Two types of subject inversion in Italian wh-questions

In this paper, we discuss the phenomenon of subject inversion in Italian wh-questions. Experimental evidence is provided for the distinction pointed out in Rizzi (2001) between direct questions introduced by perché ‘why’ and wh-questions introduced by other bare wh-phrases with respect to subject inversion. In particular, we show that why-questions display information-structure motivated subject inversion, while other wh-operators obligatorily require the subject to occur postverbally. Contrasting the respective focus structure, we then offer a semantic explanation of the two types of subject inversion: in why-questions a narrow focus is semantically motivated and, thus, possible, whereas in the other wh-questions the presence of a narrow focus would yield a clash in the calculation of question-answer congruence. We finally propose an implementation of this asymmetry in cartographic terms.