Lange wh-vraagzinnen en A-bar-pronomina

This paper reviews three alternative analyses of wh-movement in which a wh-constituent crosses a clause boundary (long wh-questions). The three analyses (Barbiers et al. 2010, Koster 2009, Van Kampen 2010) attempt to account for a specific phenomenon in Dutch dialects and informal speech. Instead of the complementizer dat, a w-pronoun or a d-pronoun is spelled out at the clause boundary. A generalization of w-pronouns and d-pronouns as ‘A-bar pronouns’ is advanced that will cover question pronouns, relative pronouns and topic pronouns. The present analysis is supported by factual observations in the long wh-movement constructions: er-insertion in the subordinate clause, the extraction of PP (prepositional) wh-constituents and the difference between PPs in long wh-questions and relative clauses. These new facts underline the advantages of the analysis presented in Van Kampen (2010).