Wh-adverbs and Nominative Case in Korean

Abstract

This study examines the theoretical basis for the appearance of the nominative case marker(NOM) on certain wh-adverbs in Korean(see Kim and Maling, 1993). Drawing on independent evidence from Korean case stacking, I argue that such wh-adverbs project KP at the highest level and that they are associated with a focus interpretation introduced by FocusP. This enables the assignment of NOM. Crucially, the proposed analysis accounts for the absence of NOM on way ‘why’ and ettehkey ‘how’: these adverbs are either externally merged in positions structurally higher than FocusP, making case assignment unavailable, or are deprived of KP, rendering them inaccessible to NOM. This analysis contributes to a broader understanding of the interaction involving focus, case, and adverbials in Korean. Overall, this work presents a syntactic approach to handling the phenomenon at issue.