Wide Scope of Specific Indefinite NPIs over Conditional Adjunct Islands

Abstract

When the non-specific amwu-N-to and the specific etten/enu-N-to, both typical negative polarity items (NPIs), appear in conditional adjunct clauses, the former violates the adjunct island condition and becomes ungrammatical, while the latter allows a wide-scope interpretation within a choice function, making it grammatical. The choice function representation enables specific indefinite NPIs to be felicitous and properly be licensed by negation in the main clause, as they successfully escape the adjunct island condition. In contrast to English, where the conditional conjunction if licenses NPIs, the Korean counterpart does not license strong NPIs, thus requiring specific indefinite NPIs like etten/enu-N-to to be licensed by a negator in the matrix clause. This paper shows, through a choice function representation, that specific indefinite NPIs in Korean conditional adjuncts do not adhere to the clause-mate condition and exhibit island-escaping effects, which ultimately challenges the long-held clause-boundedness for NPIs. Additionally, specific indefinite NPIs can also function as free choice items (FCIs) in affirmative modality contexts. These findings further reinforce the crucial and fundamental role of specificity in indefinite NPIs.