the VP-internal position, consider the data (10)–
(13) below:

10. (a) In Situ: Efe was reading what?

[Spec-TP Efe [T was [V reading [WH-what]]]]
(b) In Situ: Efě né sẹ (i)dîe?
Lit.Efe was reading what?
[Spec-TP Efě [T né [V sẹ [WH- (i)die]]]]
11. (a) Wh-Fronting: What was Efe reading?
[Spec-CPWhat2 [T was1 [Spec-TP Efe [Tt1 [V reading [WH-
t2]]]]]]
(b) Wh-Fronting: Dîe Efě né se?
Lit. *What Efe was reading?
i.e. ‘What was Efe reading?’
[Spec-CPDîe1 [Spec-TP Efě [T né [V se [WH- t1]]]]]
12. (a) In Situ: You will drive whose car?
[Spec-TP You [T will [V drive [DP[Dwhose [N car]]]]]]
(b) In Situ: Wọ chá guẹ Ẹse imoto ónò?
Lit. *You will drive car whose?
i.e. ‘You will drive whose car?’
[Spec-TP Wọ [T chá [V guẹ [NP[Nimoto [D ónò]]]]]]]
13. (a) Wh-Fronting: Whose car will you drive?
[CPWhose car2 [C will1] [TP you [T t1] [V drive [DPt2]]]]
(b) Wh-Fronting: Imoto ónò wọ chá gua?
Lit. *Car whose you will drive?
i.e. ‘Whose car will you drive?’
[CPImoto ónò1 [TP wọ [T chá [V gua [NPt1]]]]]
In each of the sentences (10)–(13), the ‘a’ expression is English while the ‘b’
sentence is the Urhobo translation equivalent; (10) and (12) are wh-in-situ
sentences whose corresponding wh-fronted structures are (11) and (13),

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respectively. In (10) and (11), WH- (i.e. the wh-constituent) is a lexical unit
(‘what’/‘dîe'), while in (12) and (13), WH- is a determiner phrase (DP) 'whose
car’ or a noun phrase (NP) ‘imoto ónò’.

The structural representations of the English wh-in situ (10a) and wh-fronted
(11a) structures are shown below as (14) and (15), respectively.
14. Efe was reading what?
[Spec-TP Efe [T was [V reading [WH-what]]]]
15. What was Efe reading?
[Spec-CPWhat1 [T was2 [Spec-TP Efe [Tt2 [V reading [WH- t1]]]]]]

Similarly, the Urhobo (translation equivalent) wh-in-situ (10b) and wh-

fronted(11b) structures are shown structurally as (16) and (17), respectively.
16. Efě né sẹ (i)dîe?
Lit.Efe was reading what?
[Spec-TP Efě [T né [V sẹ [WH- (i)die]]]]
17. Dîe Efě né se?
Lit. What Efe was reading?
i.e. ‘What was Efe reading?’
[Spec-CPDîe1 [Spec-TP Efě [T né [V se [WH- t1]]]]]

WH- is base-generated at the VP-internal position in the English wh-

interrogative in-situ structure (14) in the Urhobo translation equivalent (16). In
both languages, WH- moves from its VP-internal position to the specifier
position of an adjoined complementiser phrase (Spec-CP) to derive the wh-
fronted structure (e.g. (15) and (17), respectively). Also, in both languages,
where WH- is a determiner phrase (DP) or a noun phrase (NP), the entire DP or
NP is fronted to Spec-CP as a consequence of the chain uniformity condition
which Chomsky(253)18 states as follows:

Chain Uniformity Condition

‘A chain is [only well-formed if every copy in it is] uniform with regard to

phrase structure status. ’To illustrate, consider the in-situ wh-structure (12a),
which has the structural representation (18) below:

