• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.1-23
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• 2004

This article reports a bi-directional interlanguage study designed to investigate the initial state of L2 acquisition with regard to English and Korean wh-questions. Based on the UG system in line with the minimalist theory, it was hypothesized that the L2 initial state is characterized by the most economical form of syntax in which no overt wh-movement to Spec-CP is assumed. Results of the early interlanguage study showed that 1) L1 Korean learners of L2 English predominantly produced wh-questions with the fronted wh-word, but without productive wh-movement to the Spec-CP position; and 2) L1 English learners of L2 Korean overwhelmingly produced wh-questions with the wh-word remaining in-situ. These results were interpreted as supporting the minimalist account of the L2 initial grammar in that no overt syntactic wh-movement were adopted in early interlanguages of both English and Korean regardless of the learner's L1.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.279-285
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• 2002

English allows conjoined wh-questions to have two different readings. The English sentence Which person does John like and Mary admire\ulcorner involves ATB movement and is understood either as single questions requiring one set of individuals that are liked by John and admired by Mary (which person x, likes (j,x) & admires (m,x)) or as coordinated wh-questions, allowing distinct individuals that John likes and Mary admires (which person x, likes (j,x) & which person y, admires (m,y)). I argue this ambiguity is explained by the two key assumptions about wh-movement in Chomsky (1995): (1) Movement is copying. (2) wh-phrases consist of a wh-element and a nominal restrictor. This yields two possible LFs for English depending on whether [Wh+nominal] or wh alone is interpreted as a variable. It is therefore natural for me to propose that number of questions understood corresponds to the number of nominal segments at LF.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Language and Information Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.394-404
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• 2007

This paper explores the nature of multiple sluicing in English, which has two or more remnant wh-phrases in clause edge position. At the beginning part of the paper we argue against Nishigauchi's (1998) and Lasnik's (2007) Gapping analysis of multiple sluicing, which says that two remnant wh-phrases each actually occupies the left and right edge of a clause, with the in-between string of words undergoing Gapping. We rather argue that multiple sluicing in English is the same kind as found in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian. In other words, multiple sluicing in English is also derived by multiple wh-fronting which otherwise does not apply. We demonstrate that some important properties of the construction noted by Lmultiple sluicing, multiple wh-movement/fronting, sluicing, TP/IP-deletion, asnik (2007) under the Gapping approach to it can be accounted for in a principled way by our proposed analysis.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.6
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• pp.143-157
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• 2000

It has been one of the puzzles in the English syntax that so called the rule of subject-auxiliary inversion (SAI) is not allowed in subject wh-movement while it is not obligatory in non-subject wh-movement in a root sentence. This asymmetry has been a puzzle since SAI itself was thought to be a part of question construction as we can observe from yes/no questions. The asymmetry gets more complicated in terms of sentence embedding, i.e no SAI is permitted in the embedded context in question. The goal of this paper is to suggest an unified analysis for this unsolved grammatical phenomena on the basis of Rizzi (1997)'s recent work. The main idea is that SAI is not a I-to-C movement but one of I-to-Focus where Focus is a functional category and its phrase is located between CP and IP. The other proposal is that Wh-movement is no more homogeneous in terms of landing site between a root and an embedded sentence: the target for a wh-phrase in the former is the Spec of FocP (Focus Phrase) but the one in the latter is the Spec of CP as the standard theory assumes. Pesetsky (l999)'s analysis is discussed and its theoretical and empirical shortages are pointed out. Its rather radical proposals such as the one that the nominative case is just an uninterpretable tense feature of DP and the other that 'that' is no longer a complementizer but an element of I(nflection) make it less acceptable in spite of the possibility that it can get rid of Case theory entirely, which would be ideal in the spirit of minimalism.

• Language and Information
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.93-110
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• 2004

This paper discloses a striking similarity between Korean/Japanese wh-NPs and Italian QPs: both categories are disallowed from LD-movement out of weak islands. This leads us to a substantial claim that wh-phrases in the former languages possibly belong to a non-D-linked category, parallel to the Italian QPs. This claim is also supported by semantic evidence: that is, in-situ wh-NPs in these languages lack covert partitivity (Kyungnam University)

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.27-35
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• 2021

