Resolving Multiple Wh-Fragments: A Syntax-Pragmatics Approach

This paper attempts to provide a new analysis of multiple wh-fragments, the socalled ‘multiple sluicing’, in English. Against previous approaches which resort to a reconstruction/deletion account or a gapping analysis, the proposed analysis captures multiple wh-fragments without positing a copy-deletion mechanism. In fact, multiple whfragments are viewed as a root clause whose interpretation is determined by previous discourse context. This is achieved by suggesting a new type constraint based on the analysis of fragment by Bertomeu and Kordoni (2005).