Article published In:
Language and Linguistics: Online-First Articles

The syntax of Korean reduced conditionals

Right edge and pronominalization

| Northwestern University
| Northwestern University

The goal of this paper is to provide an analysis of two important aspects of conditional clauses in Korean. The first goal is to reveal the structure of the conditional clause. In investigating reduced conditionals and regular copula clausal conditionals, we suggest the right-periphery of conditional clauses based on the Split CP hypothesis (Rizzi 1997; Saito 2010). The second goal is to examine the distribution of the clausal pronoun kukes in reduced conditionals, which, we argue, is the result of FinP ellipsis, building on the ellipsis theory of pronominalization (Baltin & Craenenbroeck 2008). In doing so, we make two empirical points: (i) the parallelism regarding argument/adjunct asymmetry indicates that reduced conditionals are derived from clausal conditionals; and (ii) various connectivity effects reveal hidden clausal structure behind the pronominal element kukes, which means that there is a tight connection between focus constructions and conditional constructions in Korean. The implication of the present study is that we can argue against a simple-minded dichotomy of anaphora that says there are two types of anaphora, Deep and Surface, and Deep anaphora does not have syntactic structure.

Keywords: reduced conditional, right periphery, pronominalization, conditional adverb, ellipsis, Korean
Article outline
  • 1.Backgrounds: Reduced conditionals in Korean
    • 1.1Roadmap
  • 2.The focus-conditional link
    • 2.1Pronominal sluicing and pronominal conditionals
      • 2.1.1Properties of KPS
      • 2.1.2Properties of KPRC
  • 3.The analysis of focus constructions in Korean
    • 3.1Common properties in focus constructions
    • 3.2Analysis: Configurational pronominalization
  • 4.The analysis of KPRC
    • 4.1Further properties of KPRC
    • 4.2Right periphery of conditionals in Korean
    • 4.3The derivation of KPRC
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 27 June 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00168.yoo
References
Akatsuka, Noriko
1985 Conditionals and epistemic scale. Language 61(3). 625–639. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arita, Setsuko
2007 Japanese conditional clauses and their properties of tensed clauses. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Baltin, Mark
2006 On so-called doubly-filled comps that are not. New York: New York University. (Manuscript.)Google Scholar
2012 Structural signature of pronouns. New York: New York University. (Manuscript.)Google Scholar
Baltin, Mark & van Craenenbroeck, Jeroen
2008 On becoming a pronoun: Towards a unified theory of ellipsis. (Paper presented at the 10th CUNY/SUNY/NYU/YU Miniconference, New York, 22 November 2008.)
Bhatt, Rajesh & Pancheva, Roumyana
2002 A cross-constructional analysis of if-clauses. (Paper presented at the Syntax Seminar: Interface in the CP-domain, Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin, 9 March 2002.)
2006 Conditionals. In Everaert, Martin & van Riemsdijk, Henk (eds.), The Blackwell companion to syntax, vol. 11, 638–687. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bresnan, Joan W.
1976 On the form and functioning of transformations. Linguistic Inquiry 7(1). 3–40.Google Scholar
Bruening, Benjamin & Dinh, Xuyen & Kim, Lan
2018 Selection, idioms, and the structure of nominal phrases with and without classifiers. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 3(1). 1–46. (Article 42.) DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cho, Sungdai & Whitman, John & Yanagida, Yuko
2009 Clefts in Japanese and Korean. In Bane, Max & Holle, Juan José Bueno & Grano, Thomas & Grotberg, April Lynn & McNabb, Yaron (eds.), CLS 44–1: Proceedings of the 44th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, the main session, 61–77. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Choi, Young-Sik
2012 Sluicing is NOT in Korean. The Journal of Studies in Language 28(2). 329–351. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, Noam
1981 Lectures on government and binding: The Pisa lectures. 1st edn. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Collins, Peter C.
1991 Cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions in English. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fukaya, Teruhiko & Hoji, Hajime
1999 Stripping and sluicing in Japanese and some implications. In Bird, Sonya & Carnie, Andrew & Haugen, Jason D. & Norquest, Peter (eds.), WCCFL 18: Proceedings of the 18th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 145–158. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Geis, Michael Lorenz
1970 Adverbial subordinate clauses in English. Cambridge: MIT. (Doctoral dissertation.)
1975 English time and place adverbials. OSU Working Papers in Linguistics 181. 1–11.Google Scholar
