Young-Hoon Kim
Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics
Cornell University
Hello! This is Young-Hoon, a 4th year Ph.D. student at Cornell Linguistics. My main research interests lie between morphology and syntax (plus their interfaces with other modules of grammar). Roughly speaking, I am interested in how morphological and syntactic structures are represented in typologically different languages. Before joining Cornell, I received my B.A. and M.A. in linguistics from Seoul National University. Outside of linguistics, I really enjoy watching films, so I am occasionally found at local cinemas.
My first name is pronounced either [jʌŋ.hʊn] or [jʌŋ.βʊn], depending on how fast you say my name.
I can be reached out here: yk798 at cornell dot edu.
Here is my CV (last update: 07 April 2024).
Current Research Topics
Selection as Syntactic Dependencies
Selection was traditionally attributed to lexicon (or to interfaces), yet it has been revisited in terms of syntactic dependencies involving features. I take this approach to investigate the selection of different clause types in typologically-different languages, focusing on the locality profile and the categorial status of clausal periphery. Interactions with Ā-dependencies are also considered on a par.
Linearization of Complement Clauses and EPP
A subset of typical OV languages requires complement clauses to follow a matrix predicate, showing the VO behavior. I compare the pattern in Persian and Hindi, and argue that postverbal placement of complement clauses is due to linearization constrained by cyclic spell-out, and that it is conditioned by different [EPP]-properties in the vP phase.
Auxiliary Verb Periphrasis in Turkish
Languages use different strategies for periphrastic auxiliary verbs in complex verbal inflection forms. I investigate the auxiliary verb pattern in Turkish, and argue that the distribution of auxiliary verbs in Turkish follows from a morphologically-driven well-formedness constraint, which has consequences for the composition of verb complexes under agglutination.
Null Argument Phenomenon in Japanese and Korean
In Japanese and Korean, arguments may be null given the presence of an overt antecedent or discourse context. When compared to the scrambling configuration, the distribution of null arguments seems to be syntactically constrained by structural configurations. I show further that the licensing of null arguments can be understood as a syntactic probing from a discourse-domain operator.