Copula and ‘Sluicing' Constructions in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese

Abstract

This paper starts with resolving the categorial mismatch in the Cleft construction between the subject cleft clause and the focal pivot/question phrase survivor that are linked by the copula. We propose that the Cleft construction universally has bi-clausal structure, where the second cleft clause (which is the complement of the copula) undergoes ellipsis after the focal pivot/question phrase survivor extracts out of it. This conception of Cleft provides an optimal account for the language-particular distributions of the copula in embedded or matrix ‘Sluicing" in East Asian languages such as Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. It also captures the optional occurrence of the pronoun subject that replaces the first cleft clause. In addition, Case marker or pre-/post-position drop or retention and the distribution of adjectival question phrases before the copula follow from the proposed analysis. All in all, the unified Cleft analysis of ‘Sluicing" is shown to be effective in understanding ‘Sluicing" in the three languages.