18. You will drive whose car?

[Spec-TP You [T will [V drive [DP [D whose [N car]]]]]]
Moving only the determiner (D) ‘whose’(rather than the DP ‘whose money’) to
Spec-CP leads to ungrammaticality, as (18a) shows.
18a. * Whose will you drive car?
[CPWhose2 [C will1] [TP you [T t1] [V drive [DP [Dt2 [N car]]]]]

The derived expression (18a) crashes (i.e. fails to converge) at logical form (LF)
because it violates the Chain Uniformity Condition. The violation is this: The
moved D constituent ‘whose’ is (at the landing site) a maximal projection
because it is the largest expression headed by the word ‘whose’ at Spec-CP;

18 Chomsky, A. N. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, (1995). MA: The MIT Press
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conversely, the null copy t2at the extraction site is a minimal projection because
it is the endocentric head of the DP, ‘whose money’. Thus, the derived wh-chain
violates the chain uniformity condition by having a maximal projection at its
head and a minimal projection at its foot. For the derived wh-fronted structure
to converge at LF, the entire DP must be fronted, as shown in (18b):
18b. Whose car will you drive?

[CPWhose car2 [C will1 [Spec-TP you [T t1 [V drive [DPt2]]]]]]

Urhobo wh-interrogatives are also subject to the Chain Uniformity Condition

like their English counterpart. To illustrate, the Urhobo translation equivalent
of the English in-situ structure (18) is (19):
19. Wọ chá guẹ imoto ónò?
Lit. *You will drive car whose?
i.e. ‘You will drive whose car?’
[Spec-TP Wọ [T chá [V guẹ [NP[N imoto [D ónò]]]]]]]
As shown in (19a), moving only the post-determiner (D) ‘ónò’ (=
ENGLISH ‘whose’) to Spec-CP results in ungrammaticality:
(19a) * Ónò wọ chá guẹ imoto?
* Lit. Whose you will drive car?
* i.e. ‘Whose will you drive car?’
[CPOno1] [TP wọ [T chá] [VP guẹ [NP [Nimoto [Dt1]]]]

For the derivation to converge at LF, the entire NP must move to Spec-CP in
conformity with the Chain Uniformity Condition, as shown in (19b):
19b. Imoto ónò wọ chá gua?
Lit. *Car whose you will drive?
i.e. ‘Whose car will you drive?’
[CPImoto ónò1 [TP wọ [T chá [V gua [N [NPt1]]]]]]

Motivation for Wh-Movement

As shown in the data analysis (14)–(17), the derivation of a wh-fronted

interrogative in English and Urhobo involves the movement of WH- (i.e. a wh-
word or phrase)from its base-generated VP-internal position to Spec-CP. In
English, as shown in (15), there is an additional operation, namely, T-to-C
movement (i.e. movement of the tensed auxiliary, e.g. ‘was', from the tense/T
node to the complementizer/C position). According to Radford 19 (14–16), this
movement is triggered by the presence of a tense feature [TNS] at interrogative
C. With the auxiliary extracted from T to C, the requirement for C to bear tense
is satisfied, and the tense feature is deleted. Since―as shown in (17)―Urhobo
does not license T-to-C movement, it must be the case that interrogative C in
Urhobo does not carry a tense feature; hence, there is no motivation for the
auxiliary, e.g. 'né' in (17), to move to that position. Since interrogative C is

19Radford,
A. “Syntactic Theory and the Structure of English: A Minimalist
Approach”(2002).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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functionally redundant in Urhobo interrogatives, it is not instantiated in the
structure of Urhobo wh-questions.

From the data analysis (14)–(17), it is obvious that the derivation of wh-fronted
interrogative structures in English and Urhobo involves the movement of WH-
from the VP-internal position to Spec-CP. In the Review of Related Literature, we
noted that Chomsky (2005) suggests that an Edge Feature (EF) at C is the
mechanism which drives the movement of WH- to Spec-CP; according to him,
the complementiser (C) carries an edge feature (EF) which requires C to be
extended in a CP projection containing a specifier on its edge. We also noted
Radford's (2006, p. 122) explanation that in languages such as English, 'a clause
is interpreted as a non-echoic question if (and only if) it is a CP with an
interrogative specifier (i.e. a specifier containing an interrogative word)’.

