Vocative, where do you hang out in wh-interrogatives?

Abstract

Abstract This paper provides new insights into the analysis of vocative structures that co-occur with a sentence by bridging two previously independent domains of linguistic research: wh-interrogatives and vocatives. More specifically, we investigate in which positions Spanish speakers accept vocatives in wh-interrogatives introduced by different wh-phrases. The results of an acceptability judgment task indicate that our participants highly accept initial and final vocatives in all wh-interrogatives. For middle vocatives, the results differ across wh-phrases. While the participants accept middle vocatives in wh-interrogatives introduced by por qué (‘why’) and d-linked wh-phrases, they reject them in bare wh-interrogatives. These findings require a modification of the syntactic analysis of vocatives. Initial vocatives are placed above ForceP, while middle and final vocatives are analyzed in two different positions, in an upper and a lower VocaddrP in the left periphery.