Focus and wh-Questions in Mongolian

Abstract

In this paper we propose an event-anaphor based analysis of Mongolianfocus constructions and wh-questions. Mongolian has two types of corresponding wh-question-answer paradigms involving either in situ or ex situ foci and wh-words. The apparent difference between these constructions involves exhaustiveness on the focus-side and presuppositionality on the question-side. The analysis, however, reveals that both contrasts amount to the presence or absence of an anaphoric event argument. We provide a large set of data that confirm the predictions of the analysis.