A Statistical Modeling of the Correlation between Island Effects and Working-memory Capacity for L2 Learners

The cause of island effects has evoked considerable debate within syntax and other fields of linguistics. The two competing approaches stand out: the grammatical analysis; and the working-memory (WM)-based processing analysis. In this paper we report three experiments designed to test one of the premises of the WM-based processing analysis: that the strength of island effects should vary as a function of individual differences in WM capacity. The results show that island effects present even for L2 learners are more likely attributed to grammatical constraints than to limited processing resources.

Multiple Sluicing in English

PACLIC 21 / Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea / November 1-3, 200

The Syntax of VP Ellipsis in Korean

This paper argues against the existence of VP ellipsis in Korean. The constructions examined below are the Main Verb Only construction, the auxiliary verb construction and the stripping construction. The first construction, which Otani and Whitman (1991) argue as involving VP ellipsis, is better analyzed as containing null pronominal pro rather than null VP. The second construction, which can be considered as a counterpart of the VP ellipsis construction in English, does not allow VP ellipsis at all. The last, third construction, which Kim (1996) argues as resulting from VP ellipsis, should be treated on a par with the pseudocleft construction independent of VP ellipsis. It is suggested below that absence of VP ellipsis in these constructions is attributed to lack of tense which undergoes overt Spec-head Case checking relation, and of a head-governing free-morphemic positive or negative marker in Korean

Negation and the Placement of Verb in Korean

The paper examines the much-studied, but still debatable phenomenon of verb placement in Korean clausal structure. I will bring forward negative response to the previous works made by j -y. Yoon (1990), Y- J. lung (1992) and Whitman 0990, 94), who maintain that verbs in Korean raise to higher Infl and Camp positions. I will then argue that neither main verbs nor auxiliary verbs raise in Korean, but that they stay in situ in their base-generated position. My claim is mainly based on scope phenomena in negative sentences. It is suggested that scope interpretations which follow from interaction between negation and a quantificational element receive a principled account in terms of their c-command relation, which in turn renders compelling evidence for verb position at overt syntax in the investigated language

Midway Coordination: ATB and RNR vs. PG Constructions in English

This paper investigates three constructions in English which apparently contain two gaps: (i) the across-the-board (ATB) construction; (ii) the parasitic gap (PG) construction; (iii) the right node raising (RNR) construction. Examining a new set of data involving interwoven dependency, identity, and a functional construal of the two gaps in these three constructions, I argue in favor of an approach which unifies the ATB and RNR constructions. I argue that the ATB construction cannot be reduced to a PG construction, or the other way around, though there have been recent endeavors to do so (cf. Hail< 1985; Williarns 1989, 1990; Munn 1998, 2001; Homstein and Nunes 2002). Specifically, I propose that the two elements which are ATBmoved and "RNRed" in the ATB and RNR constructions undergo conjunction under coordination in the course of derivation. In the PG construction, on the other hand, there is no movement out of the adjunct clause, obviating the conjunction under coordination which is found in the other two constructions

Head Movement and the PF Interface

This paper examines subject-auxiliary inversion (SAl) in comparative and exclamative clauses and preposition-its complement inversion (PCI) in sluiced (or lP-elided) clauses of English. It will first be shown that SAl and PCI in these clauses interact with deletion and sentence stress assignment, that are considered to be PF operations. Based on this interaction at PF, I will argue that SAl and PCI in these clauses are most naturally understood as taking place at PF, that is, in the mapping from Spell-Out to PF. SAl and PCI in these clauses then constitute an argument that at least one kind of head-movement occurs after Spell-Out, with effects on word order

On Different Sizes of Predicate Phrase Ellipsis in English : Towards a Principled Analysis

This paper examines predicate phrase (PredP) ellipsis in English, identifying the exact constituent(s) affected by the ellipsis in the articulated structure of a clause projected by modal, perfect, progressive, and voice/copula auxiliary verbs in addition to the little v (Chomsky 1995). In particular, we note that the phrases projected by all these auxiliary verbs, except for modals that project the highest category TP, can undergo PredP ellipsis. However, there are two factors that come into play in influencing sizes of PredP ellipsis. One is dialectal variation, which distinguishes British English from American English in that only the former allows elision of PerfP via PredP ellipsis. The other is structural difference, which tells apart coordination from subordination in that PredP ellipsis applies to vP or the constituent bigger than that in the former structure, but it can apply to the smaller constituent VoicePin the latter structure. We provide an explanation for how each of the two factors can be understood in the general theory of ellipsis

An Economy-based Approach to Scope Interaction among QP, Negation and Intensional Predicate

This paper provides an economy-based account for the scope interaction among QP, negation and intensional predicate. First of all, we argue that inverse scope of quantifier phrases either below negation or intensional predicate in raising constructions is attributed to their literal lowering. In particular, focusing on the asymmetry in inverse scope between the two types of Qps, universal and existential QPs, we suggest that the inability of the former universal QPs to take inverse scope below intensional verb is due to the phase-bounded locality of their scope-taking movement. By contrast, the inability of the latter existential QPs to take inverse scope below negation is ascribed to Relativized Minimality (RM) effects, which can be subsumed under the more general Weak Island effects. Second, we extend this line of analysis to scope relations of QPs in object position. The inability of object universal QPs to take wide scope over negation, on the one hand, stems from the same phase-bounded locality of their scopetaking movement that subject ones obey. Object existential QPs, however, either take phase-bounded movement to an outer [Spec, vP] position, thereby taking scope below negation. or alternatively, they have an option of exploiting the RM-circumventing unbounded scope movement, thereby taking wide scope over negation and being interpreted as specificPartial funding for the work reported here was provided by the Grant from the Brain Korea 21 project in 2003 (the first author) and by the Overseas Visiting Professor Grant from the Korea Research Foundation under No, 2001-013-A00036 (the second author)