Multi-Faceted Aspects of Reconstruction in Korean Scrambling

Park, Myung-Kwan

doi:10.30961/lr.2021.57.1.87

Lang. Res. 57(1):87-109

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2021.57.1.87

Article

Multi-Faceted Aspects of Reconstruction in Korean Scrambling

Myung-Kwan Park ¹ ^, ^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Dongguk University

^†Corresponding Author: Myung-Kwan Park Professor Department of English Dongguk University 30, Phildong-ro 1-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, 04620, Korea E-mail: parkmk@dongguk.edu

ⓒ Copyright 2021 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: Mar 01, 2021 ; Revised: Apr 03, 2021 ; Accepted: Apr 07, 2021

Published Online: Apr 30, 2021

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates reconstruction in Korean long-distance scrambling. Saito (1989) argues that in long-distance scrambling, a wh-phrase is undone or radically reconstructed to its underlying position. In this paper, adapting Keine and Poole’s (2018) analysis for the reconstruction of long-distance scrambled universal noun phrases (NPs) and indefinite NPs in Hindi-Urdu, we use Binding Condition (C) as a probe to test the validity of Saito’s (ibid.) thesis regarding the reconstruction of such NPs as well as wh-phrases in Korean. We show that both universal quantificational phrases and wh-phrases in Korean have their quantificational and wh-licensing element/features reconstructed, with the rest of the parts staying in their surface positions and thus being outside the scope of Condition (C). On the contrary, all the indefinite NPs in the language at issue can optionally undergo radical/total reconstruction, thus interacting with Condition (C).

Keywords: reconstruction; undoing, Condition (C); scope interpretation; wh- licensing

References

Ahn, H.-D., R. Martin, & K. Tajima. (1990). On the proper treatment of scrambling. In Proceedings of Formal Linguistic Society of Mid-America (pp. 1-17, 1). Illinois .

Ahn, H.-D. & S. Cho. (2019). On scrambling and reconstruction. Language and Information Society, 37(2), 259-286 .

Agüero-Bautista, C. (2007). Diagnosing cyclicity in sluicing. Linguistic Inquiry, 38(3), 413-443 .

Bruening, B. & E. A. Khalaf. (2019). No argument-adjunct asymmetry in reconstruction for Binding Condition C. Linguistic Inquiry, 55, 247-276 .

Choi, K. (2013). Remarks on the Korean third-person referential expression 'ku'. Studies in Generative Grammar, 23(2), 527-558 .

Cho, J.-H. (1994). Scrambling in Korean: Crossover, reconstruction and binding theory (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Connecticut .

Choi, Y. S. (2004). Reconstruction, weak crossover, and binding in Korean scrambling: Some theoretical implications. Eoneohak, 12(2), 185-206 .

Cinque, G. (1990). Types of A'-dependencies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .

Cresti, D. (1995). Extraction and reconstruction. Natural Language Semantics, 3(1), 79-122 .

10.

Fox, D. (1995). Economy and scope. Natural Language Semantics, 3, 283-341 .

11.

Fox, D. (1999). 1999. Reconstruction, binding theory, and the interpretation of chains. Linguistic Inquiry, 30, 157-196 .

12.

Fox, D. (2000). Economy and Semantic Interpretation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .

13.

Freidin, R. (1986). Fundamental issues in the theory of binding. In B. Lust (ed.), Studies in the acquisition of anaphora (pp. 151-188). Dordrecht: Reidel .

14.

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

15.

Kang, M.-Y. (1988). Topics in Korean syntax: Phrase structure, variable binding and movement (Doctoral dissertation). MIT, Cambridge, Mass .

16.

Keine, S. & E. Poole. (2018). Interpreting long scrambling in Hindi-Urdu. Ms., University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles .

17.

Kim Lee, R. (1993). Reconstruction and the checking theory. Language Research, 29(4), 567-587 .

18.

Lasnik, H. (1998). Some reconstruction riddles. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, 5(1), 83-98 .

19.

Lebeaux, D. (1988). Language acquisition and the form of grammar (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Massachusetts, Amherst .

20.

Lebeaux, D. (1991). Relative clauses, licensing and the nature of derivations. In S. Rothstein & M. Speas (Eds.), Phrase structure, heads and licensing (Syntax and Semantics 25). New York: Academic Press .

21.

Lebeaux, D. (1998). Where does the binding theory apply? Technical Report, NEC Research Institute, NEC .

22.

Lebeaux, D. (2009). Where does the binding theory apply? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .

23.

Lee, Y.-S. (1994). Scrambling as case-driven movement. Studies in Generative Grammar, 4, 495-533 .

24.

Longobardi, G. (1991). Extraction from NP and the proper notion of head government. In A. Giorgi & G. Longobardi, (Eds.), The syntax of noun phrases (pp. 57-112). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .

25.

Mahajan, A. (1990). The A/A-bar distinction and movement theory (Ph.D. dissertation). MIT, Cambridge, MA .

26.

Mayr, C. & B. Spector. (2010). Not too strong! Generalizing the scope economy condition. In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung (pp. 305-321, 14). Vienna .

27.

Murasugi, K. & M. Saito. (1992). Quasi-adjuncts as sentential arguments. In Proceedings of the Western Conference on Linguistics (pp. 240-250, 5). California .

28.

Oka, T.. (1989). On the SPEC of IP. Ms., MIT .

29.

van Riemsdijk, H. & E. Williams. (1981). NP-Structure. The Linguistic Review 1, 171-217 .

30.

Romero, M. (1998). Focus and reconstruction effects in Wh-phrases (Doctoral dissertation). University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA .

31.

Reinhart, T. (1976). The syntactic domain of anaphora (Ph.D. dissertation). MIT .

32.

Rullmann, H. (1995) Maximality in the semantics of Wh-constructions (Ph.D. dissertation). University of Massachusetts at Amherst .

33.

Saito, M. (1985). Some asymmetries in Japanese and their theoretical implications (Ph.D. dissertation). MIT .

34.

Saito, M. (1989). Scrambling as semantically vacuous A'-movement. In Baltin and A. Kroch (Eds.), Alternative conceptions of phrase structure (pp. 182-200). Chicago: University of Chicago Press .

35.

Saito, M. (1992). Long distance scrambling in Japanese. Journal of East-Asian Linguistics, 1, 69-118 .

36.

Tada, H. (1990). Scrambling(s). Ms., workshop on Japanese syntax. Ohio State University .

37.

Zimmermann, T. E. (1993). On the proper treatment of opacity in certain verbs. Natural Language Semantics, 1(2), 149-179 .