Transparent Free Relatives: Their Structure and Derivation

In this paper, I attempt to account for some peculiar properties of Transparent Free Relatives (TFRs) in English. My proposal is that a wh-element forms a doublet with the content kernel (COK), and that it moves to its position for its realization as what, thereby making the whole TFR clause become an extended local domain of the COK. This notion of extension is applied to explain some intriguing phenomena involving agreement, binding, NPI licensing, wh-extraction of the COK across the TFR boundary that look puzzling to the previous analyses. The main content of the proposal is that the features of the COK are inherited by the underspecified wh-element in the doublet and these features of the COK are carried along by this raised wh-element, resulting in the extension of the local domain of the COK.