Interrogative Feature Checking in Japanese and Korean

This paper discusses the feature checking mechanism of interrogative sentences in Japanese and Korean. We first focus on a phenomenon of omitting question markers in informal speech in Japanese and attempt to provide an account for it within the framework of Principles and Parameters approach. We argue that question markers can be omitted only if interrogative features of the sentence can be properly checked. In particular we claim that I-to-C head-movement is me of the options for interrogative feature checking in Japanese as well as languages without question markers. A close examination of Korean reveals certain differences between Korean and Japanese. Some theoretical consequences from this analysis are also discussed.