A Phase-based Approach to ECM across CP in Korean

ECM across a CP in Korean poses difficulties from the standpoint of the locality of A-movement/agreement. A phase-based analysis is developed which requires two steps: (i) in the embedded CP, VP/vP containing its VP-internal subject first moves to Spec-CP, which renders the subject accessible to the matrix v, in accordance with Chomsky's Phase Impenetrability Condition; (ii) ECM takes place in a local relation between the matrix v and the embedded subject. It is shown that the otherwise puzzling fact that ECM across a CP, but not Passivization across a CP, is affected by the type of the embedded verb in Korean is accounted for in a principled way, based on the assumption that CP and vP, but not TP and VP, are phases.