Cover not available

In:New Insights into Theoretical Syntax from Asian Languages: Studies in honor of C.-T. James Huang
Edited by Andrew Simpson
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 290] 2026
► pp. 8–34

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Non-conventional Merge to the right

Evidence from adjunct displacement

 | Seoul National University
Published online: 15 January 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.290.01ko
Abstract
This paper examines two types of rightward adjunct displacement as manifested in Korean and English. The paper proposes that the postverbal adjunct in Korean is derived by sideward movement of NP and concatenation of the adjunct, yielding a multi-rooted structure. It is argued that the differences in right-displacement between the two languages stem from the type of Merge applied to the adjunct. In Korean, the postverbal adjunct is concatenated but not syntactically integrated, while in English, the extraposed adjunct is fully integrated via late-merge. Evidence for the proposal is drawn from locality restrictions, root effects, embeddability, and scope/binding variations associated with right-displaced adjuncts. The paper provides novel evidence for the existence of non-conventional Merge in language, supporting the view that rightward displacement is not a uniform phenomenon.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Puzzles on adjunct displacement in English and Korean
    • 2.1Adjunct extraposition in English
    • 2.2Postverbal adjuncts in Korean
    • 2.3Further contrast between English and Korean postverbal adjuncts
  • 3.Proposal
  • 4.Analysis on Core properties of Korean postverbal adjuncts
    • 4.1Right root effects
    • 4.2Embeddability
    • 4.3Scope properties
  • 5.Revisiting typological differences in the right peripheries
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (58)
References
Abe, Jun. 2019. “Focus Licensing at the Left Periphery in Japanese Right Dislocation.” Syntax 22 (1): 1–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akmajian, Adrian. 1975. “More Evidence for an NP Cycle.” Linguistic Inquiry 6 (1): 115–129.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baltin, Mark. 1981. “Strict Bounding.” In The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition, edited by C. L. Baker and John J. McCarthy, 257–295. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Extraposition.” In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Vol. II, edited by Martin Everaert and Hen van Riemsdijk, 237–271. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bobaljik, Jonathan, and Samuel Brown. 1997. “Interarboreal Operations: Head Movement and the Extension Requirement.” Linguistic Inquiry 28: 345–356.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bobaljik, Jonathan. 1995. Morphosyntax: The Syntax of Verbal Inflection. PhD diss., MIT.
Choe, Hyon Sook. 1987. “Successive-Cyclic Rightward Movement in Korean.” In Harvard Studies in Korean Linguistics 2, edited by Susumu Kuno et al., 40–56. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. “Minimalist Inquiries: The Framework.” In Step by Step: Essays on Minimalist Syntax in Honor of Howard Lasnik, edited by Roger Martin et al., 89–155. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. “Derivation by Phase.” In Ken Hale: A Life in Language, edited by Michael Kenstowicz, 1–52. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “On Phases.” In Foundational Issues in Linguistic Theory: Essays in Honor of Jean-Roger Vergnaud, edited by Robert Freidin, Carlos P. Otero, and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta, 133–166. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Problems of Projection.” Lingua 130: 33–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Problems of Projection: Extensions.” In Structures, Strategies and Beyond: Studies in Honor of Adriana Belletti, edited by Elisa Di Domenico, Cornelia Hamann, and Simona Matteini, 3–16. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chung, Daeho. 2012. “Pre- vs. Post-verbal Asymmetries and the Syntax of Korean Right Dislocated Construction.” Studies in Generative Grammar 22 (4): 703–721. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “On What Determines the Modification Relation in Korean Adnominal Adjunct RDCs.” Linguistic Research 33 (3): 351–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Citko, Barbara. 2005. “On the Nature of Merge: External Merge, Internal Merge, and Parallel Merge.” Linguistic Inquiry 36: 475–496. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culicover, Peter, and Michael Rochemont. 1990. “Extraposition and the Complement Principle.” Linguistic Inquiry 21: 23–47.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1992. “Adjunct Extraction from NP and the ECP.” Linguistic Inquiry 23 (3): 496–501.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, Danny, and David Pesetsky. 2005. “Cyclic Linearization of Syntactic Structure.” Theoretical Linguistics 31: 1–45. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, Danny, and Jon Nissenbaum. 1999. “Extraposition and Scope: A Case for Overt QR.” In Proceedings of WCCFL 18, edited by Sonya Bird et al., 132–144. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. “Extraposition and Covert Movement.” Handout presented at New York University. [URL]
Fox, Danny. 2017. “Non-local Extraposition: A Modification of Williams’s Generalization.” In A Schrift to Fest Kyle Johnson, edited by Nicholas LaCara, Keir Moulton, and Anne-Michelle Tessier, 131–139. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Francis, Elaine J., and Laura A. Michaelis. 2017. “When Relative Clause Extraposition Is the Right Choice, It’s Easier.” Language and Cognition 9 (2): 332–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gracanin-Yeksek, Martina. 2007. About Sharing. PhD diss., MIT.
