Two types of question and existential quantification
Youngjun Jang · Linguistics · 1999
The purpose of this paper is twofold: one goal is to establish that in languages like Korean question clauses are best characterized if classified into self-addressed vs. hearer-addressed questions, which are shown to be morphologically distinguished, along with the distinction of wh- vs. yes–no questions. The other is to show that the so-called existential quantifiers (or indeterminate nouns) are in fact embedded self-addressed questions, contra Kim's (1989, 1990) claim that Korean wh -phrases are pure quantifiers undergoing LF quantifier raising. I also show that the long standing “ambiguity problem” is only apparent: A wh -phrase, if c-commanded by a self-addressed question marker, gets interpreted as an existential quantifier, while it is interpreted as a pure wh -word if c-commanded by a hearer-addressed question marker.