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‘What’ Clauses can and ‘Which’ Cannot: A Romanian Puzzle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Ivano Caponigro  and
Anamaria Fălăuş
Ivano Caponigro*
Affiliation:
University of California San Diego
Anamaria Fălăuş*
Affiliation:
CNRS, Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes
*
Caponigro, Department of Linguistics, University of California San Diego, 2985 Muir Lane, La Jolla, CA 92093, [ivano@ucsd.edu]
Fălăuş, CNRS, Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes, Chemin de la Censive du Tertre BP 81227, 44312 Nantes, France, [anamaria.falaus@cnrs.fr]
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Abstract

A previously unnoticed puzzle is presented concerning the distribution of wh-determiners in free relative clauses in Romanian: while care ‘which’ + NP can never introduce free relative clauses, ce ‘what’ + NP does so productively, as do all other wh-words. New evidence is provided showing that care ‘which’ + NP in interrogative clauses in Romanian exhibits strong discourse-anaphoric requirements, unlike ce ‘what’ + NP. This feature of care ‘which’ + NP is suggested to be responsible for the puzzle by triggering a clash with the basic set-denoting function of a free relative clause, along the lines of what is observed in light-headed relative clauses.

Keywords

wh-determinerswh-wordsfree relative clausesdiscourse anaphoricityinterrogative clauseslight-headed relative clauses

Information

Type
Research Report
Information
Language , Volume 99 , Issue 3 , September 2023 , pp. e176 - e190
Copyright
Copyright © 2023 Linguistic Society of America

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