Open AccessIntervention Effects follow from Scope Rigidity in Turkish
Author(s) -
Ömer Demirok
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings from semantics and linguistic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2163-5951
pISSN - 2163-5943
DOI - 10.3765/salt.v31i0.5079
Subject(s) - scope (computer science) , phrase , covert , turkish , rigidity (electromagnetism) , linguistics , intervention (counseling) , computer science , psychology , natural language processing , philosophy , engineering , structural engineering , psychiatry , programming language
Intervention effects in Turkish wh-questions can be obviated by the overt movement of the wh-phrase past the intervener. This cross-linguistically robust method of intervention obviation raises an important question: what is it that bans the covert movement of the wh-phrase? I argue that this question finds a natural answer in Scope Rigidity, a general restriction on the availability of inverse scope. Importantly, including wh-phrases in the domain of Scope Rigidity calls for a scopal account of wh-phrases. I argue that this general approach has welcome consequences in explaining the source of intervention effects and in predicting what can intervene, and can even accommodate how extraction islands containing wh-phrases behave in intervention configurations.