NPI Licensing in Adjunct WH-Questions

Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) are known to be licensed in wh-questions. But not all wh-questions behave alike with respect to NPI licensing. As pointed out in Han and Siegel (1996), while all argument wh-questions with NPIs can have a RHETORICAL QUESTION reading, only a subset of them can have a true wh-question reading. In this paper, we point out that adjunct wh-questions with NPIs cannot have a true wh-question reading.1 Questions with why and how have a SURPRISE READING, either a QUESTION SURPRISE reading or a RHETORICAL SURPRISE reading. Questions with when and where can have a question surprise, rhetorical surprise reading or rhetorical question reading. We define these readings in 2. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the full range of grammaticality and interpretational differences attested in adjunct wh-questions with NPIs. In 2, we describe the range of data. In 3, we account for the non-existence of a true question reading in adjunct wh-questions with NPIs. In 4, we provide an analysis of when and where questions with the rhetorical question reading. In 5, we relate the surprise readings of adjunct questions to the factive nature of reason and manner adverbials. In 6, we address the source of the surprise readings which are found in adjunct questions with NPIs and what is responsible for licensing NPIs in these questions under the surprise readings.