Some Negative Remarks on Negation in Korean

Abstract

The aim of this paper is a modest one, namely to compare three hypotheses on negation in Korean and to test whether they can adequately account for the data. The goal of linguistic theory, like that of any other of the empirical sciences, is the construction and validation of an abstract hypothesis on the nature of an enormously complex entity called language on the basis of accessible data. To be more specific, a hypothesis a linguist is trying to construct is a model that provides the simplest explanation for all known facts and is capable of predicting other facts of a similar' nature. With this criterion in mind, I will directly proceed to the discussion of a truly fascinating aspect of the Korean syntax: the problem of negation.