Multiple Sluicing in Disguise

Abstract

This paper investigates Multiple Sluicing in English. Nishigauchi (1998) and Lasnik (2013) analyze Multiple Sluicing as a construction in which the first wh-phrase escapes from the deletion site by leftward wh-movement, whereas the second remnant under- goes rightward movement, and then TP deletion follows. Lasnik specifically argues that the rightward movement of the second remnant is extraposition. However, these analyses cannot explain why the second remnant is typically [+wh]. To solve this problem, this paper shows that the second remnant undergoes a two-step rightward movement; it first moves to a vP adjunction position via extraposition, and then it undergoes focus movement to Foc(us)P. To explain the upward boundedness of the second remnant in Multiple Sluicing, we propose that the rightward movement can be iterative insofar as it satisfies the Order Preservation (Fox and Pesetsky 2003, 2005; Sabbagh 2007). We suggest that when the second remnant in Multiple Sluicing undergoes focus movement, it does not make an order contradiction; there- fore, the two-step movement of the second remnant in Multiple Sluicing constructions is allowed.