Où en est tu? : A cross-linguistic approach to Quebec French polar

Où en est tu? : A cross-linguistic approach to Quebec French polar interrogatives
Annick Morin, University of Toronto
Introduction Object of curiosity for both linguists and non-linguists, the Quebec French (QF)
interrogative particle tu shows some peculiar syntactic properties, compared to interrogative
particles in other languages on the one hand, such as its position within the clause, and compared
to complex inversion in Standard French (SF) on the other hand, such as its incompatibility with
negation. I propose an analysis where tu heads a hybrid projection at the CP/IP boundary, where
it encodes a polarity feature.
Data While interrogative particles are generally clause-initial or clause-final (see Ultan 1978,
Dryer 2005), tu is post-verbal (1a). It is also restricted to root contexts (1b).
(1) a. Julie aime -tu les chats?
b. *Je me
demande si Julie aime -tu les chats.
I myself ask
if Julie likes Q the cats
Julie likes Q the cats
'Does Julie like cats?'
'I wonder if Julie likes cats.'
As shown in (2a), QF tu is incompatible with negation, unlike SF complex inversion (2b), from
which it originates (see e.g. Morin 1985, Picard 1992, Roberts 1993, Vinet 2001).
(2) a. *Julie aime -tu pas les chats? b. Julie n' aime -t -elle pas les chats?
Julie likes Q NEG the cats
Julie NEG likes Q she NEG the cats
'Does Julie not like cats?'
'Does Julie not like cats?'
The particle tu is not always incompatible with pas, however. Exclamatives such as (3a) are more
easily accepted, and utterances such as (3b), where tu pas expresses surprise, are quite common.
(3) a. C' est -tu pas effrayant!
b. Pis là, je le vois -tu pas arriver.
it is Q NEG scary
and then I him see Q NEG arrive
'It's terrible, isn't it!'
'And then, surprisingly, I see him arrive.'
Analysis The data above presents us with two puzzles: (i) Is tu a C° element, since it is limited
to root clauses, or an I° element, since it is post-verbal while the subject must precede the verb?
(ii) Why is tu incompatible with negation in questions, but not in exclamatives?
(i) Previous accounts have placed tu in C° (Vinet 2001, Morin 2009), whereas others
have placed it in I° (Noonan 1992, Rowlett 2007, Elsig 2009). I propose that tu heads a
projection with both C° and I° features, inspired by Giorgi & Pianesi's 1997 Mood/Agr
projection which was proposed to account for complementiser deletion in Italian. While
Mood/AgrP can have either an Agr specifier for speakers who accept preverbal subject or a
complementiser specifier for those who do not, I propose that the C/I projection headed by tu
always has an I specifier, which hosts the subject.
(ii) Building on work by Vinet 2001, 2004, I propose that the sequence tu pas in
exclamatives is actually a single element 'tupas', possibly the result of a reanalysis from tu pas,
or ti pas as in voilà-ti pas in (4a) below (example from Gadet 1992:83, cited in Vinet 2001:63;
my translation; on how ti became tu, see Picard 1991). As this reanalysis took place, I propose
(a) that the combination of tu and pas specialised as an exclamative marker ('tupas'), and (b) that
interrogative tu consequently acquired a [-Neg] polarity feature and is thus excluded from
negative questions. This predicts that negative questions without tu should be grammatical, a
prediction which is borne out (4b).
(4) a. Voilà -ti pas qu' on s'arrête même à Epinay!
b. Julie aime pas les chats?
there Q NEG that we stop even in Epinay
Julie likes NEG the cats
'Now we even stop in Epinay!'
'Does Julie not like cats?'
Conclusion The proposed analysis in (i) reconciles the two conflicting views with respect to the
syntactic position of tu, and the one in (ii) predicts that incompatibility between an interrogative
marker and negation lies in the featural content of the interrogative marker.
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