Wh-in-situ in child French: Deictic triggers at the syntax-semantics interface

Abstract

This article investigates the development of wh-in-situ questions in French by examining a three-year kindergarten dataset of spontaneous productions with 16 children between 2;5 and 5;11. The distribution of the wh-phrases is statistically examined in relation to age, verb form (Fixed be form c’est ‘it is’ vs. Free be forms vs. Free lexical verbs), and grammatical category of the wh-word (Pronoun vs. Adverb). Results show that wh-in-situ remains prevalent throughout the period despite a steady increase in wh-ex-situ. Verb form (Fixed vs. All free forms) is a discriminating variable for the wh-position in all three years, and it interacts with the category of the wh-word. The Fixed be form c’est favours in-situ wh-pronouns (c’est qui Taz ?), whereas the Free forms favour wh-ex-situ questions, and massively co-occur with wh-adverbs (combien ça coûte ?). The emergence of the ex-situ qu’est-ce que ‘what is it that’, as opposed to the in-situ quoi ‘what’, is identified as a factor accounting for the gradual increase in wh-ex-situ. Finally, most outliers (wh-in-situ with Free forms) are shown to belong to the same paradigm as c’est in-situ questions: non-presuppositional questions, which are visible from the frequent use of là ‘there’, like c’est, a deictic item.