선택의문문의 의미와 구조

초록

This paper investigates the structural and interpretive principles of Korean alternative questions. By comparing alternative questions with yes–no questions and wh-questions in terms of focus phenomena and semantic structure, it argues that alternative questions constitute a semantically distinct question type. In particular, the paper distinguishes between polar alternative questions and general alternative questions. Polar alternative questions pattern with yes–no questions in allowing the answer set {p, ¬p}, but differ in the realization of truth-value focus and in the prosodic and realization of focus. General alternative questions pattern with wh-questions in taking a set of propositions as possible answers, but differ in that the alternative set is restricted to the alternatives explicitly provided in the sentence. To account for these properties, the paper proposes a disjunctive semantic component and an operator, OPALT, which restricts the range of possible answers. It also argues that the restrictions on wh-word distribution and auxiliary particle combination in alternative questions follow from their semantic structure and focus configuration. Syntactically, polar alternative questions are analyzed as involving predicate copying followed by negation, whereas general alternative questions are analyzed as involving the coordination of two clauses. Even though no overt disjunctive connective appears on the surface, both constructions are argued to involve a clausal coordination structure. The study is significant in that it provides an integrated account of the interaction among structure, meaning, and prosody in Korean alternative questions.

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