Abstract

Based on data from French, Japanese and Korean, this article lays out an approach to wh-questions' intervention effects that questions the very existence of this phenomenon. It is assumed that the property that makes all the “interveners” into one natural class is their anti-given nature. Taking into account wh-questions' syntax, phonology and information structure, it is shown that although the three investigated languages vary with respect to what forces wh-fronting in the presence of an anti-given item, prosodic structure always plays a central part.