WH-Movement and the Position of SPEC-CP: Evidence from American Sign Language

Abstract

Some researchers have claimed that wh-movement in ASL is rightward, contrary to the apparent universality of leftward wh-movement. In contrast to this claim, we argue that wh-movement in ASL is to a leftward specifier of CP. We account for the occurrence of rightward wh-elements by independently motivated syntactic and discourse factors which lead to the appearance of wh-elements in sentence- or discourse-final positions-not by rightward wh-movement. Our analysis provides an account for a variety of ASL direct and indirect wh-questions and is in accord with cross-linguistic generalizations.