An Agree-based Account of Case Marking in Korean Negation Constructions

Korean Long-form Negation Constructions show peculiar Case marking phenomena. When the main predicate ends with the Connective Ending (CE) -ci, the CE can bear only Accusative Case if the main predicate is a verb, whereas the CE can bear either Nominative or Accusative Case when the main predicate is an adjective. This paper discusses two earlier analyses of the Case marking phenomena based on GB theory, pointing out their shortcomings. I will argue that the Case marking phenomena can be accounted for in a more principled way within the framework of the theory of Agree (Chomsky 1998, 1999) without having to face the problems found in the earlier analyses. I will also argue that a locality condition in terms of c-command, suggested by Chomsky, plays an important role in dealing with the Case marking phenomena.