(In)animate Subject and Ey or Eykey Marking: With Reference to Morphological Passives

Abstract

The by-phrase in English passives is marked either with eykey, ey, or ey uyhay in Korean morphological passives. The ey-marked NP in the morphological passive can be an individual human entity only when it is monosyllabic. The eykey-marked NP in the morphological passive must be animate. However, they have something in common in that they can have an animate or inanimate syntactic subject. The eykey-marked goal in the ditransitive construction and the eykey-marked causee in the morphological causative must be animate. The ey-marked NP in the morphological passive may or may not be animate, while the ey-marked goal or causee must be inanimate. What is more important here is that the morphological passive, the ditransitive construction, and the morphological causative all permit animate or inanimate subjects.