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The resumptive question phrase construction
quickinfo

This construction features two instances of the question phrase, one at the beginning of the superordinate clause and one at the beginning of the subordinate clause. An example is provided below:

1
Wa tinkst wa't ik sjoen ha?
who think.2SG who.that I seen have
Who do you think that I have seen?
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The examples are best in case the questioned constituent contains a wh-word and nothing else. So the following sounds quite well:

2
Wat tinkst wat ik foar boeken sjoen ha?
what think.2SG what I for books seen have
What kind of books do you think that I have seen?

The example above sounds much worse if the constituent wat foar boeken what kind of books as a whole gets doubled:

3
*Wat foar boeken tinkst wat foar boeken ik sjoen ha?
what for books think.2SG what for books I seen have
What kind of books do you think that I have seen?

A possessor phrase does not sound right either, if it is doubled:

4
a. *Wa syn hynder tinkst wa syn hynder (dat) ik sjoen ha?
who his horse think.2SG who his horse that I seen have
Whose horse do you think that I have seen?
b. Wa syn hynder tinkst dat ik sjoen ha?
who his horse think.2SG that I seen have
Whose horse do you think that I have seen?

It seems that doubling the phrase as a whole improves if the complementiser as if is added:

5
?Wa syn hynder tinkst wa syn hynder as ik sjoen ha?
who his horse think.2SG who his horse if I seen have
Whose horse do you think that I have seen?

Adposition Phrases (PPs) seem grammatical as well, as is illustrated below:

6
Mei wa tinkst mei wa as ik praat ha?
with whom think.2SG with whom if I talked have
With whom do you think that I have talked?

It remains to be seen whether examples such as the above can be attested or whether a systematic survey bears out the judgments reported here; not everybody shares the judgments reported above.

Embedded clauses in the form of a V2 clause can enter the single question phrase construction:

7
a. Wa tinkst wa ha ik sjoen?
who think.2SG who have I seen
Who do you think that I have seen?
b. Wat tinkst wat haw ik foar boeken sjoen?
what think.2SG what have I for books seen
What kind of books do you think that I have seen?
c. ?Wa syn hynder tinkst wa syn hynder ha ik sjoen?
who his horse think.2SG who his horse have I seen
Whose horse do you think that I have seen?

Perhaps the last example in (7) involves a mere repetition, but then we are in need of criteria distinguishing syntactically licensed repetitions from mere repetition.

The resumptive topicalisations in (8) do not sound bad either:

8
Dy hie ik net tocht datst dy dêr moetsje soest
that had I not thought that.2SG that there meet would.2SG
Him, I had not thought that you would meet him

It is possible to have V2 in the embedded clause, as in the following example, with the topic pronun at the beginning of the embedded clause:

9
Dy hie ik net tocht, dy soest dêr moetsje
that had I not thought that would.2SG there meet
Him, I had not thought that you would meet him there

By and large resumptive question formation is on a par with resumptive topicalisation. Both are allowed in Verb-Final and Verb-Second constructions. Resumptive topicalisation is not allowed with an embedded V1 clause:

10
?*Dy hie ik net tocht, soest dy dêr moetsje
that had I not thought would.2SG that there meet
Him, I had not thought that you would meet him there
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