Multiple wh-movement and superiority effects in Czech

Abstract

This paper examines multiple wh-movement in Czech. Rudin (1988) argues that Czech is a [-Multiply Filled Spec, CP] language in which only one wh-word appears in Spec,CP while the rest are IP-adjoined. It is argued that [-MFS] languages do not exhibit Superiority; however, recent research has shown Superiority to obtain in other [-MFS] languages such as Serbo-Croatian and Russian. I apply this research to Czech data to see if Superiority can be shown to account for the ordering of the multiply fronted wh-words. I conclude by showing that multiple wh-word order in Czech cannot be accounted for solely by the syntax. Rather, it is the complex relationship between syntactic and discoursal factors that determines wh-word order in Czech.