Embedded Imperatives in Korean and Their Implication to Parameterization

This paper aims to examine whether imperatives can be embedded or not in Korean. Pak (2004) argues that imperatives, as one of clause types, can be embedded in Korean while Han (1998, 2000) argues that Korean imperatives cannot be embedded based on the cross-linguistic impossibility of imperative embedding in general. Following Pak, it is argued that resistance to embedded imperatives is not empirically supported and imperative embedding actually takes place in Korean. Such embedability is not unique to Korean since Japanese and Chinese data also show imperative embedding and the absence of subject restriction as a shared characteristic. With the presence of Slovenian data, however, restrictions on subjects are not necessarily related with imperative embedding. It is thus suggested that based on the presence vs. absence of subject restriction, the functional category related with imperatives can be parameterized depending on languages.