On Wh-Movement and Wh-in-situ?

This paper will argue that the scopal feature [Q] only lies in wh-words in English while it resides in both wh-words and an interrogative C in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. The absence of the scopal feature [Q] in an interrogative C in English motivates wh-movement of a wh-word to Spec,CP by the need of scope marking of it rather than by the need of wh-feature checking of it. On the other hand, the presence of the scopal feature [Q] in an interrogative C in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese will make it unnecessary for a wh-word to move to Spec,CP; the scope of the wh-word in such languages is determined by the valuation of the probe u[Q] in an interrogative C rather than by the checking of the goal [Q] in a wh-word. Under this approach, the wh-feature checking will take place in situ in Korean/Japanese/Chinese (i.e., for the identification of a wh-word as WH), as well as in English (i.e., for the identification of C as a +wh+Q), by means of Agree.