This study tries to provide an experimental explanation of a type of wh-question in North Gyeongsang Korean in which the so-called weak wh-island condition is violated. More specifically, this study concerns itself with the scope and prosody of wh-phrases in constructions with weak wh-island condition violation. The experiment carried out in this study is about the interaction between wh-scope and prosody at the syntax-phonology interface. It is shown in the paper that for wh-questions with weak wh-island violation to be produced and perceived grammatically, three conditions should be met: which include interpretation- matched prosody, D-linking, and forms of functional categories.

The purpose of this paper is to show that if ‘-ise’, ‘-se’ and ‘-i’ are treated as allomorphs. Since ‘-i’ attached to numerals and classifiers in the numeral quantifier constructions can be supposed to have adverbiality, the numerals and classifiers associated with such an element can be introduced in vP. Furthermore, we attempt to prove that nominative case marking can be deleted in the constructions. For the purpose of this paper, we investigate the analyses by several scholars on the allomorphy, finding out that ‘-i’ can be an abbreviation of ‘-ise’, a nominative case marker and affix. Within the vP, as ‘honca(se)’ functions as an adverbial phrase, if ‘seys-i(se)’ and ‘seymyeng-i(se)’ also do so, we can explain why phrases like ‘seymyeng-i’ can be in the vP. In addition, we examine nominative case ellipsis phenomenon in the light of Hong's generalization that case markers are optional to arguments in the complement position but obligatory to arguments in the spec positions, rethinking the possibility of the ellipsis of nominative case makers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contraction of Korean vowel /wi(ㅟ) + ə(ㅓ)/ through experimental phonetic method and to suggest how the pattern should be reflected in the standard pronunciation of Korean and the rules of Korean orthography. It is observed that the contraction also occurs in ‘sakwiess-’ and ‘pakkwiess-,’ like the chains of other vowels. However, neither the standard pronunciation of Korean and the rules of Korean orthography deals with the chain of /wi(ㅟ) +ə(ㅓ)/ in ‘sakwiess-’ and ‘pakkwiess-.’ We compare the pronunciation lengths of data collected through experimental phonetic research methods to see if the contraction occurs in /wi(ㅟ) + ə((ㅓ)/, and the formant values of the contracted sound of /wi(ㅟ) + ə(ㅓ)/ to those of other contracted sounds, finding out how the contr(acted sound should be pronounced and marked in phonetic symbol. In conclusion, we suggest that /wi(ㅟ) + ə(ㅓ)/ should be specified as the contraction form /jə(여)/ in the standard pronunciation of Korean and the rules of Korean orthography, like the contractions of other vowels.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distributional and functional differences among ‘caki, casin, and caki casin’ in the Korean sentences. In general, Korean reflexive ‘caki’ is known to be capable of both short-distance and long-distance binding, while ‘casin and caki casin’ seem to have a higher tendency to short-distance binding (Yang 1986, Hong 1986, Kim 2003 and others). On the other hand, it has been researched that ‘caki’ can be used to represent an antecedent such as a ‘statue’ depicting someone, but it can not be replaced by ‘casin, and caki casin’ (Lim 1987, Jackendoff 1992, Lidz 2001) In this paper, I discuss these issues in comparison with the characteristics of se-anaphor and self-anaphor in European languages. After these discussions, I will try to directly examine the examples cited in the research. Experiments were conducted with about 12 students who major in Korean language and 8 students do not, to examine whether the interpretations of the sentences in this study are correct.

Morphosyntactic and prosodic information is accessed by native speakers of North Gyeongsang Korean when interrogatives are interpreted. The present study investigates the interface between these structures. To do so, the study analyzes the syntactic and prosodic structures of the dialect’s yes/no and wh-questions, and then examines the rate of comprehension and acceptance of the two types of the interrogatives in a perception test. The prosodic structures in the test are modified by transplantation, the results of which allow us to find out the following. First, presented with the interrogatives whose syntactic and prosodic structures did not match, the native subjects of Gyeongsang Korean relied more on the prosodic structures than on the syntactic ones. Second, changes in prosodic structures had a strong influence on simple sentences, but relatively less so on complex sentences. These results lead to the conclusion that prosodic structures are the decisive factor in syntactic interpretations, and, accordingly, are intricately intertwined with the syntactic structures during the processing of interrogatives.

