---
title: "Resolving Multiple Wh-Fragments — Park 2009"
description: "The paper studies \"multiple sluicing\": two wh-remnants standing alone as one utterance, as in \"Which student, with which professor?\" or \"I can't tell you…"
authors: ["Sang-Hee Park"]
year: 2009
venue: "Proceedings of the 23rd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, Volume 2"
source: "https://aclanthology.org/Y09-2001/"
licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/park-2009-resolving-multiple-wh-fragments-syntax/"
---
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# Resolving Multiple Wh-Fragments: A Syntax-Pragmatics Approach

**Authors:** Sang-Hee Park · **Year:** 2009 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the 23rd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, Volume 2 **Link:** [aclanthology.org/Y09-2001](https://aclanthology.org/Y09-2001/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) (ACL Anthology, before 2016) — summary only

[**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2115299528) OpenAlex · 2026-10-14 · [Proceedings of the 23rd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, Volume 2](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/Y09-2/) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/Y09-2001/)
- [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/Y09-2001.pdf)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2115299528)

**Authors (1)**

1. [Park, Sang-Hee](https://openalex.org/A5100675558) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0532-906X) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2028271724) · h 15 · 1224 citations · 100 works

Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The paper studies "multiple sluicing": two wh-remnants standing alone as one utterance, as in "Which student, with which professor?" or "I can't tell you who what". It compares two earlier accounts. A copy-deletion account (Park and Kang 2007) has trouble with the ungrammatical source it implies and with the remnants whose antecedent comes only in later turns. A gapping account (Nishigauchi 1998; Lasnik 2007) cannot allow embedding, a non-wh remnant, or parallel elements. The author adopts the HPSG fragment analysis of Bertomeu and Kordoni (2005), where a fragment is a non-head daughter resolved through the discourse record, and adds a subtype for multiple wh-fragments. The constraint requires exactly two wh-remnants, an empty store at the mother, and no extraction. Embedding is allowed only under factive or resolutive verbs (know, tell, discover) and is resisted under question-embedding verbs (ask, wonder). The paper is theoretical; it gives examples, not counts.

## Ideas

- I1. Count-free test set: take the paper's examples (2a), (2b), (7), (8a), (8b), (10a), (21a), (21b) and the negative cases ("*Peter ___ with Susie, and John danced with Elisabeth") and run them through the fragment handler in `world/src/qa.rs`. Pass if two wh-slots are filled from the antecedent, fail if a non-wh remnant or a parallel element is accepted.
- I2. A lexical feature `resolutive` in the dictionary (`en/src/dict.rs`): know, tell, discover, forget, guess accept a multiple-wh remnant as an object; ask, wonder, investigate, discuss do not. Keep the verb list in a BTreeMap and test the contrast in (2b) against (21b) of the paper, with a negative control on the ask/wonder class.
- I3. Label each fragment with the paper's two resolution types: semantic-structural (the antecedent's clause is still in a discourse buffer of the last k utterances) or semantic-conceptual (the referent is in the focus stack, or resolved by a script). Use the buffer length as a parameter and report how often the buffer of one turn is enough, since example (7) needs three turns.
- I4. Use the paper's distribution of remnants as a deterministic check on the fragment parser: a fragment with two wh-words is a multiple wh-fragment; with one wh-word and one name it is a gapping candidate and needs a parallel antecedent.

## For Mova

The chapters are [languages/en/29-ellipsis-word-order-information-structure.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/29-ellipsis-word-order-information-structure/) (fragments, sluicing and gapping), [languages/en/23-complementation.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/23-complementation/) (embedding under know and wonder) and [languages/en/38-dialogue-and-discourse-markers.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/38-dialogue-and-discourse-markers/) (short replies in dialogue). The code is `world/src/qud.rs` and `world/src/qa.rs` for the question under discussion and the answer to a fragment, `world/src/reader.rs` for the discourse buffer, and `en/src/dict.rs` for the verb feature. The measure is the pass rate on the paper's example set, with the negative examples counted as failures if accepted, run twice to confirm it is identical.

