An Optimality Approach to NPI Constructions

The Journal of English Language and Literature. The purpose of this study is to provide an optimality theoretic approach to NPIs (Negative Polarity Items) in English and Korean by proposing three universal constraints. The constraints are C-command Condition (CCC): NPI must be c-commanded by a constituent with negative meaning; Locality Condition (LOC): NPI must be bound in the local domain; Subjacency: NPI licensing must satisfy Subjacency Condition (SBJ); Previous analyses have shown that these three constraints control NPIs in one way or another. This study attempts to demonstrate that NPIs in both English and Korean languages can be nicely accounted for by setting a different constraint hierarchy for the two independent languages. That is, by slightly changing the constraint hierarchy, distributional differences of NPIs in both languages can be accounted straightforwardly within the framework of Optimality Theory.