Difficulties in Testing Wh-movement
Difficulties in Testing Wh-movement

Summary/Abstract: Generative syntacticians are interested in whether, and to what extent, a given language can move interrogative and relative elements (Wh-elements) from a subordinate clause to a position in a main clause. Languages differ greatly in the Wh-extractions they allow. This article tests examples of this sort on Croatian material, but at the same time points out some difficulties which arise in testing them, because Croatian (as well as Bosnian and Serbian) offers two other means for formulating equivalent content. The paper concludes with a tribute to Professor Leonardo Spalatin, late of the Department of English of Zagreb University, in the context of some speculations about ease of processing of complex syntactic structures.

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