This paper examines the difference of degree of acceptability for suffix passive constructions and -eojida passive constructions, and the double-passive constructions in which both are combined. Afterwards, claim that the doublepassive constructions should be regarded as a well-formed passive constructions like the other two passive constructions. For this, we compare the acceptability of the acceptability of the double-passive constructions, suffix passive constructions and the -eojida passive constructions using descriptive statistics and one-way repeated measures ANOVA. As a result, the acceptability of the suffix sentence is highest, followed by the double-passive constructions and the -eojida passive constructions. Although double-passive constructions is treated as a non-grammatical sentence in school grammar, some items have the highest acceptability of double-passive constructions, as can be seen from the descriptive statistics. In addition, it is higher than the acceptability of the -eojida passive constructions in all questions. Taking these results into consideration, a double-passive constructions can be regarded as a qualified passive sentence, just like the other two passive constructions. In consequently, double-passive constructions can be interpreted as a combination of passive and other meanings (potential, unintentional, etc.).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the properties of the reflexive caki, the pronoun ku and pro in Korean. The dual properties of the pronoun is known to be reference and bound variable. According to Choi (2013, 2014), Korean reflexive caki is not an anaphor (reflexive) but a bound-variable pronoun which functions as the pronoun, and the pronoun ku is not a pronoun but a nominal phrase which is composed of a demonstrative ku and a null category pro having a feature [+human]. In order to identify whether his argument is on the right tract or not, the properties of pro is investigated together with the ones of caki and ku because the pro is claimed to have the inherent and instinct properties of the pronoun in Korean. The result of this research is as follows: caki functions as an anaphor inside the local domain and a bound variable pronoun outside the local domain. Ku acts as reference and a bound variable pronoun, not as an anaphor. Pro, as expected, has the dual properties of the pronoun.

This paper investigates the Korean causative constructions divided into the short-form and long-form causatives and predicts the change in the usage of these two causatives. The two types of causative constructions are examined from the medieval Korean to the modern Korean diachronically. We point out the decrease of the use of the short-form causatives, and the expansion of the use of the long-form causatives conversely. Based on this phenomenon, it is predicted that the frequency of use of causative constructions is gradually shifting from the short-form causatives to the long-form causatives. We prove the prediction on the phenomenon through analyzing the survey questionnaires. Statistical program SPSS 23.0. is used in analyzing the questionaries.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the syntactic structures of long-from causative constructions should be derived within the same clause projected by ‘-ke ha-.’ The previous studies suggest that the syntactic structures of long-from causative constructions be divided into two types: one is that the causees are positioned in the main clause and the other is that the causees are positioned in the embedded clause. However, in this paper it is pointed out that there are some problems with the studies and the causees in the constructions should be placed in the embedded clause.

The purpose of this paper is to confirm that, in the local domain, Korean reflexive caki is not a bound-variable pronoun but an anaphor. According to Choi (2014, 2015), in the local domain caki has [-speaker] feature, namely, (f(x)) and, therefore, cannot be coindexed with the antecedent of caki. However in this paper, it is pointed out that only the antecedent which has [-speaker] becomes the antecedent of caki. In consequence, if caki is a pronoun, Binding Theory B must be violated in the relevant constructions unlike Choi’s (2014, 2015) claim. Futhermore, this paper shows that the argument that 'caki' is not a pronoun but an anaphor in the local domain can be maintained by examining Reinfart and Reuland’s (1993) Binding Theory and Lidz’s (2001) new approach to anaphors (SE-anaphor and SELF-anaphor), too.

The purpose of this paper is to confirm that the syntactic structures of morphological causative constructions should be derived by considering the properties of the verb bases such as the transitive verb bases and the intransitive verb bases according to Son (2006). This means that the causee in the constructions may be an agent, depending on the verb base types mentioned above. On the contrary, it is claimed that the causee in the constructions cannot be an agent in Kim (2010) and Park (2012a, b) because the causee cannot be compatible with an agent-oriented adverb like 'ilpule' (on purpose). In this paper, I give some pieces of evidence for Son’s (2006) argument and further show that the causee could be matched with an adverb like 'hayekum' (make) which has the function that makes the noun just before it become the agent of the caused event in the causative constructions. Finally, it is proposed that the syntactic structures of morphological causative constructions should be subdivided on the basis of the context as well as the verb base types.

