Subjacency effects on overt wh-movement in wh-in-situ languages: Evidence for nominal structure

Authors

  • Keunhyung Park University of South Carolina
  • Stanley Dubinsky University of South Carolina

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v7i1.5222

Keywords:

syntax, Korean, English, wh-in-situ, overt movement, Subjacency, Empty Category Principle, Complex NP Constraint, Coordinate Structure Constraint

Abstract

This paper investigates whether overt wh-movement in Korean, a wh-in-situ language, triggers Subjacency violations in the same set of bounding configurations as English. Yoon (2013) and Jung (2015) showed that Korean wh-islands display Subjacency effects, and we ask whether the Complex NP and Coordinate Structure Constraints are also observed. We find that they are not. We propose that this is because Korean nominal expressions need not project DP. Our analysis supports previous accounts of Korean nominal structure (Kim et al. 2010), which suggest (based on optionality of determiners) that “Korean NP structure is non-configurational or lacks the category D.”

Author Biographies

  • Keunhyung Park, University of South Carolina
    Linguistics Program, PhD student
  • Stanley Dubinsky, University of South Carolina
    Linguistics Program, professor

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Published

2022-05-10

How to Cite

Park, Keunhyung, and Stanley Dubinsky. 2022. “Subjacency Effects on Overt Wh-Movement in Wh-in-Situ Languages: Evidence for Nominal Structure”. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 7 (1): 5222. https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v7i1.5222.