Alternative questions through focus alternatives in Mandarin Chinese

Overview & Synopsis

While the syntax of wh-in-situ in Mandarin Chinese has been central to discussions of the linguistic theory of covert movement (Huang, 1982), little attention has been paid to the syntax and semantics of alternative questions in Mandarin. I argue that alternative-question-triggering disjunctions in Mandarin are interpreted \em in-situ at LF using a process of alternative computation, supported by evidence from island sensitivity and focus intervention effects. I offer a proposal for the different semantics of alternative-question-triggering disjunction (háishì) and logical disjunction (hùozhe), in languages such as Mandarin which lexicalize this difference, and show that it can explain the distribution of question "force" in Mandarin clauses involving disjunction.