This paper is to argue that the apparently fragmentary answer phrase XP right after the polarity answer particle (PAP) such as ung ‘yes’ or ani ‘no’ is not a run-of-the-mill fragment but a right-dislocated (RD-ed) element. Using negative polarity items and indefinites as a RD-ed element, we show that the PAP itself is also a remnant derived from elision of the answering full clause, which in turn provides a right structural context for right dislocation of another XP remnant. We go on further to show that RD-ed elements in the construction at issue display the same pattern of syntactic behaviors as those in the cannonical RD construction, particularly in terms of island effects, the ‘full’ host clause requirement, Case/voice match, and specificational coordination.

This paper examines multiple Fragmenting in Korean to argue that it can be accounted for in the most effective way by the thesis that Fragmenting applies to cleft structure. We first propose that the underlying structure of the single or multiple fragment answer is the cleft construction where the copula links the subject cleft clause and the pre-copula inferential cleft clause. In deriving its surface structure, the former clause takes the pro strategy in identity with the preceding question sentence, and the latter clause allows survivor(s) to escape out to the periphery of it, which undergoes clausal ellipsis. This conception of the fragment construction sheds new lights on accounting for some peculiar effects of the overt or the covert copula on the immediately preceding Case marker/postposition-less survivor. In addition, this paper provides an explanation for the now celebrated clausemate requirement for the survivors in the construction at issue.