A CROSS-LINGUISTIC APPROACH TO QUANTIFICATION IN SYNTAX

Yanghee Joo

Ph.D. Dissertation, 1989

Abstract

This paper presents a unified account of wh-questions and quantificational sentences through an examination of the syntax of LF in Korean-type languages and English-type languages. In particular, I will consider constructions which pertain to opacity effects, scope phenomena, and variable binding, taking Barriers (Chomsky 1986) as a framework. The first part of this thesis will deal with the distribution of wh-phrases in Korean together with a comparison of relevant facts between Korean and English. Despite a lack of SS movement and a full range of opacity effects, I will argue that a transformational operation similar to wh-movement in English should be available to Korean at LF; further, wh-constructions in Korean are subject to the ECP as in English. Linguistic variation will be traced back to typological differences in the adjunction structures of operator positions and in configurational structures. Although I assume that wh-phrases in natural languages are interpreted with the adjunction schema universally, I argue that quantifiers may be interpreted in the in-situ positions. The last two chapters will explore the inadequacy of obligatory Quantifier Raising by examining relative scope of quantifiers and variable binding. Chapter 4 provides a unified account of scope interpretation in Korean and English quantificational sentences, focusing on the relative scope of QPs and WHs. Chapter 5 addresses the interpretation of quantifier-pronoun coreference in configurations which pertain to Weak Crossover, Inverse Linking, Specifier Binding, and Donkey Anaphora, focusing on the conditions that allow their binding.