The extraction of direct objects out of indirect yes/no questions in Russian

Anastasiia Voznesenskaia
Lomonosov Moscow State University

Abstract. This paper examines island effects in Russian indirect yes/no questions formed with the li particle. Such questions have two possible configurations: the enclitic (li) follows either the clause predicate or a preposed focused element. In this study an experiment was conducted to see (i.) how the configuration affects the acceptability of moving DOs out of indirect questions; (ii.) how the type of A′-movement affects the acceptability of moving DOs out of indirect questions. The results show that both factors are significant.

Keywords: weak islands, li questions, yes/no questions, wh-island, experimental syntax

For citation: Voznesenskaia A. The extraction of direct objects out of indirect yes/no questions in Russian. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2020. Vol. 3, iss. 2. Pp. 11–28.