How Korean and Chinese Differ in the Licensing of Indeterminates

Abstract

In this paper we investigate epistemic adverbs (E-adv’s) that induce intervention effects (IEs) for indeterminates of interrogative use in Korean and Chinese. We argue that the Korean E-adv’s undergo feature movement, being subject to the IEs when the E-adv’s intervene. On the other hand, the Chinese E-adv’s undergo overt phrasal movement, obviating the IEs. Meanwhile, Chinese indeterminates of non-interrogative use are licensed by negation or E-adv’s in non-veridical contexts to function as an existential quantifier. Korean counterparts are locally licensed by the particle –inka on them.