On the Syntax of French Qu’est-ce que Clauses and Related Constructions

Abstract In the Romance domain, French is unique in having homophonous interrogative, exclamative and relative constructions sharing the same Que+est+ce+que string. The main goal of this article is to shed light on this enigmatic sequence. It will do so by investigating the rarely studied syntax of que, combien and ce que exclamatives and relatives and will show that the sequence initial Que in their Que+est+ce+que counterparts is the covert duplicate of the subsequent exclamative and relative (ce+)que clauses. The article extends the main features of this analysis to all Qui, quand, où, …+est-ce que questions by showing that the ce que string following est in such questions is to be analysed, despite the spelling conventions of Modern French, as the complex complementiser of headless relatives. As the article proceeds, various questions concerning the syntax of similar clauses in other Romance languages are raised and the uniqueness of French is argued to be tied to the defective properties of est in these three constructions. Finally, its appendix extends and shows the fruitfulness of Kayne's ideas concerning the ce que complex determiner.