Japanese/Korean Linguistics

This study investigates how Korean what-so (mwue-l kulehkey ‘what-ACC so’) constructions are disambiguated through prosodic and morphosyntactic cues. Previous studies have shown that these constructions permit three non-canonical interpretations (why-question, wh-exclamative, rhetorical question), in addition to the canonical what-question interpretation. Based on an analysis of naturally occurring speech, we demonstrate that cues to these interpretations are found in both morphosyntax and prosody. Morphosyntactically, topic-marked subjects are incompatible with rhetorical question interpretations, while the presence of an additional accusative-marked object favors wh-exclamatives and why-question readings. Prosodically, wh-question interpretations (what- and why-questions) are associated with rising Intonational Phrase (IP) boundary tones, whereas non-wh-question interpretations (wh-exclamatives and rhetorical questions) exhibit falling IP boundary tones. Overall, these findings demonstrate how Korean employs morphosyntactic marking and prosodic boundary tones to resolve interpretive ambiguity in what-so constructions.