Exclusive focus particles and their syntax & scope-taking in English, Vietnamese, and Korean

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Abstract

Park, Myung-Kwan. 2020. Exclusive focus particles and their syntax & scope-taking in English, Vietnamese, and Korean. Linguistics Research 37(1), 1-28. This paper concentrates on the syntax and scope-taking of the exclusive focus particles in English, Vietnamese, and Korean. We first note that unlike in English, in Vietnamese the focus particle 'chi' cannot occur on VP-internal elements. Building on this dichotomy between the two languages, we develop and endorse a movement analysis of focus particles. Specifically, we argue that Vietnamese 'chi' and English 'only' at VP-peripheral position are moved overtly from VP-internal position to the Spec of the null Sigma head, thereby serving as a scope marker at its landing site. When at pre-subject position, however, they are not granted a licensing Sigma head in the upper TP domain, thus embracing the in-situ strategy for scope-taking. Meanwhile, unlike its Vietnamese counterpart, English 'only' overtly staying in VP-internal position undergoes covert movement to take propositional scope. Now in a parallel fashion to English 'only' at VP-internal position, the Korean focus particle '-man' unmarkedly undergoes not overt but covert movement to the Spec of the null Sigma head, which also in turn counts as a scope marker. At the same time, it can markedly take the overt movement strategy, landing at the right periphery of VP. (Dongguk University).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-28
Number of pages28
JournalLinguistic Research
Volume37
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Keywords

  • Exclusive focus particle
  • In-situ
  • Movement
  • Pre-subject
  • Scope-taking
  • VP-peripheral

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