Scope Rigidity and Scope Ambiguity in Korean

This paper aims to account for scope rigidity and ambiguity in Korean quantifiers. It has been much discussed that scope reconstruction makes a contribution to scope ambiguity in Korean and other languages. While scope reconstruction applies to constructions involving A'-movement, it is proposed that QR applies to constructions involving A-movement such as A-scrambling, raisings, passives, unaccusatives, psych-verbs and unergatives. This analysis crucially depends on three hypotheses: (i) both VP and vP are phases in Korean following Ko (2004, 2005) and Ha (2008), (ii) A-moved elements do not reconstruct in general while A'-moved elements may reconstruct (Chomsky 1995, Boeckx 2001), and (iii) Scope Economy is observed by Quantifier Raising (QR) (Fox 1995, 2000). The contrast between English-type languages and Korean-type languages with regard to scope is uniformly accounted for based on the cross-linguistic availability of QR, reconstruction (im)possibility, Scope Economy, and parameterized phasehood of vP and VP.