The purpose of this paper is to show the internal structures of Korean reflexives such as 'caki, casin and caki casin.' According to Boskovich (2012), Korean is an NP language in which the determiner is positioned in the specifier of NP. In this paper, following his suggestion, it is claimed that 'caki' appear in the position of the specifier of the NP and 'caki casin' is placed in the specifier and head of the NP.: it follows that 'casin' is derived in the head position of the NP. With regards to some problems DP analyses of the Korean reflexives pose, it is pointed out that since Korean is not a DP language, the determiner cannot be the head of the relevant phrase and that since Korean is a head final language, even if Korean would be a DP language, the head D should be in the rightmost position. Lastly, this paper shows the complex structures combined the structures of 'caki. casin, caki casin' with the structural cases such as '-ul/lul' under the structure of the NP.

The purpose of this paper is to look into pro analysis in which null argument is identified as zero pronoun (namely, pro) for the Korean null argument constructions. It has been argued that the pro analysis is superior to the ellipsis analysis in which null argument is identified as empty NP. However, this paper points out that there still seem to be potential problems with the pro analysis. It is proven that the validity of continuation test which is provided as a test for the pro analysis is questionable in respects of theory and empiricism. Furthermore, it is shown in this paper that while under the pro analysis only sloppy like identity interpretation is yielded out in the Korean null argument constructions, in fact genuine sloppy identity interpretation is yielded out in them. This means that the ellipsis analysis must be still useful even though the pro analysis is more pervasive in explaining the Korean null argument constructions.

The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the problems in the Korean Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) Constructions and to suggest that the ECM constructions are best analyzed if we assume that the ECM constructions can function as the simple sentence following Woo (1995). Under this analysis, adopting the multiple case licensing conducted by Hiraiwa (2001), it is shown why and how the DPs in question in the ECM constructions can be case-marked exceptionally and normally.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of null arguments in Korean. Even though many studies have been done to identify the null arguments, there seem to be some problems yet to be resolved in identifying them. The pro analysis of Ahn & Cho (2010, 2011a, 2011b, 2012) is likely to have wider explanative power than the DP ellipsis analysis because of the extensive uses of pro in Korean. Nevertheless, it is argued in this paper that the DP ellipsis analysis may be still applicable to constructions in which null arguments related to reflexives are missing.

The issue of the nature of the null arguments in Korean lies in whether the null arguments can be elided or not. Ahn & Cho (2011a.b.), using a pragmatic interpretation such as explicature, argue that pro analysis is superior to the DP ellipsis analysis. However, this paper points out that there still seems to be problems with the pro analysis. In DP ellipsis analysis, only two interpretations, strict identity interpretation and sloppy identity interpretation, can be produced but,

The purpose of this paper is to reconfirm that the null arguments (the null subject and null object) in Korean should be identified as empty NPs, not as pro under Kim`s (1991) argument ellipsis analysis, not under Huang`s (1984, 1987) null-topic variable analysis, Otani and Whitman`s (1991) VP ellipsis Analysis, and Moon`s (2010) pro analysis. To begin with, the merits and drawbacks of the three analyses except Kim`s analysis are examined: especially we focus on Moon`s analysis because she claims that the null arguments should be identified as pro in Korean unlike the argument in the analysis we adopt. According to the argument ellipsis analysis we take, the null NPs in the object position must be empty NPs with no featural content. Using the analysis, we attempts to solve the problems we find in the three analyses. Furthermore, in this paper we apply Kim`s analysis to the null NPs in the subject position and argue that they, too, should be treated as empty NPs because the property of these NPs is the same as that of the NPs the object position in that they can allow sloppy identity readings and strict identity readings. As a result, we reached that the null arguments in Korean must be empty NPs, contra Moon`s analysis.