Clause-Internal Preposing in Late Archaic Chinese

In this thesis I investigate the preverbal positioning of wh and non-wh-phrases in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC) and the Intervention Effect (Beck 1996a). I first explore non-wh-fronting and discover two landing sites for preposed DPs. Non-wh-objects fronted to the higher position in the left periphery are consistent with a topical interpretation, yet those moved to the lower position between the subject and negation are consistent with a focal interpretation. In the context of negation, pronouns normally move to negation and target a position exclusively for them.
I then discuss two types of wh-preposing in LAC. D-linked which-phrases in LAC are topical, therefore they appear in an internal topic position. With respect to non-D-linked wh-DPs, they target one of the two focused positions in the medial domain, either between the internal topic position and negation or between negation and vP. The higher focus position above negation is expected to exclusively permit wh-phrases base-generated above negation, and the lower focused position below negation accommodates wh-adverbials base-generated between negation and vP. I also propose that the inverted order of wh-P is generated via PP inversion followed by separate preposing of wh and P.
I finally explore the Intervention Effect. Negation, rather than focus or quantificational phrases, functions as a barrier for the Q-binding of wh-phrases in LAC. Wh-items that have the option to stay in-situ, along with wh-arguments and adverbials that usually move to the lower focus position below negation, are subject to the Intervention Effect caused by negation. As a consequence, these wh-phrases have to land in the higher focus position above negation which is expected to accommodate ‘high’ adverbials exclusively. I propose that the Intervention Effect in LAC is a consequence of Q-binding as feature movement of [wh], interacting with fronting into the hierarchy of clause-internal positions driven by [Topic] or [Focus] features.