Wh-duplication in Italian Sign Language (LIS)

This paper focuses on those wh-questions in Italian Sign Language (LIS) featuring two lexically identical wh-signs. We shouw that wh1 (the first wh in linear order) is shorter than wh2 (the second wh in linear order). However, there is evidence that this different duration is due to a phrase final lenghening, as wh2 occupies a sentence-final position. We therefore conclude that the two wh signs are identical full copies: one sitting in Spec, CP on the right in LIS and the other one sitting in Spec, FocusP on the left. We show that this construction yields a (focused) cleft question interpretation and we speculate that both copies are phonologically realized because the wh sign in Spec, CP and Spec,FocusP are the heads of two distinct chains. Finally, we distinguish identical wh-duplication from 'improper' wh-duplicaiton, namely cases where one of the two wh-elements is what we call Q-artichoke, an underspecified interrogative sign only surfacing in wh-questions.