REMARKS ON TURKISH INTERROGATIVE COMPLEMENT CLAUSES AND VERB SUBCATEGORIZATION
REMARKS ON TURKISH INTERROGATIVE COMPLEMENT CLAUSES AND VERB SUBCATEGORIZATION

Author(s): Tai MA
Subject(s): Morphology, Lexis, Turkic languages
Published by: Artsürem Bilim Sanat Danışmanlık A.Ş (Artsürem Yayıncılık)
Keywords: Turkish; Verb subcategorization; Wh-words; Interrogative complement clauses; Syntax-semantics interface;
Summary/Abstract: This chapter examines the interpretations of interrogative complement clauses in Turkish, with a focus on the embedded wh-words. Verbs such as unut- (forget) and hatırla- (remember) do not constitute an interrogative environment for the embedded wh-words, and the embedded wh-words are non-interrogative. Interestingly, the two verbs can yield either an interrogative or an indefinite reading. Meanwhile, san- (assume) and şüphelen- (suspect), behaving like desiderative and jussive verbs, do not license an embedded wh-word in their complement clauses. In contrast, düşün- (think), karar ver- (decide) and anla- (understand) yield ambiguous readings for embedded whwords. Moreover, unlike the English counterparts, the embedded wh-words in complement clauses of sor- (ask) and merak et- (wonder) can obtain different scopes, but their interpretations remain interrogative in Turkish. The evidence suggests that the interpretations of wh-words depend on the embedding environments, and this suggests reevaluating the verb subcategorization frame based on the observation that wh-words are not consistently interrogative but also indefinite conditionally (Kratzer & Shimoyama, 2002). The problem relates to the syntax-semantics interface. In conclusion, there are three different types of verbs based on their attitudes towards the interpretations of the embedded wh-words.

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