COMPLEMENTIZERS AND WH CONSTRUCTIONS IN MODERN BULGARIAN

This dissertation is a generative syntactic study of WH constructions and other complement types in Modern Standard Bulgarian, with emphasis on the implications of these Bulgarian constructions for the treatment of COMP and WH constructions in Universal Grammar.;In spite of apparent multiple WH filling, COMP cannot contain a WH word and a complementizer, nor more than one complementizer. This fact is accounted for by treating complementizers as the surface "spelling" of empty COMP. Bulgarian has three complementizers, dali, deto, and ce, each of which is the realization of a particular COMP type; +WH (interrogative), -WH (relative), or 0 (unmarked), respectively. Some other clause particles are examined and shown not to be complementizers.;WH Movement is unbounded rather than successive cyclic in Bulgarian; the major arguments for this come from the interaction of multiple WH filling of COMP with "island" conditions. The analysis of WH Movement as a movement rule is motivated in part by differences between two types of relativization. Deto relatives, which contain no WH word but instead a complementizer and an optional pronoun, behave quite differently from WH word relative clauses in ways explainable in terms of differences between movement and non-movement rules. Both types of relativization, as well as questioning, are subject to a crossover constraint on binding by a (+OR-)WH item across a COMP with the same (+OR-)WH marking.;Several kinds of free relative clauses are examined and an explanation of the "matching effect" is proposed. Comparative and exclamative clauses are briefly considered. A short sketch of word order and other relevant aspects of Bulgarian syntax is provided as background for the discussion of WH constructions and complementation.;A detailed investigation of WH questions and relative clauses leads to the conclusion that WH words are in COMP in all WH constructions, including free relatives. In both multiple questions and multiple relatives, all of the WH words must be fronted, and there is some evidence that they are all in COMP. If true, this means that multiple WH words do not c-command their traces.