Overlapping Reference and the So-called Plural Suffix Tul

Abstract

We argue in this paper that the permitted/non-permitted overlapping reference in English may be consistent with Principle A and B, and that even though Korean plural dependent terms superficially show overlapping reference, this property does not come from reflexives and pronouns themselves, but from the property of the plural suffix tul. According to Cho’s (1996) analysis, there are at least two functions for the Korean plural suffix tul: one for ‘x and others’, and the other for ‘general plurality’. However, we argue that Cho (1996)’s analysis of tul in caki-tul as ‘and others’ has difficulty in accounting for all the functions of the plural suffix tul. We propose in this paper that there are four functions for tul, that the plurality encoded in the form of ‘NP + tul’ in Korean functions as structurally plural, but semantically it functions both as singular and plural, and that a BVA reading, a group reading, and a mixed reading (overlapping reference) are attributed to the properties of the Korean plural morpheme tul. If our analysis is correct, then there are at least four functions for the so called plural suffix tul: one for general plurality (ordinary plural), one for acting as a singular-denoting expression (a BVA reading), one for ‘x and others’ (overlapping reference), and one for ‘all x’ (a group reading). Therefore, it is fairly reasonable to conclude that Korean plural dependent terms reveal dualistic number properties: a structurally plural dependent term in overlapping reference is an NP whose referents consist of a single entity or more than a single entity.