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This project studies how the question operators (Q-Ops) in Mandarin and Korean interact with existential quantification. Logical variables wh-indeterminants in both Mandarin and Korean can receive existential reading. What is different from Mandarin and Korean is that while Mandarin takes syntactic existential quantification, Korean takes morphological existential quantification. I claim that there is a hierarchy; if a given language takes morphological strategy, syntactic strategy is blocked. Hence, there is no syntactic licensing in Korean. For syntactic strategy, I utilize the spirit of Diesing (1992), who claims that there is an automatic existential closure at the v*P level. The existential quantification at v*P level is triggered by various syntactic contexts with different syntactic forces. For example, negation triggers a weak context, whereas if-clause triggers a strong context. The strength of contexts is revealed in two facets: A-reconstruction and vacuous quantification. Ultimately, based on the established framework, I explain the aspects of wh-quantification in Mandarin and Korean in diverse syntactic contexts.
Keywords: Syntax-Semantics Interface, Quantification, Unselective Binding, Existential Closure, Morphological Licensing, Conditionals, Negation, Mandarin, Korean