Tense mismatches in Korean gapping and bare ko-coordination: an experimental study

Korean coordination allows non-final conjuncts to appear either without a tensed verb as in gapping (aka right-node-raising or right-peripheral ellipsis) or without a verbal tense morpheme as in bare ko-coordination. This study uses an acceptability judgment experiment designed to investigate whether tense mismatches degrade the acceptability of Korean gapping and bare ko-coordination with reference to full coordination. The experimental findings of the study indicate that tense-matched gapping is preferred over tense-mismatched gapping and that tense-matched bare ko-coordination is preferred over tense-mismatched bare ko-coordination. The results of the study also demonstrate that temporal order, whether it is sequential or reverse, does not affect the acceptability of Korean gapping and bare ko-coordination because tense-mismatched violations are symmetric so that they cause to affect all conjuncts. Overall, this study discusses how the phenomena of tense-mismatches are accounted for in full coordination, bare ko-coordination, and gapping. The tense-mismatches in these constructions are due to differences in conjunct size. The conjunct size is TP in full coordination (with two overt Ts) and bare-ko coordination (with a null T in the first conjunct and an overt T in the second conjunct), while it is vP in gapping (with an overt T in the second conjunct).