A syntactic analysis of Predicate Doubling Clefts in Korean

초록

The aim of this paper is to provide a syntactic analysis of Predicate Doubling Clefts (PDCs) in Korean. Previous literatures based on multiple phonetic realizations of a single copy chain do not provide proper explanations for some challenges such as non-isomorphic arguments, the impossibility of ha-insertion, and asymmetrical predicates in the second predicate. This paper suggests that Korean PDC is not a PF phenomenon but it should be explained in narrow syntax. Partly following Cable's (2004) independent base-generation analysis for Yiddish PDCs, this paper argues that each predicate is externally merged in the same PredP and then the first predicate undergoes topicalization in the same way as observed in (pseudo-)cleft constructions. Not only does this syntactic analysis have some advantages to explain the challenges raised by PF approach but also it suggests the idea that Korean PDC is not an exceptional case of copy deletion by Chomsky (1995).

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