ABSTRACT
There are two well-known ways to circumvent, at least partially, restrictions on wh-dependencies: making the wh-phrase referential (D-linked) and using a resumptive pronoun instead of a gap. The most common analyses of these phenomena treat the referentiality effect as essentially a matter of grammar and the resumption effect as essentially a processing strategy. This chapter argues that the true situation is exactly the reverse. Referentiality allows for the dependency to be processed more easily but does not affect grammaticality per se, while resumptive pronouns are a grammatical option in English on a par with gaps. This perspective on wh-dependencies has a number of empirical advantages regarding the effects of referentiality and the use of resumptives in islands and non-islands. Overall, the analysis here suggests that languages make use of the means available to them to resolve wh-dependencies, without additional stipulations for referentiality or resumption.