This study investigated the status of the wh-island constraint in Seoul Korean. The syntactic movement of a wh-phrase out of an embedded sentence so as to have wide scope at LF is known to be invalid as it violates the wh-island constraint, but there have been studies in which such a movement was possible when the sentence is read with a wh-intonation. We conducted perceptual tests in which subjects were asked to select an answer after listening to each of the four types of interrogative sentences. Three of them were with 'Nugu-leul', which is an accusative form of the wh-phrase 'who' as well as an indefinite form. The fourth sentence contained the name of a person. 'Nugu-leul' and the noun were positioned in the same embedded sentence to see whether the subjects accepted a matrix scope interpretation of the wh-phrases. Response time was transformed to normalized log response time and checked to find any differences in the time taken to select the answers depending on different types of interrogative sentences. The results showed the subjects had a definite preference for the matrix scope interpretation for the sentences with a wh-intonation. The response time required to select the matrix scope interpretation was longer than for any other type of interrogative sentence. We concluded that the wh-island constraint in Seoul Korean is weak.

• Language and Information
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.153-169
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• 2002

In this paper I develop a mechanism of interpreting Korean “wh-phrases”. The phrases have various readings depending on where they occur and they could be ambiguous even in the same structure. Yet their readings are subject to certain restrictions. I assume that the “wh-phrases” behave like variables and that there are three quantifiers to bind the phrases; $COMP_{wh},\;COMP_{conc}$ and derivational $\exists$-quantifier. Based on the assumptions I suggest derivational quantification, which consists of three conditions. 1) A quantifier can bind only when it merges into the derivation; 2) $\exists$-quantifier accompanies 〔-OP〕 complementizer but its activation is optional; 3) an instance of quantification makes the clause opaque to other instances of quantification. Scrambling data support derivational approach and across-the-board interpretation motivates the opacity condition. The opacity condition accounts for ATB- interpretations of reflexive pronouns. It can also explain the island effect of wh-islands without adopting covert wh-movement in Korean.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.255-280
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• 2003

The present paper will argue what can be considered to be principled elements of the initial state S/sub 0/ of the Faculty of Language, which are called the Interface Condition (IC), and how far we can take the strongest minimalist thesis (SMT), which aims to offer principled explanation of language in terms of IC and the principle of efficient computation, to linguistic analysis. We will discuss implications of label-free phrase structures, required by the strong version of the Inclusiveness Condition, and possibilities of crash-free syntax, required by the condition of efficient computation. I will point out problems of Chomsky's assumption that an externally Merged expletive there is a head, which, as a probe, undergoes agreement with the goal T. I will present several advantages we obtain if we maintain A and A' distinction, and assume that wh-movement to the outer [SPEC, υ] is an A'-movement like wh-movement to [SPEC, C].

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.101-117
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• 2001

In English, whether or not wh-movement creates weak crossover effects depends upon the type of wh-phrases that cross over. A bare interrogative like who shows a typical weak crossover effect whereas which N type (e.g. which girl) and partitive type (e.g. which of these girls) wh-phrases would show mere weaker and weakest crossover effects, respectively. Previous approaches to English crossover phenomena that resort to a binary notion of specificity or D-linking cannot account for the three-way contrast the three different types of wh-phrases show. To overcome this problem, I argue in this paper that specificity should be a non-binary set-theoretic notion and propose the following subset principle and optimal binding relation: Between two lexical nominal expressions A and B, A is regarded as more specific than B iff the denotation of A comes from a more narrowly defined non-singleton set than B. Between two lexical nominal expressions A and B, if A locally binds B, then the non-singleton set from which the denotation of A comes should be a subset of the set from which the denotation of B comes (i.e. B cannot be more specific than A). The smaller the subset (i.e. the wider the specificity gap between binder and binder), the more optimal the local binding relation is. A locally binds B iff A is coindexed with B, and A c-commands B, and there is no such C that does not bind A but binds B. Finally, I show that partitivity functions to carve out a smaller subset and thus make partitive wh-phrases more specific than simple which N type wh-phrases.

• Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.103-116
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• 2004

Chomsky (2001) and Kitahara's (2002) suggestion that object shift occurs prior to movement of the νP-subject to SPEC-T is not on the right track with respect to the Merge operation. According to the Merge operation, TP is necessarily created earlier than CP. Chomsky (2001) suggests that the probe-goal relation between T and SUBJ is evaluated in the CP after it is known whether the position of as has become a trace losing its phonological content. However, the FocP is not a phase (CP). So, Chomsky (2001) and Kitahara's (2002) suggestion is not correct in the case of the movement of OBJ to the spec of Foc in English, either. The aim of this paper is to show that the νP-subject must move to SPEC- T prior to the consecutive movement of the wh-object to SPEC-C via object shift in English. This derivation obeys Chomsky's (2001) so-called probe-goal matching condition.