ON THE DISTRIBUTION AND SCOPAL BEHAVIORS OF NUMERAL CLASSIFIER-TO/-(I)NA IN KOREAN

Abstract

This paper discusses syntactic and scopal behaviors of numeral classifiers (NCs) affixed with particles -to and -(i)na. It will be shown that the two are complementarily distributed in certain constructions. It will be also shown that even when they apparently occur in the same context they do differ in their scope interpretation: NC-to is under the scope of a negative polarity trigger, while NC-(i)na is outside of it. The state of facts leads us to conclude that one is a negative polarity item (NPI) and the other is a positive polarity item (PPI). Scope interaction facts confirm the dichotomy: Quantifiers hierarchically lower than NC-to scope under the licenser of the NC-to (e.g. negation), while those higher than NC-(i)na scope over a possible NPI trigger, if there is any. This paper also observes that, unlike amwu NPIs, which are claimed to be able to have scope over negation and have a free choice reading (Sells 2001), NC-to should be strictly under the scope of negation, hence being a ‘true’ NPI both syntactically and semantically.