On the Syntax of Why-Stripping
Chizuru Nakao, Masaya Yoshida, Iván Ortega-Santos · 2012
The goal of this paper is to provide an account of the elliptical construction exemplified in (1a). In B’s utterance in (1a), the wh-phrase why and a non-wh phrase (i.e. NATTO) appear fragmentally, although it has the same meaning as the full why-question in (1b). (1) a. A: John ate natto. B: Why NATTO (but not something else)?