Wh-movement - Wh-movement in Other Languages

Wh-movement in Other Languages

Wh-movement is also found in many other languages around the world. Most European languages also place wh-words at the beginning of a clause. Furthermore, many of the facts illustrated above are also valid for other languages. The systematic difference in word order across main wh-clauses and subordinate wh-clauses shows up in other languages in varying forms. The islands to wh-extraction are also present in other languages, although there will be some variation. The following example illustrates wh-movement of an object in Spanish:

a.	Juan	compró	carne.
	Juan	bought	meat.	'Juan bought meat.'

b.	¿Qué	compró	Juan?
	what	bought	Juan	'What did Juan buy?'

The following examples illustrates wh-movement of an object in German:

a.	Er	liest	Tesnière	jeden	Abend.
	He	reads	Tesnière	every	evening.	'He reads Tesnière every evening.'

b.	Wen	liest	er	jeden	Abend?
	who	reads	he	every	evening	'Who does he read every evening?'

And the following examples illustrates wh-movement an object in French:

a.	Ils	ont	vu	Pierre
	they	have	seen	Pierre	'They saw Pierre.'

b.	Qui	est-ce	qu'ils	ont	vu
	Who	is it	that they	have	seen	'Who did they see?'

These examples from Spanish, German, and French are closely similar to the English examples. They demonstrate that wh-movement is a general phenomenon in numerous languages. As stated however, the behavior of wh-movement can vary depending on the particular language at hand.