On Negative Imperatives in Korean

  • Han, Chung-hye (Dept. of Linguistics Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby BC V5A 156, Canada) ;
  • Lee, Chung-min (Dept. of Linguistics, and Cognitive Science Program, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742)
  • Published : 2002.02.01

Abstract

In this paper, we address two questions concerning negative imperatives in Korean: (i) what is the morpho-syntactic nature of mal in negative imperatives\ulcorner; and (ii) why is it impossible to form negative imperatives with short negation an\ulcorner We will argue that the clause structure of imperatives include a projection of deontic modality and a projection of imperative operator encoding illocutionary force, and that oaf is a lexicalization of long negation and deontic modality. We then propose that a negative imperative with short negation is ruled out because such construction maps onto incoherent interpretation which can be spelled out as I direct you to bring about a negative state or a negative event.

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