The Nature of Indeterminate Expressions in Chinese and Korean: Focused on Wh-phrases in Conditionals

Chung, Daeho; Park, Myung-Kwan

doi:10.30961/lr.2019.55.3.479

Lang. Res. 55(3):497-506

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2019.55.3.479

Article

The Nature of Indeterminate Expressions in Chinese and Korean: Focused on Wh-phrases in Conditionals

Daeho Chung¹, Myung-Kwan Park²^,^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Hanyang University

²Dongguk University

^*Corresponding Author : Professor, Division of English, Dongguk University, 30, 1-gil, Phil-dong-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Korea, E-mail: parkmk@dongguk.edu

ⓒ Copyright 2019 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 02, 2019 ; Revised: Nov 05, 2019 ; Accepted: Dec 26, 2019

Published Online: Dec 31, 2019

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we argue that indeterminates in so-called bare wh-conditionals of Chinese are not ordinary indefinites but wh-indefinites. Thus, they are subject to overt ATB-fashion wh-movement, with its tail copy ultimately being realized rather than being licensed via unselective binding by the universal operator, as proposed in Cheng and Huang (1996). We ascribe the co-varying interpretation between the two wh-indefinites in the two antecedent and consequent clauses to the property of the covert form of subordinate conjunction, which can only unify identically interpreted conjoined elements. On the other hand, Korean wh-indefinites are not subject to overt wh-movement but enter into Agree with the Q marker for their licensing. Thus, in the Korean counterpart of bare wh-conditionals, the wh-indefinite in the antecedent clause is referred back to by the anaphoric expression in the subsequent clause that serves as an E-type pronoun, such as a demonstrative (plus the wh-indefinite) or a null argument. It is to be underscored that, owing to the lack of overt wh-movement, the two wh-indefinites in Korean cannot be anaphorically linked via ATB wh-movement.

Keywords: indeterminates; bare wh-conditional; (c)overt wh-movement; ATB wh-movement; co-varying; subordinating conjunction

References

Abe, J. (2017). Wh-in-situ licensing. Unpublished manuscript .

Aoun, J., & Li, Y-H. A. (1993). Syntax of scope. Cambridge: MIT Press .

Beck, S. (1997). Wh-constructions and transparent logical form. Neuphilologische Fakultat Tubingen .

Beck, S., & Kim, S-S. (1997). On wh- and operator scope in Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 6(4), 339-384 .

Bruening, B. (2007). Wh-in-situ does not correlate with wh-indefinites or question particles. Linguistic Inquiry, 38, 139-166 .

Bruening, B., & Tran, T. (2006). Wh-conditionals in Vietnamese and Chinese: Against unselective binding. In Z. Anti'c et al. (Eds.), Berkeley Linguistics Society (BLC), 3, 49-60. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/bls.v32i1.3440 .

Cheng, L. L-S. & Huang, C-T. J. (1996). Two types of donkey sentences. Natural Language Semantics 4(2), 121-163. doi:10.1007/BF00355411 .

Cheung, C. C-H. (2006). The syntax and semantics of bare conditionals in Chinese. In E. Puig-Waldmuller (Ed.), Sinn und Bedeutung (SuB) 11, 150-164 .

Cheung, C. C-H. (2007). Move or not move? A case study of wh-conditionals in Mandarin. In E. Elfner and M. Walkow (Eds.), Proceedings of the 37th Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 37), Vol. 1, 153-164. Amherst: GLSA .

10.

Choe, J. W. (1987). LF-movement and pied-piping. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, 348-353 .

11.

Crain, S., & Luo, Q-P. (2011). Identity and definiteness in Chinese wh-conditionals. In I. Reich et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Sinn & Bedeutung 15, pp. 165-179. Universaar - Saarland University Press: Saarbrücken, Germany .

12.

Chierchia, G. (2000). Chinese conditionals and the theory of conditionals. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 9(1), 1-54 .

13.

Dayal, V. (1996). Locality in WH quantification: Questions and relative clauses in hindi. (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 62.) Dordrecht: Kluwer .

14.

de Vries, M. (2009). On multidominance and linearization. Biolinguistics, 3, 344-403 .

15.

Gu, C. (2009). Maximalization and the definite reading in mandarin wh-conditionals. Paper presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 40), November 13-15, 2009. Cambridge: MIT .

16.

Heim, I. (1982). The semantics of definite and indefinite noun phrases (Ph. D. dissertation). University of Massachusetts at Amherst .

17.

Huang, C-T. J. (1982). Logical relations in chinese and the theory of grammar. (Ph.D. dissertation.). MIT .

18.

Huang, C-T. J. (2018). Analyticity and wh-conditionals as unselective binding par excellence. A handout read at BLCU in Peking, China .

19.

Ko, H. (2005). Syntax of why-in-situ-Merge into [Spec,CP] in the overt syntax. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 23, 867-916 .

20.

Lasnik, H., & Saito, M. (1984). On the nature of proper government. Linguistic Inquiry, 15, 235-289 .

21.

Lasnik, H., & Saito, M. (1992). Move α: Conditions on its application and output. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .

22.

Leung, T-C. (2006). On the matching requirement in correlatives. Ms. USC .

23.

Liu, M. (2016). Mandarin wh-conditionals as interrogative conditionals. Proceedings of SALT, 26, 814-835 .

24.

Liu, M. (2018b). Proposal-B: wh-conditionals as interrogative dependency. Varieties of Alternatives, 153-170 .

25.

Liu, M. (2018a). Proposal-A: wh-conditionals as interrogative conditionals. Varieties of Alternatives,135-152 .

26.

Longobardi, G. (1987). Extraction from NP and the proper notion of head government. In Alessandra Giorgi and Giuseppe Longobardi (Eds.), The Syntax of Noun Phrases, pp. 57-112 .

27.

Munn, A. (1993). Topics in the Syntax and Semantics of Coordinate Structures (Ph. D. dissertation), University of Maryland, College Park .

28.

Munn, A. (1999). On the identity requirement of ATB movement. Natural Language Semantics, 7, 421-425 .

29.

Nishigauchi, T. (1986). Quantification in synta (Ph. D. dissertation). University of Massachusetts .

30.

Nunes, J. (2004). Linearization of chains and sideward movement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .

31.

Pan, V. J. (2011). ATB-topicalization in Mandarin Chinese: an intersective operator analysis. Linguistic Analysis, 37, 231-272 .

32.

Park, M-K. (2010). Derivation via external remerge and linearization in ATB, RNR and PG constructions of English. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 35, 613-634 .

33.

Park, M-K. (2019). Reconsidering null arguments in East Asian languages: Null arguments as anaphoric definites. Ms., Dongguk University .

34.

Saito, M. (2017). Japanese wh-phrases as operators with unspecified quantificational force. Language and Linguistics, 18(1), 1-35 .

35.

Suh, C-M. (2008). Revisiting -ko-class Q markers WH-agreeing with wh-phrases in embedded sentences. In Y. H. Kim (Ed.), Syntax & Semantics of Wh-Interrogatives, 133-178 .

36.

Tsai, W-t. D. (1994). On Economizing the theory of A-bar dependencies (Ph. D. dissertation). MIT .

37.

Yun, Jiwon. 2019. Meaning and prosody of wh-indeterminates in Korean. Linguistic Inquiry 50, 630-647 .

38.

Watanabe, A. (1992). Subjacency and S-strucgture movement of wh-in-situ. Jouranl of East Asian Linguistics, 1(3), 255-291 .