"Extra" Accusatives in Korean and Their Implications for Japanese

Abstract

I propose that an additional head called Tr (Basilico 1998, Bowers 2002) must be introduced within the verbal projection, between vP and VP, which is responsible for introducing and licensing the high accusatives. I argue that the high accusatives are "alternatively" case-marked in a Spec-Head relation within the framework where case-marking is canonically conducted via Agree between an asymmetrically c-commanding Probe and a matching Goal. I argue that the "alternative" case-marking is independently motivated by the Ba-phrases in Chinese and the Ra-phrases in Persian. I then take up the issues around the Double-O Constraint in Japanese, which has largely remained unexplained. Based on the phase theory and multiple Spell-Out (Chomsky 2000, 2001, Hiraiwa 2002) and the phrase structure and the case theory mentioned above. I give them a principled account. I also discuss some crucial differences between Japanese and Korean in licensing accusative case from the perspective of the proposed phrase structure, case theory, and the phase theory.