漢語Wh-條件式在別的語言中可否有（從句）親屬？

Do Chinese Wh-conditionals Have Relatives in Other Languages?

本文討論了當前對 Wh-條件式的研究中的幾個問題：(1) Wh-條件式的“有定性＂現象；(2) 把 Wh-詞處理為無定項與“新穎性＂條件的矛盾；(3) Wh-條件式真正的語義解讀。本文認為：(1) Wh-無定項位於條件式中時，它們是“獨一＂的無定項；(2) Wh-條件式是一種特殊的“話題－－陳述＂結構，並且在兩個指稱項中存在“等同＂的關係；(3) Wh-條件式可以描述單數或者複數的情景，並導致兩種不同的解讀：有定性解讀或者全稱性解讀。這兩種解讀由語境／語用決定。從類型學的角度來看，漢語 Wh-條件式和關聯關係從句 (correlatives) 在句法和語義上存在諸多相似之處。

Previous studies on Chinese wh-conditionals leave several issues unresolved. These studies fail to capture the definiteness effects in wh-conditionals, they fail to address apparent violations of the novelty condition, and they overlook some genuine readings. We propose to resolve these issues by analyzing wh-conditionals as a special instance of topic-comment structures, with an identity relation between pairs of referring expressions. Chinese wh-conditionals can refer to either a single situation or to multiple situations, leading either to a definite interpretation or to a generic interpretation, respectively. The choice between these interpretations is determined by the context/pragmatics. Typologically, Chinese wh-conditionals are linked to correlatives, both semantically and structurally.