Ordering preferences in Ukrainian multiple wh-fronting

Abstract

We present the first systematic study of ordering restrictions in Ukrainian multiple wh-fronting (MWF) constructions, examining the effects of grammatical relation, case and animacy. Using an acceptability judgment task with pair-list primes, we tested the acceptability of Superiority-obeying and Superiority-violating questions with two wh-arguments. We found that Ukrainian speakers exhibit two distinct patterns with respect to Superiority: one group of speakers accepted Superiority violations while the other did not. Both groups, however, allowed free word order with wh-prepositional phrases and the lexical item ščo ‘what’. We conclude that these two patterns represent two distinct varieties of Ukrainian which differ in Superiority in matrix MWF constructions.