A Split Analysis of Korean Transitive Resultative Constructions

Abstract

This paper presents a split analysis of Korean transitive resultatives showing the typical [XP-key] structure. On the basis of a variety of morpho-syntactic and semantic properties, I argue against the major analysis in which Korean transitive resultatives are on a par with English ones, and thus, they are all analyzed as an unsaturated object-controlled complement (i.e. small clause). Adopting Shim & den Dikken (2007)’s analysis that Korean resultatives can treated as an adjunct bearing pro, in this paper, I propose a hybrid analysis to Korean transitive resultative constructions: pseudo vs. true resultative construction. In particular, I argue that even though they have an adjunction structure, a true resultative construction containing the aspectual marker –eci is radically distinct from a pseudo resultative construction in that only the former is sensitive to the typical semantic features found in English transitive resultatives. In other words, some of Korean transitive resultative constructions (but not all of them) can be counted as a pseudo type of resultatives from a semantic perspective.