On Interpreting the Scope of Negation in Korean

Abstract

For more than a decade, negation has been one of the most acrimoniously debated Issues in the study of Korean. Despite continuous controversy surrounding the question, the subject has never been fully explored and many interesting aspects of negation still remain untouched today. The weakness of previous studies, including my own modest contributions, lies in their failure to link up syntax with the semantics of negation. The majority of works on Korean negation can be characterized as mere semantic speculations without syntax. Unfortunately, semantic speculations narrowly focus on the question of the synonymy of two types of negative sentences and the ambiguity on one of the two. My own endeavors in this area are essentially syntactic, and semantic questions have been begged. I would like, therefore, to address myself in this paper to the problem of the scope of negation.