WH QUESTIONS IN SINHALA ARGUMENT Sinhala WH facts motivate both overt and covert movement.

ment. Relevant Heads for WH operations in Sinhala are FORCE, INT, TOP, FOC, FIN Overt WH movement is limited to embedded periphery and quantificationaltype WH phrases There is Focus movement in the embedded periphery. Verb morphology of Sinhala provides evidence for morphology-pragmatics Interface. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: RIZZI (1997, 1999) FORCE, (TOP), INT, (TOP), FOC, (TOP), FIN, IP C-system is an Interface between two layers of an information system Topic-Focus field is present only when it is activated SOME BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SINHALA WH QUESTIONS Question word remains in-situ Question word is followed by Q-morpheme da -Da + E ending of the verb yields a Question interpretation -Da alone yields only Yes/No question interpretation -Da also functions as a disjunctive

EXAMPLES

Ram mokak da seeeduwE Ram(Nom) what Q washed-E What did Ram wash?

Ram mokak da seeeduwa Ram(Nom) what Q washed Ram washed something

Ram potha kieuwa da? Ram(Nom) book read(Pst) Q Did Ram read the book?

Oyaa ta bath da paan da oona? You(Dat) rice Q bread Q want Do you want rice or bread?

THE SINHALA LEFT PERIPHERY: FORCE -e Matrix WH: Ram monava da gatte? Ram what Q bought-E? What did Ram buy? ForceP 3 F 3 IntP 3 IP 3 Ram I 3 I [+Pst] INT F gaththE (bought) INT -da TOP nang FOC tamai FIN kiyala (The SAY complementizer)

VP 3

V 3 QP 3 WH Monava What Q da Q
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V gath (buy)

EMBEDDED WH: WIDE SCOPE Oya [Ram kauru hamuuna kiyala da]kiuwe You [Ram who met Comp Q] said-E Who did you say that Ram met? ForceP 3 F 3 IP 3 Oya(you) I 3 I [+Pst] F kiuwE (said)

VP 3 V 3 IntP 3 FinP 3 IP 3 Ram I 3 VP 3 V 3 QP 3 WH Kauru Q da

3

V kiyanava(say) Int DA

Fin KIYALA

I[Pst] hamuuna (met)

V hamuvenana(meet)

(who) NARROW SCOPE Ram [kauda gedara Ram [who home yanne go-E kiyala] ahanava Comp] ask

Ram is asking who is going home. c) ForcceP 3 IntP 3 IP 3 Ram INT Force[+WH] ahanava (ask)

I 3 I [+Press]

VP 3 V 3 FinP 3 FocusP 3 Kauda(who) F 3

V ahanava (ask) Fin kiyala

IP 3
Kauda(who)

FOC[WH][V] yannE (goE)

I 3 I[+Pres] V yanava (go)

VP 3 NP Gedara (home)

FOCUSED DP Lalith [Ram da gedara Lalith [Ram Q home yanne go-E kiyala] aehuva Comp] asked

Lalith asked whether it is Ram/is it Ram who is going home.

d) IntP

ForcceP 3 Force[+WH] aehuva (asked) INT 3 IP 3 Lalith

I 3 I [+Press]

VP 3 V 3 FinP 3 FocusP 3 Ram da F 3

V ahanava (ask) Fin kiyala

IP 3
Ram da

FOC [Q][V]yannE (goE)

I 3 VP 3 NP V yanava (go) I[+Pres]

Gedara (home)

YES/NO QUESTIONS Ram potha kiyavanava da? Ram book read(Pres) Q Does Ram read the book?

ForceP 3 IntP 3 IP 3 Ram Int -da F

I 3 I [+pres]

VP 3 V 3 NP Potha (book) V

kiyavanava (read)

YES/NO WITH AN EMBEDDED FOCUSED CONSTITUENT Oya [Lalith tamai eeka karE kiyala] hitanava da? You [Lalith FOC it did-E COMP] think Q Do you think that it was Lalith who did it?

ForceP 3 Intp 3 IP 3 Oya (you) Force Int -da

I 3 VP 3 I [+pres]

V 3 FinP 3 FocP 3 Lalith tamai V hitanava (think) Fin kiyala

Foc 3 Foc [U:Foc][V] karE (did-E)

IP 3
lalith tamai

I 3 VP 3 NP V kara (did) I [+pst]

eeka (it)

EVIDENCE FOR MORPHOLOGY-PRAGMATICS INTERFACE Gune [Janadhipati boruwak tamai kiuwe] kiyala hituwa (De Re) Gune(Nom)[ president Nom lie Foc said E]Comp think Past Gune thought that it was a lie that the president told.
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b. Gune [Janadhipati boruwak tamai kiuwe kiyala] hituwe (De Dicto) Gune(Nom)[ president Nom lie Foc said- EComp] think Past-E Gune thought that it was a lie that the president told

CONCLUSION Relevant Heads for Sinhala WH are FORCE, INT, (TOP, FOC), FIN Sinhala has an articulate Left Periphery Sinhala WH facts motivate both Overt and Covert movement The articulate C-domain can accommodate Sinhala Focus facts too. Sinhala verb morphology shows evidence for morphology-pragmatics interface

MG LALITH ANANDA CENTRE FOR LINGUISTICS JNU