On wh-copying in Mon

Abstract

This paper presents the first detailed study of pronouncing multiple wh-pronouns within the same dependency in Mon (Mon-Khmer). I argue the data involve movement, and thus a wh-copying construction: multiple wh-copies can be pronounced, either in full pronoun form or in a reduced pronoun form-and I propose reduction occurs via m-merger (Harizanov in Nat Lang Linguist Theory 32:1033-1088, 2014). This supports the view (McCloskey in Everaert, van Riemsdijk (eds) The Blackwell companion to syntax, Blackwell, Oxford 94-117, 2006) that resumptive pronouns can be the pronunciation of structurally reduced copies. Interestingly, the distribution of full and reduced copies is highly free, although there is a puzzling restriction on where reduced copies can appear, which is analyzed with a context-sensitive constraint that is subject to Richards's (Linguist Inq 29:599-629, 1998) Principle of Minimal Compliance. This relatively free, though constrained, distribution is novel, and is challenging for prominent approaches to copy-chain realization. For example, the linearization-based approach of Nunes (Linearization of chains and sideward movement, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2004) struggles to account for this restriction, and though I follow the economy-based approach of Van Urk (Nat Lang Linguist Theory 36:937-990, 2018) in having the syntax specify which copies end up pronounced, I show that economy does not drive copy reduction in the data here.