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In:The Ziggurat of Grammar: In honor of Ur Shlonsky
Edited by Lena Baunaz, Giuliano Bocci and Andrew Nevins
[Language Faculty and Beyond 20] 2025
► pp. 552–574

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Chapter 27
Some notes on the modal existential wh construction in two Romance languages

 | University of Zürich
 | University of Geneva
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Published online: 13 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lfab.20.27soa
Abstract
This paper investigates the Modal Existential Wh-Construction (MEC) in Romanian and French, a structure that superficially resembles a wh-clause but semantically functions as a narrow-scope existential generalized quantifier. We examine the classes of predicates selecting MECs and the types of wh-elements involved, addressing whether Romanian and French exhibit comparable patterns. Consistent with previous findings (Grosu 1994, 2013, Caponigro & Falaus 2023), we argue that MECs pattern more closely with interrogative rather than free relatives. Based on new syntactic diagnostics, such as gapping and sluicing, we suggest that MECs instantiate a defective CP structure containing Focus and Mood projections, with MoodP hosting an existential [GQ]-feature responsible for the construction’s modal-existential interpretation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Classes of predicates selecting a MEC
    • 2.1Selecting predicates in Romanian
    • 2.2Selecting predicates in French
      • 2.2.1MECs with impersonal existential verbs
      • 2.2.3MECs with of attribution/availability verbs
      • 2.2.4MECs with intentional verbs
  • 3.Properties of MECs
    • 3.1Lack of matching effects for MECs
    • 3.2Extraction from islands
    • 3.3Gapping
    • 3.4Multiple wh-fronting
    • 3.5Sluicing
    • 3.6Can foci and topicalised material appear in a MEC in Romanian?
  • 4.Proposal
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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