Haegeman, Liliane
2003 Conditional clauses: External and internal syntax. Mind & Language 18(4). 317–339. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 The movement derivation of conditional clauses. Linguistic Inquiry 41(4). 595–621. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haiman, John
1978 Conditionals are topics. Language 54(3). 564–589. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Han, Chung-hye
2006 Variation in form-meaning mapping between Korean and English counterfactuals. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 15(2). 167–193. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Han, Chung-hye & Hedberg, Nancy
2008 Syntax and semantics of it-clefts: A tree adjoining grammar analysis. Journal of Semantics 25(4). 345–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hiraiwa, Ken & Shinichiro Ishihara
2002 Missing links: Cleft, sluicing, and “no da” construction in Japanese. In Ionin, Tania & Ko, Heejeong & Nevins, Andrew (eds.), Proceedings of the 2nd HUMIT Student Conference in Language Research (HUMIT 2001), 35–54. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hoshi, Koji
1995 Structural and interpretive aspects of head-internal and head-external relative clauses. New York: University of Rochester. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Jacobson, Pauline
1995 On the quantificational force of English free relatives. In Bach, Emmon & Jelinek, Eloise & Kratzer, Angelika & Partee, Barbara H. (eds.), Quantification in natural languages, 451–486. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Kim, Jieun
2012 What sluicing comes from in Korean is pseudo-cleft. Korean Journal of Linguistics 37(1). 69–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Jong-Bok
2008 Two types of cleft constructions in Korean: A constraint-based approach. Language and Information 12(1). 85–103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 The Korean sluicing: As a family of constructions. Studies in Generative Grammar 23(1). 103–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Jong-Bok & Sells, Peter
2013 Interactions between (pseudo-) cleft and copular constructions in Korean. Linguistic Research 30(1). 93–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Jooyoung
2018 Embedding without a license?: Typology of unselected embedded clauses. Newark: University of Delaware. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Kim, Soowon
1999 Sloppy/strict identity, empty objects, and NP ellipsis. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 8(4). 255–284. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kim, Sun-Woong
2010 The syntax of specification and predication: (Kes-) clefts in Korean and English. The Linguistic Society of Korea Journal 18(3). 167–185.Google Scholar
Kizu, Mika
1997 Sluicing in Wh-in-situ languages. In Singer, Kora & Eggert, Randall & Anderson, Gregory (eds.), CLS 33–1: Proceedings of the 33rd Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, papers from the main session, 231–244. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
2005 Cleft constructions in Japanese syntax. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ko, Suk-Joo
2000 Hangugeo josaui yeongu. Seoul: Yonsei University. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Koizumi, Masatoshi
1995 Phrase structure in minimalist syntax. Cambridge: MIT. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Koopman, Hilda & Sportiche, Dominique
1991 The position of subjects. Lingua 85(2-3). 211–258. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kuno, Susumu
1973 The structure of the Japanese language. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
1976 Subject raising. In Shibatani, Masayoshi (ed.), Syntax and semantics, volume 5: Japanese generative grammar, 17–49. New York: Academic Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1988 Blended quasi-direct discourse in Japanese. In Poser, William J. (ed.), Papers from the Second International Workshop on Japanese Syntax, 72–102. Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar
Kuwabara, Kazuki
1996 Multiple wh-phrases in elliptical clauses and some aspects of clefts with multiple foci. In Koizumi, Masatoshi & Oishi, Masayuki & Sauerland, Uli (eds.), Formal approaches to Japanese linguistics (FAJL 2), 97–116. Cambridge: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.Google Scholar
Lee, Jeong-Shik
2012 Resurrecting sluicing from clefting. Studies in Generative Grammar 22(2). 359–390. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marantz, Alec P.
1984 On the nature of grammatical relations. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Marantz, Alec
1996 “Cat” as a phrasal idiom: Consequences of late insertion in distributed morphology. Cambridge: MIT. (Manuscript.)Google Scholar
Masuoka, Takashi & Takubo, Yukinori
1992 Kiso nihongo bumpo. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Merchant, Jason
