V-Raising and Grammar Competition in Korean: Evidence from Negation and Quantifier Scope

Abstract

In a head-final language, V-raising is hard to detect since there is no evidence from the string to support a raising analysis. If the language has a cliticlike negation that associates with the verb in syntax, then scope facts concerning negation and a quantified object NP could provide evidence regarding the height of the verb. Even so, such facts are rare, especially in the input to children, and so we might expect that not all speakers exposed to a head-final language acquire the same grammar as far as V-raising is concerned. Here, we present evidence supporting this expectation. Using experimental data concerning the scope of quantified NPs and negation in Korean, elicited from both adults and 4-year-old children, we show that there are two populations of Korean speakers: one with V-raising and one without.

Endogenous sources of variation in language acquisition

“…6, we showed that many of the alternative tests proposed for identifying the verb position in Korean (10)(11)(12)(13) are in fact consistent with both verb-raising and tense-lowering analyses. In contrast, the scope of negation and object quantified phrases (QPs) is a good diagnostic of the position of the verb in a Korean speaker's representation of clause structure.…”

“…The study reported in ref. 6 showed roughly the same size split in the population for both long and short negation, but it was a between-subjects study and as such does not tell us whether any given individual would show the same pattern for both types of negation. Second, speakers should show the same pattern of behavior over time.…”

“…6, we used the truth value judgment task (21) to test scope judgments of sentences containing a subject or an object universal QP and long or short negation. Example short negation sentences with a subject QP and an object QP are provided in viii and ix: viii) Motun mal-i wulthali-lul an nem-ess-ta.…”

“…We hypothesized in ref. 6 that a speaker controls a single grammar, either a verb-raising or a non-verb-raising grammar. However, there is an alternative interpretation of the results in ref.…”

“…However, there is an alternative interpretation of the results in ref. 6 in which each individual maintains both grammars (24,25). This is because in the experimental task of ref.…”