What would Wh-in-situ be Like in Phase Theory?

[[abstract]]This paper is an attempt to reformulate the theories on wh-constructions under the framework of phase theory. The wh-in-situ phenomena have raised several issues that have not been adequately explained. I firstly reanalyze several approaches on wh-in-situ in the phase-based approach, then point out theoretical problems, especially in terms of the violation of PIC. It is also noticed that the asymmetry between wh-arguments and wh-adjuncts also plays a crucial role to analyze wh-in-situ. This paper explores a new approach to capture the asymmetry in terms of syntactic derivation. I suggest that the distinction between the two lies in their syntactic positions which lead to a difference in the licensing process of wh-elements.[[fileno]]204_JA07_2009_v5_p1[[department]]語言學研究