1998 Pseudosluicing: Elliptical clefts in Japanese and English. In Alexiadou, Artemis & Fuhrhop, Nanna & Law, Paul & Kleinhenz, Ursula (eds.), ZAS working papers in linguistics 10 1, 88–112. Berlin: Zertrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar
2001 The syntax of silence: Sluicing, islands, and the theory of ellipsis. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Sluicing. In Everaert, Martin & van Riemsdijk, Henk (eds.), The Blackwell companion to syntax, vol. IV1, 271–291. London: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mihara, Kenichi & Hiraiwa, Ken
2006 Shin nihongo no tougokouzou. Tokyo: Shohakusha.Google Scholar
Mikami, Akira
1960 Zoo-wa hana-ga nagai. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Morgan, Jerry L.
1989 Sentence fragments revisited. In Music, Bradley & Graczyk, Randolph & Wiltshire, Caroline (eds.), CLS 25-2: Papers from the 25th Annual Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, part two: Parasession on language in context, 228–241. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Nakao, Chizuru & Yoshida, Masaya
2005 Japanese sluicing as a specificational pseudo-cleft. (Paper presented at Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, Tokyo, 18–19 March 2005.)
Nishiyama, Kunio & Whitman, John & Yi, Eun-Young
1996 Syntactic movement of overt Wh-phrases in Japanese and Korean. In Akatsuka, Noriko & Iwasaki, Shoichi & Strauss, Susan (eds.), Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 51, 337–351. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Noda, Harumi
1997 ‘No(da)’ no kinoo. Tokyo: Kuroshio.Google Scholar
Ok, Sung-Soo & Kim, Soo-Yeon
2012 An analysis of sluicing-like constructions in Korean: A non-movement approach. Journal of Language Sciences 19(1). 155–180.Google Scholar
Park, Bum-Sik
2005 Island-insensitive fragment answers in Korean. In Alderete, John & Han, Chung-hye & Kochetov, Alexei (eds.), Proceedings of the 24th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 317–325. Somerville: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Park, Myung-Kwan
2001 Subject-less clefts in Korean: Towards a deletion analysis. Language Research 37(4). 715–739.Google Scholar
Percus, Orin
1997 Prying open the cleft. In Kusumoto, Kiyomi (ed.), Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 27 1, 337–351. Amherst: GLSA.Google Scholar
Perlmutter, David M.
1970 The two verbs begin . In Roderick A. Jacobs, & Rosenbaum, Peter S. (eds.), Readings in English transformational grammar, 107–119. Waltham: Ginn & Co.Google Scholar
Plann, Susan
1982 Indirect questions in Spanish. Linguistic Inquiry 13(2). 297–312.Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi
1997 The fine structure of the left periphery. In Haegeman, Liliane (ed.), Elements of grammar: Handbook in generative syntax, 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rottman, Isaac & Yoshida, Masaya
2013 Sluicing, idioms, and island repair. Linguistic Inquiry 44(4). 651–668. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Saito, Mamoru
1982 Case marking in Japanese: A preliminary study. Cambridge: MIT. (Manuscript.)Google Scholar
1985 Some asymmetries in Japanese and their theoretical implications. Cambridge: MIT. (Doctoral dissertation.)
2004 Ellipsis and pronominal reference in Japanese clefts. Nanzan Linguistics 11. 21–50.Google Scholar
2010 Sentence types and the Japanese right periphery. (Paper presented at the International Conference on Sentence Types: Ten Years After, Frankfurt am Main, 26–28 June 2009.)
Sakai, Hiromu
1998 Raising asymmetry and improper movement. In Akatsuka, Noriko & Hoji, Hajime & Iwasaki, Shoichi & Sohn, Sung-Ock & Strauss, Susan (eds.), Japanese/Korean linguistics, vol. 71, 481–497. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Sohn, Keun-Won
2000 A non-sluicing, non-clefting approach to copula construction. Studies in Generative Grammar 101. 267–295.Google Scholar
Takahashi, Daiko
1994 Sluicing in Japanese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 3(3). 265–300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Takezawa, Koichi
1987 A configurational approach to case marking in Japanese. Seattle: University of Washington. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Yeom, Jae-Il
2005 The semantics of -ketun in Korean. Language Research 41(4). 749–784.Google Scholar
Yoon, James Hye-Suk
2004 Non-nominative (major) subjects and case stacking in Korean. In Bhaskararao, Peri & Subbarao, Karumuri Venkata (eds.), Non-nominative subjects, vol. 21, 265–314. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yoon, Jeong-Me
1989 ECM and multiple subject constructions in Korean. In Kuno, Susumu (ed.), Harvard studies in Korean linguistics III, 369–382. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Yoshida, Masaya
2006 Constraints and mechanisms in long-distance dependency formation. College Park: University of Maryland, College Park. (Doctoral dissertation.)