Notes on NPI-scrambling and Intervention Effects in Korean

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the intervention effect induced by scrambling of NPIs across wh-phrases in Korean. Given that the intervention effect arises only with scrambling of NPIs, it is often noted that scrambling does not undergo reconstruction. Adopting the standard assumption that scrambling may reconstruct (Saito 1989, 1992), we argue that the apparent anti-reconstruction effect results from the different timing in applications of syntactic operations (e.g., wh-movement) and reconstruction processes. Assuming that syntactic operations take place before reconstruction processes, we suggest that wh-movement across a scrambled NPI induces an intervention effect and thus no reconstruction possibilities arise. One of the implications of this analysis is that the intervention effect is not induced representationally at LF, but is induced derivationally, contra what is argued by Beck & Kim (1997) and Tanaka (1997, 2003).