Why-Stripping in Korean: A Division of Labor between Syntax and Processing

Abstract

This paper investigates why-stripping in Korean. We observe that the interpretation possibility of way ‘why’ in why-stripping is restricted by the accompanying focused element: The interpretation of way is restricted to the domain of the focused element. We argue that the restriction arises due to intricate interplay of syntactic structures and certain processing mechanisms. First, it is shown that the available embedded reading is supplied by underlying derivations that involve CP-fronting of the embedded clause that contains both way and the focused element, and subsequent double clausal ellipsis. The arguments are based on the contrast between way-stripping and why-sluicing and the fact that application of partial ellipsis to the CP-fronting derivation yields the same interpretation. We also argue that the unavailable interpretation is prohibited independently by the processing mechanism operative on the output of elliptical process. The mechanism demands that the parser process elliptical remnants as belonging to the same clausal domain, thereby not assuming the derivation that would render the otherwise unavailable interpretation. One of the implications of this account is that processing of elliptical constructions is more constricted than their non-elliptical counterparts.