Why is ‘Why’ Unique?

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Why is ‘Why’ Unique? Its Syntactic and Semantic Properties examines the behavior of the wh-element "why" across various languages, including Ewe, Trevisan, Italian, Basque, German, Dutch, Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and Hebrew. The authors delve into numerous aspects of why-questions in ten original chapters, highlighting interactions with V2 constructions in Basque, subject clitics in Trevisan, and the morpho-syntactic makeup that determines merge positions in Ewe. A clear distinction is made between high and low reason adverbials, which are further analyzed in why-stripping environments in Dutch. The book also investigates a unique class of wh-expressions in certain in-situ languages that yield unexpected why-construals with a whining force, aiming to clarify their unusual syntactic positions and associated pragmatics. Additionally, it addresses questions related to Cantonese, such as whether what-initial sentences are genuine questions and how they compare to how-initial sentences in Mandarin. The study also scrutinizes a special class of rhetorical questions, specifically doubly-marked interrogatives in Hebrew. The interface with prosody is another focus, supported by several experimental studies that explore this aspect in depth.