Wh-Clustering and the role of coordination in Italian multiple wh-questions 1 Ciro Greco University of Ghent 1 The phenomenon Multiple coordinated questions are a widespread phenomenon across languages. In Italian, it is possible to form multiple wh-questions in which two (or sometimes more) wh-phrases appear on the left of the sentence, obligatorily separated by a coordinative head ‘e’: (1) a. Vorrei sapere quali professori e quali studenti Want.1SG.COND know.INF which professors and which students sono arrivati in ritardo. are arrived late ‘I would like to know which professors and which students arrived late.’ b. Vorrei sapere dove e come hanno suonato. Want.1SG.COND know.INF where and how have.3PL played ‘I would like to know where and how they played.’ In this paper, I will investigate the syntax of Italian coordinated questions, showing that they display some previously unnoticed properties that constitute a challenge for the main existing approaches to these kinds of structures. I will argue that the Italian empirical pattern can be accounted for adopting an alternative derivational process, which I call Wh- Clustering. This process is constituted by the construction of a coordinated interrogative phrase before entering the clausal derivation and subsequent movement of the whole coordinative structure to the complementizer layer. Moreover, I will suggest that Wh- Clustering can be traced back to language-specific properties of the left periphery that contribute in shaping the way in which wh-dependencies are formed in Italian. 2 Italian coordinated questions 2.1 Questions with circumstantial adverbials In Italian, coordinated questions are allowed with different kinds of wh-elements. The most productive structure is represented by multiple adverbial questions where two (or more) circumstantial modifiers are coordinated together: (2) a. Vorrei sapere dove *(e) come hanno suonato Want.1SG.COND know.INF where and how have.3PL played ‘I would like to know where and how they played.’ 1 Financial support for this research is provided by the Fonds Wetenschappelijk (FWO) FWOproject-2009- Odysseus-Haegeman-G091409.