Regarding Radford's20 explanation of the trigger for interrogative wh-

movement, we argued (in 1.3) that wh- in-situ structures can often be assigned
a non-echoic interrogative interpretation. We further suggested that in wh-in-
situ languages (i.e. those languages which do not license wh-movement), it must
be the case that, for cognitive and pragmatic reasons, the wh-word/phrase
(which in such cases is invariably in-situ) is assigned both echoic and non-
echoic interrogative interpretations. Given the previous observations, we
question Chomsky's (2005) edge feature/EF trigger for interrogative wh-
movement: Since the wh-in-situ structure is already assigned an interrogative
interpretation, no Edge Feature (EF) should exist any longer at C to trigger wh-
movement because the existence of EF would be unnecessary and, to that
extent, a violation of the LR condition on movement. Moreover, as we noted,
interrogative C is functionally redundant in Urhobo wh-interrogatives;
consequently, it needs to be instantiated in the structure of Urhobo wh-
questions. Since interrogative C is absent in Urhobo interrogatives, there is no
suitable location for an Edge Feature (EF) to trigger wh-movement.
Furthermore, since (as shown in the data analysis) wh-movement occurs in
Urhobo wh-questions, there must be an alternative explanation (other than the
EF trigger) for wh-movement.

Given the data analysis, we infer that the lexicon consists not only of
phonologically overt affixes and lexical items together with their morphological
properties but also of abstract illocutionary force (IF)affixes, which determine
both the structural ordering of constituents as well as the illocutionary
interpretation assigned to the derived structure (e.g. as a statement, question,
command, and so on). For instance, the non-italicised expressions in (18) may
be (a) declarative or (b) interrogative, and those in (19) may be (a)
interrogative or (b) imperative, depending on intonation.

18. (a) They will give Efe money. (Their generosity is public knowledge)
(b) They will give Efe money? (I don’t believe it)
19. (a) Will you keep quiet? (If you won’t, then you can’t come with us)
(b) Will you keep quiet (right now!)

20 Radford, A. Minimalist Syntax Revisited. (2006). http://courses.essex.ac.uk./1g/1g514.

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Since both wh-in-situ and wh-fronted structures may be assigned an
interrogative interpretation at LF, it must be the case that there are two types of
illocutionary force question affixes [IFQ]: a weak [–IFQ] question affix which
imposes an interrogative interpretation at LF but which (by being weak) cannot
trigger overt movement at PF; and a strong [+IFQ] affix which imposes both an
interrogative interpretation at LF and overt movement (in languages where
interrogative wh-movement is licensed) at PF. We argue further that both
affixes (i.e. [–IFQ] and [+IFQ]) are located on WH- (i.e. the wh-word/phrase). In
wh-optional languages like English and Urhobo, if [–IFQ] is selected, WH-
remains in situ because [–IFQ] cannot move WH- from the VP-internal position
to Spec-CP. On the other hand, where [+IFQ] is selected, WH- is forced from its
VP-internal position to Spec-CP.

Conclusion

In this paper, we set out to proffer answers to the following research questions:
(i) What triggers the movement of the wh-expression or its translation
equivalent (WH-) from the VP-internal position to the specifier position of an
adjoined complementiser phrase (Spec-CP), and (ii) Why is this movement
licensed when WH- is already assigned an interrogative interpretation at the
VP-internal position? From the analysis of the data, the trigger or motivation for
interrogative wh-movement is the presence of a strong illocutionary force
[+IFQ] affix, which imposes both an interrogative interpretation (at LF) and
movement of WH- to Spec-CP (at PF) in wh-optional languages (i.e. those
languages which license wh-movement) such as English and Urhobo.

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