Natural syntax : English interrogative main clauses

Abstract

Natural Syntax is a developing deductive theory, a branch of Naturalness Theory. The naturalnessjudgements are couched in naturalness scales, whichfollow from the basic parameters (or «axioms») listed at the beginning of the paper. The predictions of the theory are calculated in deductions, whose chief components are apair of naturalness scales and the rules governing the alignment of corresponding naturalness values. Parallel and chiastic alignments are distinguished, in complementary distribution. Chiastic alignment is mandatory in deductions limited to unnatural environments.

The paper deals with English interrogative main clauses. Within these, only the interrogatives containing wh-words exclusively insitu constitute an extremely unnatural environment and require chiastic alignment. Otherwiseparallel alignment is used.

Earlier publications on Natural Syntax: Kavcic 2005a,b, Oresnik 1999, 2000a,b, 200la-f   2002, 2003a-c, 2002/03, 2004. This list cites only works written in English.