In this paper, I deal with exceptional distributions of the seeming plural marker -tul from Korean, where the licensing plural subject does not appear to c-command this marker. I suggest that the plural subject in such a problematic situation raises to a higher position to meet the c-command requirement. Observing that the licensing plural subject bears focus and/or specificity, I identify this movement as focus movement to Spec FocP posited above CP. I then argue that the relevant derivations can successfully proceed under the head-initial structure, but not under the traditional head-final structure. Consequently, the current result from Korean supports Kayne’s (1994) universal specifier-head-complement order hypothesis, thus helping eliminate the head-parameter in the computation in line with recent minimalism(Chomsky 2005).
1. Introduction: the distribution of -tul
2. Problems: Some exceptional cases
3. Some futile remedies under the head-final structure
4. FocP under the head-final structure
5. FocP under the head-initial structure
6. Conclusion
References
(0)
(0)