Wh-copying and wh-scope marking by External Merge

This paper develops a syntactic analysis for long-distance interrogatives featuring multiple overt wh-elements in a single wh-dependency, namely wh-copying and wh-scope marking interrogatives in varieties of German and Dutch. Based on the analysis of control in Chomsky (2021a, b), we propose that the structures under investigation represent cases where Internal Merge of an element is prevented (despite Internal Merge ordinarily being the most economical option) – specifically, a wh-phrase cannot reach its scope position via Internal Merge because it enters into a labeling configuration and is frozen in place. Higher wh-phrases enter the derivation independently via External Merge, and are interpreted as occurrences (copies) of the same phrase via the rule of FormCopy. Issues relating to parametric variation in the availability of (patterns of) wh-copying/scope-marking are also addressed.