Question Embedded Phrase (QembP)

♦ In main clauses Focus and Wh-elements cannot co-occur (see FocusP, and IntP for items like perché 'why'). In Embedded questions, the co-occurence is ''at least marginally possible in the order Focus – Wh'' (Rizzi & Bocci forthcoming). Evidence from Italian in (1):
 
(1)    a.           ?Mi domando A GIANNI che cosa abbiano detto, non a Piero
                       ‘I wonder TO GIANNI what they said, not to Piero’
 
        b.            * Mi domando che cosa A GIANNI abbiano detto, non a Piero’
                       ‘I wonder what TOP GIANNI they said, not to Piero’

(Italian, Rizzi & Bocci, 2016 – 27)

♦ Italian allows for the presence of a position dedicated to wh-elements only in embedded clauses,the position is lower than the contrastive Focus position. Lower, but not adjacent, as some adverbials can be interpolated, as illustrated in (2):

(2)      ? Mi domando A GIANNI, ieri, che cosa abbiano detto, non a Piero
           ‘I wonder TO GIANNI, yesterday, what they said, not to Piero’

(Italian, Rizzi & Bocci, 2016 – 27)

 
♦ Qemb seems one of the root/non-root asymmetries involving the left periphery of the clause (Haegeman 2012).

Main References : Haegeman (2012), Rizzi L. & Bocci G. (2016)