Topics: [Coreference resolution](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/coreference-resolution/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{park2009resolving,
  title = {{Resolving Multiple Wh-Fragments: A Syntax-Pragmatics Approach}},
  author = {Park, Sang-Hee},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation, Volume 2},
  year = {2009},
  url = {https://aclanthology.org/Y09-2001/}
}
```

- [← previous Recognizing Implicit Discourse Relations in the Penn Discourse Treebank](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/lin-2009-recognizing-implicit-discourse-relations-penn/)
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- [↑ back to papers of 2009](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2009/)

## References

11 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Bolinger, D. 1978. Asking more than one Thing at a Time. In H. Hiz, ed., Questions, pp. 107-150. Dordrecht: Reidel. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Bolinger%2C+D%2E+1978%2E+Asking+more+than+one+Thing+at+a+Time%2E+In+H%2E+Hiz%2C+ed%2E%2C+Questions%2C+pp%2E+107%2D150%2E+Dordrecht%3A+Reidel%2E)
2. Bertomeu, N. and V. Kordoni. 2005. Integrating Pragmatic Information in Grammar. An Analysis of Intersentential Ellipsis. In S. Müller, ed., Proceedings of the HPSG05 Conference. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Bertomeu%2C+N%2E+and+V%2E+Kordoni%2E+2005%2E+Integrating+Pragmatic+Information+in+Grammar%2E+An+Analysis+of+Intersentential+Ellipsis%2E+In+S%2E+M%C3%BCller%2C+ed%2E%2C+Proceedings+of+the+HPSG05+Conference%2E)
3. Ginzburg, J. and I. A. Sag. 2000. Interrogative Investigations: The Form, Meaning, and Use of English Interrogatives. Stanford: CSLI. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ginzburg%2C+J%2E+and+I%2E+A%2E+Sag%2E+2000%2E+Interrogative+Investigations%3A+The+Form%2C+Meaning%2C+and+Use+of+English+Interrogatives%2E+Stanford%3A+CSLI%2E)
4. Lasnik, H. 2007. Multiple Sluicing. A handout given in LING 819 Spring 2007. University of Maryland. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Lasnik%2C+H%2E+2007%2E+Multiple+Sluicing%2E+A+handout+given+in+LING+819+Spring+2007%2E+University+of+Maryland%2E)
5. Merchant, J. 2001. The Syntax of Silence: Sluicing, Islands, and the Theory of Ellipsis. Oxford. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Merchant%2C+J%2E+2001%2E+The+Syntax+of+Silence%3A+Sluicing%2C+Islands%2C+and+the+Theory+of+Ellipsis%2E+Oxford%2E)
6. Nishigauchi, T. 1998. ‘Multiple Sluicing’ in Japanese and the Functional Nature of Wh-Phrases. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 7, pp. 121-152. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Nishigauchi%2C+T%2E+1998%2E+%E2%80%98Multiple+Sluicing%E2%80%99+in+Japanese+and+the+Functional+Nature+of+Wh%2DPhrases%2E+Journal+of+East+Asian+Linguistics%2C+7%2C+pp%2E+121%2D152%2E)
7. Park, M.-K. and J.-M. Kang. 2007. Some Remarks on Multiple Sluicing in English. Studies in Generative Grammar, 17(1), pp. 419-434. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Park%2C+M%2E%2DK%2E+and+J%2E%2DM%2E+Kang%2E+2007%2E+Some+Remarks+on+Multiple+Sluicing+in+English%2E+Studies+in+Generative+Grammar%2C+17%281%29%2C+pp%2E+419%2D434%2E)
8. Richard, N. 2001. Movement in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Richard%2C+N%2E+2001%2E+Movement+in+Language%2E+Oxford%3A+Oxford+University+Press%2E)
9. Romero, M. 1997. Recoverability Conditions for Sluicing. In F. Corblin et al., eds., Empirical Issues in Formal Syntax and Semantics. pp. 193-216. Peter Lang: Bern. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Romero%2C+M%2E+1997%2E+Recoverability+Conditions+for+Sluicing%2E+In+F%2E+Corblin+et+al%2E%2C+eds%2E%2C+Empirical+Issues+in+Formal+Syntax+and+Semantics%2E+pp%2E+193%2D216%2E+Peter+Lang%3A+Bern%2E)
10. Takahashi, D. 1994. Sluicing in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 3, pp. 263-300. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Takahashi%2C+D%2E+1994%2E+Sluicing+in+Japanese%2E+Journal+of+East+Asian+Linguistics%2C+3%2C+pp%2E+263%2D300%2E)
11. This term is adopted from Ginzburg and Sag (2000). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=This+term+is+adopted+from+Ginzburg+and+Sag+%282000%29%2E)