The Study of Wh-words Syntactic Movement in the Middle Persian Based on the Clausal Typing Hypothesis, A Study Based on Generative Grammar))

In this study the syntactic movement of wh-words and the existence of question particle in the wh-questions and yes-no questions of the middle Persian are studied based on the Cheng's (1991,1997) "Clausal Typing Hypothesis" and Baker's (1970) works. Based on the Clausal Typing Hypothesis of the Cheng (1991, 1997), only languages that have question particle in the clause-initial position of the yes-no questions allow the wh-word to have syntactic movement and the languages that lacks initial yes-no question particles have no syntactic wh-movement. In this study, the wh-words in the middle Persian are introduced and their distributions in different sentences are studied. This paper is done based on two questions: How is the quality of wh-movement in the middle Persian sentences based on the Cheng's (1991,1997) "Clausal Typing Hypothesis” and the second one is about the existence and distribution of wh-words and question particles in the middle Persian sentences. Considering these questions and the works of Cheng's (1991,1997), the results of this study are in line with the "Clausal Typing Hypothesis" and show that the middle Persian have no initial yes-no particle and there is no wh-word syntactic movement in the interrogative sentences.