Abstract
Many researchers assume that negation-sensitive elements like amwu-N-to and etten-N-to in Korean are negative polarity items (NPIs) (cf. Sells & Kim, 2006; Kim, 1999; Lee, 1995). Given previous characterizations of the differences between NPIs and negative concord items (NCIs) (cf. Watanabe, 2004), this paper demonstrates that such a binary characterization of negation-sensitive elements is inadequate to capture the full range of negation-sensitive elements in Korean. First, amwu-N-to and etten-N-to are not fully consistent with either NPI or NCI characterizations; second, they differ from each other in a number of respects. This paper proposes that there are (at least) two kinds of NCIs in Korean, and moreover places the root of the differences between the two within their morphosyntactic features. Moreover, upon reanalysis, these items are observed to fall very much in line with NCIs in languages such as Serbo-Croatian.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 31st West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics |
| Editors | Robert E. Santana-LaBarge |
| Place of Publication | Somerville, Massachusetts |
| Publisher | Cascadilla Proceedings Project |
| Pages | 466-473 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781574734621 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (31st : 2014) - Arizona Duration: 7 Feb 2013 → 9 Feb 2013 |
Conference
| Conference | West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (31st : 2014) |
|---|---|
| City | Arizona |
| Period | 7/02/13 → 9/02/13 |