On the Locus of Negative Polarity Licensing in Korean: At Spec Domain or at Spec of NegP?

Abstract

Observing some asymmetries in cross-clausal negative polarity licensing in Korean, Lee (2017) proposes that, under the SVO word order hypothesis (Kayne 1994), negative polarity items (NPIs) are licensed at the “Spec domain” of a negated predicate, rather than being regulated by the clause mate condition (CMC, Choe 1988, Lee 1994, Sohn 1995, Kim 1995, Chung 2006, a.o.). This paper argues, however, that Lee’s Spec domain approach faces some non-trivial difficulties and that a CMC-based theory like Sohn’s (1995) in terms of NPI movement to Spec of NegP more appropriately accommodates the cross-clausal NPI licensing facts.