Japanese allows a (nonecho) wh-in-situ to be located within a compound, as exemplified by (1Q) (see, e.g., Kageyama 1993:336). Daregonomi (meaning ‘to whose taste’) in (1Q) exhibits rendaku (sequential voicing, a hallmark of Japanese compounding), by which the initial [−voice] consonant of the second noun (N2) becomes [+voice]. Furthermore, the lexical accent of the first noun (N1) shifts to the initial syllable of N2, which is again typical of Japanese compounding. Thus, [N1dáre] [N2kónomi] becomes [N [N1dare]-[N2gónomi]]. Below, lexical pitch accents are represented by acute accents.

We dub the construction in (1Q) the compound wh-question. Compound wh-questions can be responded to with sentential answers like (1A1) or fragment answers like (1A2).

Interestingly, compound wh-questions...

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