Superiority and Focus Movement

Superiority and Focus Movement

  This squib examines a certain aspect of Superiority effects in Serbo-Croatian (SC). It is well known that SC short-distance multiple wh-questions are exempt from Superiority while SC long-distance multiple wh-questions are not. Bo？kovi？ (1997, 1999a,b, 2002a) provides an insightful analysis of this phenomena. He argues that in short-distance questions, wh-elements can undergo focus movement overtly, which he assumes is immune to Superiority. However, it is not clear why the same derivation cannot apply to long-distance questions. This squib attempts to provide a direction toward resolving this issue, based on the possibility of reconstruction of elements that undergo focus movement (cf. Rooth 1985).