Some notes on Multiple Nominative Constructions in Korean

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the properties of possessive Multiple Nominative Construction (MNCs) in Korean. It is also elucidated that all NPs in MNCs occupy the distinct specifier positions of the same head T and each NP is base-generated in the specifier position of its larger NP and the largest NP is located in the specifier position of VP before the displacement. NPs occupying the specifier of their larger NPs undergo cyclic movement and this causes multiple specifiers of TP. This Left Branch Extraction is possible because Korean lacks DP. It is argued that all NPs get nominative Case through T-feature sharing, which means that nominative Case in MNCs is given structurally. This paper also demonstrates that all NPs with nominative Case in MNCs are subjects and they have topic-like interpretation because of "aboutness", which both subjects and topics have semantically.