A Constituency-based Explanation of Syntactic Restrictions on Korean Predicates

Abstract

This paper attempts to provide a unified explanation of two observations made in Chung (2007, 2008a, 2009) regarding syntactic restrictions on (embedded) predicates: Predicates are immobile and non-elidable. Given that a verb stem and its inflectional endings project independently at syntax and become merged only at PF (J. H.-S. Yoon 1993, 1994, 1997, Park 1994, J.-M. Yoon 1996), the verbal complex does not form a constituent in syntax. This non-constituency is argued to be responsible for the immobility and non-elidability of the predicate. In contrast, Ahn and Cho (2008a, b, 2009, 2010) propose a heterogeneous approach to the phenomena. Ahn and Cho (2008a, b) attribute the immobility to Fox and Pesetsky's (2004) Cyclic Linearization and Principle of Order Preservation, while Ahn and Cho (2009, 2010) attribute the non-elidability to scrambling of the surviving embedded element followed by an illicit CP ellipsis. It will be shown, however, that an inflected predicate is invisible to syntax anyhow and that the invisibility is well taken care of by a constituency-based account.