In contrast to non-coordinated multiple questions, multiple coordinated questions (MCQs) have received comparatively little attention, despite raising non-trivial issues at the syntax–semantics interface. MCQs are wh-interrogatives containing at least two coordinated wh-phrases (e.g. what and when did you eat?), and must be distinguished from superficially similar constructions involving coordination, such as multiple sluicing.

This course offers a cross-linguistic investigation of multiple coordinated questions (MCQs), with a particular focus on the coordination of selected wh-arguments, a phenomenon attested only in a subset of MCQ languages. It covers their core typological, syntactic and semantic properties, as well as the challenges they pose for current models of grammar. Data from genetically diverse languages (e.g., Hungarian, Korean, Syrian Arabic) will be used to assess the empirical coverage and explanatory adequacy of competing analyses. We will compare, in particular, major theoretical approaches—including ellipsis-based accounts, multidominance, and sideward movement—with a focus on their implications for the syntax–semantics interface.

Selected References
Bošković, Željko. 2024. Wh&Wh Coordinations. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 32 (FASL issue). 1–23.

Bošković, Željko. 2025. Multiple wh-fronting in a typological setting: What is behind multiple wh-fronting? In Berit Gehrke et al. (eds.), Advances in Formal Slavic Linguistics 2022, 129–153. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Citko, Barbara and Martina Gračanin-Yuksek. 2013. Towards a new typology of coordinated wh-questions. Journal of Linguistics 49(1). 1–32.

Citko, Barbara and Martina Gračanin-Yuksek. 2025. Coordinated Wh-Questions: A Response to Bošković (2022). Journal of Slavic Linguistics 33 (FASL issue). 1–18.

Gazdik, Anna. 2022. Coordinated wh-constructions. In Katalin É. Kiss and Thomas Rounds (eds.), Syntax of Hungarian, 1–38. London: Routledge.

Gračanin-Yuksek, Martina. 2007. About Sharing. PhD dissertation, MIT.

Gračanin-Yuksek, Martina. 2017. Conjoined Wh-Questions. In Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, 2nd edition. Wiley Blackwell.

Haida, Andreas and Sophie Repp. 2011. Mono-clausal question word coordination across languages. In Suzi Lima, Kevin Mullin and Brian Smith (eds.), Proceedings of NELS 39, 373–386. Amherst, MA: GLSA.

Ishii, Toru. 2014. On coordinated multiple wh-questions. In Shigeto Kawahara and Mika Igarashi (eds.), Proceedings of Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics 7 (MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 73), 89–100.

Jung, Yeun-Jin. 2018. Coordinated Multiple wh-question in in-situ languages. Studies in Generative Grammar 28(1).

Kasai, Hironobu. 2016. Coordinated wh-questions in Japanese. Lingua 183. 126–148.

Kazenin, Konstantin. 2002. On coordination of wh-phrases in Russian. University of Tübingen and Moscow State University.

Kwon, Jongil. 2021. A Bi-clausal Approach to Coordinated Wh-questions in Korean. Journal of Hispanic and Lusophone Studies 54(1).

Lipták, Anikó K. 2012. Strategies of wh-coordination. Linguistic Variation 11(2). 149–188.

Rațiu, Dafina. 2011. De la syntaxe à la sémantique des propositions interrogatives. Étude comparative des questions multiples en roumain. PhD dissertation, Université de Nantes.

Rațiu, Dafina. 2013. Syntax and semantics of coordinated multiple questions in Romanian. Talk presented at Ling Lunch, Université Paris Diderot, 21 February 2013.

Tomaszewicz, Barbara. 2011. Against spurious coordination in multiple wh-questions. In Mary Byram Washburn, Katherine McKinney-Bock, Erika Varis et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 28th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 186–195.