Pronominal vs. determiner wh-words: evidence from the copy construction
Jessica Rett · 2006
This paper presents an analysis of the copy construction that explains its similarity to extraction constructions while accounting for its incompatibility with wh+NP phrases. Essentially, wh-phrases without an NP complement can be copied because they’re non-quantificational (introducing only a free variable into the derivation). Whphraseswith anNP complement cannot be copied because thesewh-phrases arequantificational, and interpreting them twice in the derivation leads to vacuous quantification.