Dummy Plural Marker -Tul in Korean: Agree and Spread

Abstract

Despite a variety of accounts proposed to capture the grammatical properties that the so-called dummy plural maker (DPM) -tul in Korean displays, it has been commonly taken for granted that a DPMed phrase is to be c-commanded by its associate plural element (APE). This paper observes, however, that the APE itself can host DPM -tul. This fact calls for a novel licensing mechanism, as any account that resorts to a direct c-command relation between a DPMed phrase and its APE will fail. This paper proposes that there is a functional category that Agrees with the APE. This is plausible because the semantic interpretation of the DPM construction has more to do with a semantically plural element, i.e., the APE, rather than a DPMed category. Then DPM -tul on the APE can be naturally considered as a phonological realization of the Agree relation. DPM -tul on a non-APE element is viewed merely as a copy due to an operation called Spread, much like the distribution of negative morphemes in negative concord languages, except for the optionality of the phonological realization.