Can You Violate the Conjunction Condition in Korean? Tight vs. Loose Coordination

Abstract

Zhang (2010) argues that the Coordinate Structure Constraint (CSC) can be violated as in extraction of collective-reading conjuncts in Chinese he/gen coordinate construction. Likewise, Bošković (2013, 2017 a,b, 2018), Stjepanović (2014) and Oda (2016) argue that movement of the head of an island voids islandhood and thus CSC can be violated in some cases. Specifically, Oda (2016) claims that Japanese allows extraction of conjuncts in violation of CSC. This paper argues that the conjunctive -wa in Korean does not allow violation of the conjunct condition of CSC, even when it has collective interpretation, based on the data related to plural agreement marker –tul, reciprocal pronoun selo(each other), and intentional/optative verbs. This paper concludes by suggesting that, cross-linguistically, extractable conjunct is in ‘loose’-coordination relation with the other conjunct in that it is base-generated at the edge of coordinate structure, while non-extractable one, as a ‘tightly’ coordinated conjunct, is within coordinate structure.