Gradable Predicates and Directed Motion Constructions

2000

This paper reports the syntactic distribution of amwu-N-to/-irato/-ina phrases, which are representative polarity sensitive items (PSIs) in Korean, and accounts for their semantic characteristics in terms of "arbitrary choice quantification" and "concession." In the first section, we extensively illustrate the distributional behaviour of the PSIs in various constructions and roughly generalize the distribution in terms of "(anti/non-) verdicality." Section 2 claims amwu denotes an arbitrary choice quantifier, and the particles -to/-irato/-ina as "concessive" markers, so the compounds denote a special element in a pragmatic scale determined by context/situation. Section 3, based on the pragmatics of scalar implicature, accounts for the apparent ambiguity of PSIs between "universal" and "existential" readings, and further characterizes the difference among the concessive markers -to/-irato/-ina in terms of "quantity/quality scale." * Earlier versions of this paper were read at the following conferences: The

Language Research, 1993

(1) a. kil-ul ket-ta. road-Acc walk-Dec. "to walk the street" b. san-ul ollaka-ta mountain-Ace climlr-Dec. "to climb the mountain" * Yale romanization has been adopted for transcribing Korean examples in this paper. The following abbreviations have been used to label grammatical morphemes in the glosses below Korean example sentences:

Semantics and Linguistic Theory

This paper presents new data on the semantic interaction between gradablepredicates and the Thai particle khuen. When the particle composes with rÓ:n (hot)and nǎ:w (cold), it describes temperature increases and decreases, respectively, inmuch the same way as English get hotter and get colder. However, when it composeswith so-called mid-scale predicates like Pùn (warm), it can describe increases ordecreases, as long as the change is toward temperatures described as Pùn (warm).We first consider two types of analyses where (i) Pùn has an inherent central orien-tation much like English mild or (ii) khuen describes changes oriented toward thethreshold of the gradable predicate it combines with. We argue against analyses oftype (i) and (ii) and show that they predict unattested interpretations.We offer a semantic account for khuen in which the particle essentially picks analternative gradable predicate to the one it composes with, and describes changeswhose degree ends up lower than where...

2015

This paper aims to search periphrastic constructions that denote a progressive aspect in Korean and to investigate the properties and differences of these constructions; ① [Verb-고 있-(Pre)FinalEnding], ②[V-고 계시-(P)FE], ③[V-고 앉았-(P)FE], ④[V-고 자빠졌-(P)FE] and ⑤[V-는 중이-(P)FE]. From the point of view of Construction Grammar, internal and external characteristics of these constructions are analyzed. Then the meanings of constituents of each construction are considered as internal characteristics. And Aktionsart(lexical aspect) of preceding verb and grammatical properties such as addressee honorific and sentence type of following ending are considered as external characteristics. Finally, these are visualized by way of semantic map. In summary, ①[V-고 있-(P)FE] is unmarked construction that covers the most wide functional domains. ②[V-고 계시-(P)FE] has a restriction on [-respect] addressee honorific style such as Hage style, Haera style and Hae style in proposative sentence, and is incompatible with Haera style in imperative sentence. ③[V-고 앉았 -(P)FE], ④[V-고 자빠졌-(P)FE] and ⑤[V-는 중이-(P)FE] are not able to co-occur with proposative sentence and imperative sentence without reference to any addressee honorific.

Linguistic Research, 2015

In the analyses of the Korean imperfective constructions, the two types of imperfective marking,-ko iss and-e iss, have been differentiated in terms of whether a progressive or a resultative reading is obtained, or in terms of dynamicity or telicity of the verb linked to them. With such analyses confronting empirical difficulties, a syntactic factor of unaccusativity has been proposed as the key for the differentiation. According to the proposal, whether the verb takes a VP internal subject or a VP external subject is responsible for the selection between the two types of imperfective marking. Many Korean verbs, however, are able to select both types, contrary to the prediction by the proposal. In order to explain their selection patterns properly, it is necessary to depart from the tacit assumption that the morpho-syntactic structure of-ko iss and-e iss is identical. Maintaining the idea of unaccusativity, we propose that the combination of-e with the main verb makes up one syntactic unit with iss and is subject to the grammatical condition that the verb combining with-e iss must be unaccusative or passive. By contrast, the combination of the main verb and-ko is a separate morpho-syntactic unit from the auxiliary iss and it is not subject to any particular grammatical constraints. Seemingly problematic examples to our proposal can be accounted for by the condition that there should not be any conflict between the imperfective readings of-ko iss/-e iss and the aspectual meaning of the combined verb.

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS, 2013

There has been a debate concerning the categorial status of nominal adjectives in Japanese (na-adjectives), since they exhibit several properties of both canonical adjectives (k-adjectives) and nouns. Although properties of each category have been observed, there has been no cross-categorial approach to the differences among these elements. This paper demonstrates that the theory of scale structures proposed by captures various morphological realizations of prenominal modifiers in Japanese. First, maximum-standard adjectives with lower closed scales and adjectives with upper closed scales tend to be realized as na-adjectives. Second, relative adjectives tend to be k-adjectives. Third, non-gradable modifiers are realized as nominal modifiers (no-adjectives). There are also some cases where relative "adjectives" and maximum-standard "adjectives" with scales whose lower end is closed are realized as no-adjectives. These observations reveal a tendency for a certain scale type to have a certain morphological form of adjectives in Japanese.*

