It is well known that a plural marker is optional in languages that allow bare nouns, unlike English that does not allow bare nouns. This is so as a bare noun can denote either a singular or a plural meaning. However, in recent studies, it has been identified that even in a bare noun language such as Persian or Korean a plural marker is obligatory to indicate a plural meaning. The requirement of plural marker in these languages is identified to be only possible in an anaphoric context. This paper addresses an issue of why such a context in a bare noun language requires a plural marker. In particular, this paper focuses on the syntax of plural and anaphoric context that make possible the obligatory presence of plural. By building on the previous approaches on this issue, this paper proposes that a plural instantiates the Num(ber) head with a binary number feature such as [±plural]. Via Agree (Chomsky 1998), the feature on the Num head values an uninterpretable number feature on the D head that is the locus of definiteness. This paper shows that Korean allows an obligatory plural marking similar to English, but only in a restricted context, i.e., anaphoric context. Moreover, this paper identified that the strict presence of plural marking in Korean is cross-linguistic phenomenon found in other bare noun languages, which has not been paid much attention in the literature.
목차
I. Introduction II. Plurals and Definite: Languages Different from English III. Previous Approaches 3.1 Plural and definite in Persian 3.2 Plural -tul and definite in Korean IV. Plural -tul and Anaphoric Definite 4.1 The proposal: Num and D agreement 4.2 Discussion V. Conclusion Works Cited Abstract
한국중앙영어영문학회 [The Jungang English Language And Literature Association Of Korea]
설립연도
1968
분야
인문학>영어와문학
소개
본 학회는 영미어문학의 학술연구와 이에 부합하는 아래의 사업을 기획 수행하며,
또한 회원 상호간의 친목을 도모함을 목적으로 한다.
1. 학회지 발간
2. 연구 발표회, 강연회, 공동연구
3. 영미어문학 관련 도서출판
4. 영미어문학 관계 도서 및 자료의 모집 및 비치
5. 기타 본회의 목적 달성에 필요한 사업
간행물
간행물명
영어영문학연구 [The Jungang Journal of English Language and Literature]