Transformations vs. alternations: the fronting illusion in content questions

International audience Cross-linguistically, interrogative phrases in content questions typically either occur at the beginning of the sentence or in the same position as corresponding non-interrogative phrases (cf. Dryer 2013). The two options are usually described in terms of fronting of interrogative phrases and of their remaining in situ, respectively. The term fronting reflects the assumption made in transformational syntactic frameworks that the surface constituent order with a sentence-initial interrogative is generated from the underlying syntactic structure where the interrogative is in situ. The latter underlying structure is furthermore usually assumed to be universal.Using data from Bantu and wider Benue-Congo languages, I argue that this universalist transformational view of synchronic word order alternations is untenable. In particular, I use the data of these languages to demonstrate that the word order alternation that synchronically may be described in terms of fronting of an interrogative out of its in-situ position, as in examples (1a) and (1b) with zá ‘who?’ from the Cameroonian Bantu language Eton, in reality is an outcome of a historical change in the opposite direction, that can be referred to as in-situing. The main line of argument for the validity of this scenario is that interrogatives such as Eton zá ‘who?’ clearly go back to a clause-level constituent interrogative construction used sentence-initially as a part of a larger cleft construction, viz. something like ‘It is which one that P?’ (cf. Author 2009, 2022). In the diachronic process of in-situing, this erstwhile clause-level construction was first univerbated and deranked into a nominal expression, which allowed for it to be used in situ in constructions restricted to nominal expressions, such as the post-verbal (non-subject) argument construction. In languages such as Eton, where both the sentence-initial and in-situ use of the relevant interrogatives are possible, the diachronic process of in-situing has not been completed, resulting in the illusion of a synchronic process of fronting. The general tendency in the languages of the area is for the in-situing change to result in exclusively in-situ use of erstwhile sentence-initial constituent interrogative constructions. The in-situing change itself is driven by the rigidity of the constituent order typical for languages of Northern Sub-Saharan Africa in general.Eton (Benue-Congo, Bantu A71; adapted from Van de Velde 2008:329)(1)a.záúꜜyɛ́námákíd?záù-H-jɛ́n-Hámákídwho?2SG-PST-see-NONFINALLOCmarketb.ùyɛ́nzáámákíd?ù-H-jɛ́n-Hzáámákíd2SG-PST-see-NONFINALwho?LOCmarket‘Whom did you see at the market?’References:Dryer, Matthew S. 2013. Position of interrogative phrases in content questions. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. wals.info de Velde, Mark L.O. 2008. A grammar of Eton. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.