Korean Linguistics , 2019

Yeon, Jaehoon. 2019. 11. A Variety of Grammatical Constructions: Double-Accusative Constructions in Korean Revisited. Korean Linguistics 85, 203~241. In Korean, there are constructions in which the accusative particle ul/lul occurs on more than one NP within a single sentence. Among many types of the so-called 'Double Accusative Constructions' (DAC), an External Possession (EP) Type DAC (Payne & Barshi, 1999) is the main concern of this paper. It has been questionable whether DACs are genuine double object constructions. We have argued that DACs can be regarded as structures in which there is only one real object, but two Acc-marked NPs, based on some object diagnostics. We have examined the constraints acting upon Korean EP type DACs while arguing that Korean DACs cannot be fully explained solely based on syntax or semantics without considering some pragmatic and cognitive factors. We have shown that 'contiguity' and 'affectedness' are the two most important factors in determining constraints on felicitous EP type DACs. The notion of 'contiguity' and 'affectedness' is more appropriate than any other factors such as the distinction between alienable and inalienable possession to characterise more accurately the relationship between the possessor and the possessee in Korean EP type DACs. It is also noted that 'contiguity' and 'affectedness' cannot be thematic roles or semantic roles because what counts as 'contiguous' and 'affected' is context-dependent and cognitively/pragmatically interpreted. The degree of acceptability and interpretation of DACs depend on pragmatics and extra-linguistic knowledge.

2020

This dissertation investigates the syntactic and semantic aspects of long-distance dependency involved in Korean wh-Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). Korean wh-NPIs consist of a whitem and a focus particle -to meaning ‘also’ or ‘even’. In all reported cases, the wh-item and -to appear adjacent to each other. However, the wh-item and -to can appear discontinuously when the NPI licenser is located in a different clause from the wh-NPI. I will call this new form of wh-NPIs “split wh-NPIs”. The central claims of this dissertation are the following. The first, long-distance dependency displayed in split wh-NPIs is attained via overt movement of a focus particle -to ‘also/even’ in an effort to form a local relation with an NPI licenser. Second, -to is interpreted with its associated wh-item via point-wise semantic composition without forming a local relation at LF. These conclusions are motivated by finding two sets of new data: 1) split wh-NPIs cannot be formed across island boundaries, 2) split wh-NPIs are susceptible to focus intervention effects. This analysis has important implications for another wh-in-situ construction in Korean, wh-questions. By comparing split wh-NPIs with wh-in-situ questions, I argue that wh-in-situ questions do not involve any type of movement.

This paper discusses predicative resultative constructions in Korean and argues that they are actually a kind of clausal resultative construction (see the two types of resultatives in Wechsler and Noh, 2001). In particular, I propose the following hypotheses: (i) the resultative predicate, X-key, is morpho-syntactically an adverb rather than an adjective, (ii) X-key forms a fully saturated clause (i.e., result clause) (sometimes with the predication subject omitted), and (iii) the result clause is a complement of the main verb in a resultative sentence. Based on these properties, a unified analysis of the resultative constructions is formalized in Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG)

English Language and Linguistics, 2010

Comparative constructions display the most intriguing properties in natural languages, in that they interact with a variety of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic phenomena. In this paper, we look into the comparative constructions of two typologically different languages, Korean and English. The two languages are similar in that each employs its own morphological and syntactic ways of expressing gradable concepts and making comparison between various properties of two objects. However, the two languages are also different in many respects: the paper describes unlike English, Korean clausal comparatives are relative clauses headed by the formal noun kes. In addition, the paper shows that unlike the compositional nature of English comparatives, the interpretation of Korean comparatives is highly context-dependent.

2007

This paper discusses the semantics and syntax of the “unmarked positive form” of gradable adjectives in Chinese. Unlike in English, in which the positive forms do not have any overt degree morphology, in Chinese the degree morphology is obligatory in a stand-alone sentence. On the other hand, the degree morpheme is not required in many other constructions, e.g. negation, questions, contrasts. There seems to be no obvious reason for the asymmetrical distribution of the degree morpheme in Chinese. However, I argue that the seemingly puzzling syntactic distribution of the degree morpheme in Chinese is related to the special nature of Chinese adjectives, which are considered static intransitive verbs by some linguists. Just as sentences with verbal predicates need aspectual specification to make it “finite”, adjectives need to be pinned down “aspectually” as well. Degree morphemes serve as an aspectual marker for adjectives in stand-alone sentences. Naturally in other constructions like negation, questions, and contrasts, such aspectual requirement must have been satisfied somehow.

Language Research, 1993

(1) a. kil-ul ket-ta. road-Acc walk-Dec. "to walk the street" b. san-ul ollaka-ta mountain-Ace climlr-Dec. "to climb the mountain" * Yale romanization has been adopted for transcribing Korean examples in this paper. The following abbreviations have been used to label grammatical morphemes in the glosses below Korean example sentences:

Contrary to the claim that only the subject of a clause can undergo double relativization (DR) in Korean (Han 1992), in this paper, I show that it is possible for all GFs to undergo DR but that not all GFs can undergo DR equally easily. I then address the questions (i) what kind of factors determine the DR possibilities of different GFs and (ii) what their nature is and how they can be explained. I claim that one of the important factors determining them is the GFs of the head nouns of the relative clauses from which DR takes place, to be more precise, the GF relations between the higher and the lower head nouns of double relative constructions (DRCs), and that the reason why this is so can be explained in terms of processing. DRCs, in principle, are ambiguous and based on the observation that the interpretation preferences of DRCs are generally determined in the lower relative clauses, I approach the task of explaining the DR possibilities of different GFs by explaining the interpretation preferences of the lower relative clauses. My claims are that they can be explained in terms of ambiguity resolution and that the two major factors figuring importantly in this are (i) the argument vs. adjunct status of the gap and (ii) the distance between gap and filler.