LEFT PERIPHERY AND FEATURE CHECKING OF WH-QUESTIONS IN TAO TE CHING

The author of this paper deals with wh-questions in the three most popular versions of Tao Te Ching from the perspective of cartographic theory and checking theory. The topography of CP in the left periphery of wh-questions in Tao Te Ching only partly supports Rizzi's split CP hypothesis with some slight difference as shown in the following hierarchical order: Force Topic Interrogation Focus IP. Feature checking of [+wh] feature in wh-questions obeys the Interrogative Feature Attraction Hypothesis, while [+Foc] feature checking requires the object wh-word to move to the front of the verb or the preposition, and [+Top] feature checking also requires the relevant constituents to move to the spec TopP position to check off the strong [+Top] feature of the head. The interaction of interrogation, focus and topic is in need of further research.