Asymmetrical Dependency Relation between Checker and Chekee

Abstract

This paper investigates into the dependency relation between checker and checkee by drawing mainly on the sentential negation constructions in Korean, West Flemish and Italian, and provides reinforcing evidence for the generalization that the relation is not symmetrical but asymmetrical. More specifically, a checkee requires the presence of a checker, whereas the latter does not require the presence of the former. Furthermore, the trace of a checkee can play a grammatical role, but that of a checker cannot. On the basis of theses generalizations, we present various aspects of syntactic effects in the negative constructions in the three languages at issue that follow from the asymmetrical relation between checker and checkee. Incidentally, we explore the syntactic role of an empty negative operator as a checker in the negative construction in Italian. We then turn to demonstrate that an empty wh operator rather than a wh-phrase placed in situ plays a checking role in the wh-construction in Korean.