On the Meaning of wh-(N)-ina and wh-(N)-itun in Korean

Abstract

This paper provides a compositional semantics of wh-expressions followed by the particles -ina and -itun. Although those expressions have often been considered as semantically identical in the literature, a closer scrutiny reveals that wh-(N)-ina is essentially a universal quantifier, whereas wh-(N)-itun is a free choice item. I propose that the two constructions are derived from the same structure, i.e., alternative conditionals, but the different derivational processes yield their different quantificational forces. Specifically, wh-(N)-itun is synchronically an alternative conditional with ellipsis, wh-(N)-ina has become a distributive universal operator via reanalysis.