On wh- and Operator Scope in Korean

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the interaction ofwh-phrases and negation in Korean. We observe that a wh-phrasemust not be c-commanded by negative polarity item. This isrelated to the observation that in German, a wh-phrase must notbe c-commanded by negation or a negative quantifier. We suggestthat both languages are sensitive to a restriction that prohibitsLF movement across negation, the Minimal Negative StructureConstraint MNSC, proposed in Beck (1996). Since a negativepolarity item must always be in the scope of negation, the MNSCcovers the Korean data as well as the German facts. Our analysishas several interesting implications for LF structures in Korean.One is that negation cannot be interpreted in its S-structureposition. Another concerns the semantic effect of scrambling.Contra Saito (1989, 1992), we argue that scrambling serves toidentify intended relative scope and is thus by no means vacuous.We propose that short scrambling is never reconstructed.