1. WH-CLAUSES Haj Ross Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication University of North Texas haj@unt.edu / http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/hajpapers.html International Conference on Sentence Types Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany Ten Years After – June 27, 2009 I. Introduction This paper will seek to demonstrate the existence and distribution of two different types of wh-clauses. I will distinguish between conjunctive wh-clauses (CWH’s) and disjunctive wh-clauses (DWH’s). In general, it is the latter type of wh- clause which been the focus of most grammatical research which I am aware of, probably because of the fundamental importance of sequences of information- seeking questions and their answers in the world’s grammars, and because of the fact that it is always DWH’s which occur in such pairs. The distinction between the two types has a semantic basis: in CWH’s, the speaker (or someone in the sentence) knows (or is presupposed to know) the “answer” to the question: a CWH is a kind of factive clause. In DWH’s, by contrast, there is a presupposition that this knowledge is not available (to some relevant person). (1) Conjunctive wh-clauses a. Who Sandor photographed b. Where he developed the film c. What they shot at him with is fantastic to the kids. d. How much he was paid for the negatives e. Why he wants to write it all up (2) Disjunctive wh-clauses a. Who Sandor photographed b. Where he developed the film c. What they shot at him with is a mystery to the kids. d. How much he was paid for the negatives e. Why he wants to write it all up (3) a. Who – Harold and Mae – Sandor photographed is fantastic. b. Who Sandor photographed – Harold and Mae – is fantastic. c. ?Who – Harold or Mae – Sandor photographed is fantastic. d. ? Who Sandor photographed – Harold or Mae – is fantastic. (4) a. *Who – Harold and Mae – Sandor photographed is a mystery. b. * Who Sandor photographed – Harold and Mae – is a mystery. c. Who – Harold or Mae West – Sandor photographed is a mystery. d. Who Sandor photographed – Harold or Mae – is a mystery. (5) Sandor photographed Harold or Mae. (6) ? That Sandor photographed Harold or Mae is fantastic.