Japanese/Korean Linguistics

This paper investigates Coordinated Wh-Questions (CWQs) in Japanese, in which wh-phrases with distinct grammatical roles or syntactic categories are conjoined. Since such elements cannot be base-generated in a single position, CWQs raise the question of what is coordinated. Boskovic (2024) argues that a wh-indeterminate system is a prerequisite for wh-coordination, predicting that Japanese should allow it; existing accounts, however, derive Japanese CWQs from coordination of larger constituents such as CPs or vPs (Ishii 2014, Kasai 2016). I argue instead that Japanese CWQs involve genuine wh-coordination in a monoclausal structure. I further show that Japanese sluicing deletes the lowest complementizer Fin while retaining the Force head ka, indicating that Merchant's (2001) Sluicing-COMP generalization targets the lowest complementizer. Coordinated Sluicing accordingly divides into two subtypes: monoclausal wh-coordination when the first conjunct lacks ka, and biclausal multiple sluicing when it contains ka.