An Anti-contiguity Approach to Tano in-situ Interrogative Distribution

This chapter develops the Anti-contiguity proposal based on the distribution of wh - in-situ in Krachi, Bono, Wasa, and Asante Twi. Embedded wh - in-situ is only allowed in Krachi and Bono. The chapter argues that a prohibition on wh - items phrasing with overt C at the level of Intonational Phrase (iP) underpins this distributional asymmetry. In these languages, the acceptability of embedded wh - in-situ correlates with the prosodic status of the immediately containing clause—embedded clauses are independent iPs in Krachi and Bono, but not in Wasa and Asante Twi. Thus, iP boundaries divide C from embedded interrogatives in Krachi and Bono, preventing the items from forming iP constituents. No such boundaries intervene between embedded C and wh - in Wasa and Asante Twi, yielding prosodic mappings in which the items phrase together. Consequently, embedded wh - in-situ is prosodically licit in Krachi and Bono, but not in Wasa or Asante Twi.