Licensing Nominals in the Multiple Nominative Constructions in Korean: A Mereological Perspective

This paper investigates some important constraints on the licensing of nominals in the so-called Multiple Nominative Constructions (MNCs) in Korean from a mereological point of view, proposing a semantic relation hierarchy. The main idea advanced in this paper is that MNCs are cyclically formed only when the relationship between the two consecutive NPs satisfies one of the conceptual constraints including inclusion, possession and attribution. The inclusion constraints are further divided into meronymic relations, spatio-temporal relations and classificational relations. The meronymic relations integrate some essential ideas of the tradition of mereological thoughts. Some appealing consequences of this proposal include a new comprehensive classification of MNCs and a straightforward account of some long standing problems such as how the additional nominative NPs are licensed.