Explicating wh-fronting in Mandarin: A scrambling approach

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternative approach to wh-fronting in Mandarin by analyzing it as a type of regional scrambling. Three main arguments are presented, including the semantic vacuousness of Mandarin wh-fronting, its mixed syntactic properties, and the theoretical plausibility of scrambling in a non-scrambling language. This approach departs from previous treatments in dispensing with stipulation of an explicit uniform driving force for the movement and permits structural alternation without significant meaning changes.