Haegeman, Liliane. 2006. “Conditionals, Factives and the Left Periphery.” Lingua 116: 1651–1669. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornstein, Norbert, and Jairo Nunes. 2008. “Adjunction, Labeling, and Bare Phrase Structure.” Biolinguistics 2: 57–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornstein, Norbert. 2009. A Theory of Syntax: Minimal Operations and Universal Grammar. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1982. Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar. PhD diss., MIT.
Hunter, Tim, and Robert Frank. 2014. “Eliminating Rightward Movement: Extraposition as Flexible Linearization of Adjuncts.” Linguistic Inquiry 45: 225–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ishii, Toru. 2017. “Transfer and Self Pair-Merge.” In A Schrift to Fest Kyle Johnson, edited by Nicholas LaCara, Keir Moulton, and Anne-Michelle Tessier, 159–167. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kayne, Richard. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ko, Heejeong. 2014. “Remarks on Right Dislocation Construction in Korean: Challenges to Bi-clausal Analyses.” Language Research 50 (2): 275–310.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Two Ways to the Right: A Hybrid Approach to Right-Dislocation in Korean.” Language Research 51 (1): 3–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “Gapless Right-Dislocation: The Role of Overt Correlates.” Language Research 52: 1–30.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Right Dislocation: Copies vs. Fragments.” In A Pesky Set: A Festschrift for David Pesetsky, edited by Claire Halpert, Hadas Kotek, and Coppe van Urk, 253–262. Cambridge, MA: MIT, Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. “Right-Dislocation in Korean: An Overview.” In Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics, edited by Sungdai Cho and John Whitman, 339–375. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lebeaux, David. 1988. Language Acquisition and the Form of the Grammar. PhD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Müller, Gereon. 2017. “Structure Removal: An Argument for Feature-Driven Merge.” Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 2 (1): 28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nunes, Jairo. 2001. “Sideward Movement.” Linguistic Inquiry 32: 303–344. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Linearization of Chains and Sideward Movement. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Overfelt, Jason. 2015. “Extraposition of NPIs from NP.” Lingua 164: 25–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Extraposition, Polarity, and Late Merge.” In A Schrift to Fest Kyle Johnson, edited by Nicholas LaCara, Keir Moulton, and Anne-Michelle Tessier, 305–312. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Bum-Sik, and Hyosik Kim. 2016. “Case-Drop, Left-Branch Extraction and Multiplicity in the Right-Dislocation Construction.” Linguistic Research 33 (2): 259–297. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Bum-Sik, and Sei-Rang Oh. 2017. “On the Island-(In)Sensitivity in the Right-Dislocation Construction in Korean.” The Journal of Linguistic Science 83: 135–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pesetsky, David. 1989. “Language-Particular Processes and the Earliness Principle.” Manuscript, MIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rizzi, Luigi. 1997. “The Fine Structure of the Left Periphery.” In Elements of Grammar, edited by Liliane Haegeman, 281–337. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, John R. 1967. Constraints on Variables in Syntax. PhD diss., MIT.
Sells, Peter. 1999. “Japanese Postposing Involves No Movement.” Paper presented at the meeting of the Linguistic Association of Great Britain, Lancaster.
Simpson, Andrew, and Arunima Choudhury. 2015. “The Nonuniform Syntax of Postverbal Elements in SOV Languages: Hindi, Bangla, and the Rightward Scrambling Debate.” Linguistic Inquiry 46 (3): 533–551. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stepanov, Arthur. 2001. “Late Adjunction and Minimalist Phrase Structure.” Syntax 4 (2): 94–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strunk, Jan, and Neal Snider. 2013. “Subclausal Locality Constraints on Relative Clause Extraposition.” In Rightward Movement in a Comparative Perspective, edited by Gert Webelhuth, Manfred Sailer, and Heike Walker, 99–143. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Uriagereka, Juan. 1999. “Multiple Spell-Out.” In Working Minimalism, edited by Samuel David Epstein and Norbert Hornstein, 251–282. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilder, Chris. 1995. “Rightward Movement as Leftward Deletion.” In On Extraction and Extraposition in German, edited by Uli Lutz and Jürgen Pafel, 273–309. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Shared Constituents and Linearization.” In Topics in Ellipsis, edited by Kyle Johnson, 229–258. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Williams, Edwin. 1974. Rule Ordering in Syntax. PhD diss., MIT.
Yoon, James. 2016. “Implications of Constraints on Null Constituents for Analyses of the Right Dislocation Construction.” In Japanese-Korean Linguistics 23, edited by Mike Kenstowicz, Ted Levin, and Ryo Masuda, 1–18. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Vries, Mark. 2013. “Multidominance and Locality.” Lingua 134: 149–169. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Riemsdijk, Henk. 2006. “Grafts Follow from Merge.” In Phases of Interpretation, edited by M. Frascarelli, 17–44. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue