Questioning Particles: A Cross-Linguistic Approach to Quebec French Polar Interrogatives

This thesis examines the syntactic properties of the polar interrogative particle tu in Quebec French. Its goals are to better understand the role of tu in the grammar of Quebec French and to contribute to the study of interrogative particles in general. Three questions are posed which are intended to serve as a guide through the discussion: (i) whether tu is indeed an interrogative particle (or merely a variant of French complex inversion, its source construction), (ii) whether tu is “adapting” to the grammar of Quebec French or vice versa, and (iii) to what extent interrogative particles “retain” properties from their diachronic source element. Interrogative particles are typically either clause-initial or clause-final (Bencini 2003, Dryer 2005b, among others), and often originate from a negative or a disjunctive morpheme. However, tu is clause-internal and it developed from a subject clitic. Yet, it is argued that tu shares properties with interrogative particles in unrelated languages, which it does not share with its source construction. I claim that tu is indeed an interrogative particle, and I conclude that it is “adapting” to the grammar of Quebec French to some extent, for instance in keeping its postverbal position, but that the grammar of Quebec French is also “adapting” to it to some extent, in that the particle is acquiring interrogative particle properties such as an incompatibility with wh-elements and negation. I propose an analysis which reflects this tension, where tu heads a syncretic projection with both C°- and I°-features. The third question is discussed briefly, though answering it will have to await future work. It is predicted that an interrogative particle will develop within a given grammar only if it can occupy a C°-position in the syntactic tree.Ph.D