A Scope Puzzle with Embedded Question Markers in Korean

This paper investigates a scope puzzle in Korean embedded wh-questions marked by distinct embedded question markers -ci and -kka. While -ci freely permits embedded wh-phrases to take scope outside their clause, -kka typically blocks such long-distance scope, except when the wh-phrase is scrambled above the embedded subject or functions as the embedded subject itself. Surprisingly, when an embedded -kka clause is further embedded under -ci, long-distance scope is blocked regardless of scrambling. Adopting Cable’s (2010) Q-based syntactic theory, I argue that Korean employs both Q-projection and Q-adjunction structures, challenging the parametric classification of Korean as a Q-adjunction language. I propose that Korean question markers are interrogative complementizers, rather than phonologically overt Q-particles, and that they impose a language-specific constraint: Interrogative C heads block long-distance Q-wh association. Furthermore, -kka is selected by an additional phase head that projects an XP above CP, encoding its conjectural evidential semantics and inducing scope blocking. This analysis accounts for the scope behavior of Korean embedded questions and invites a reevaluation of wh-question typologies, suggesting that Q-projection and Q-adjunction structures can coexist within a single language.