On the Affected Construction in Korean

Abstract

This paper revisits the structure of the so-called “adversity” construction in Korean. The construction is formed by attaching the idiosyncratic -i/-hi/-li/-ki suffixes to some transitive roots, but differ from typical inchoative/passive constructions, which also involve the -i/-hi/-li/-ki allomorphy. I show that the peculiarities of the construction arise due to the selectional relationships among syntactic heads—active Voice, high applicative, verbalizer—as well as an implied PRO argument. I motivate the analysis with various pieces of evidence—the behaviors of depictive secondary predicates, properties of case marking and agent-oriented adverbs, as well as scope interpretation. I then show that a three-way distinction among the construction in question and two types of passives in Korean emerges due to two syntactic factors: the type of the Voice head and the syntactic position of the relevant verbal suffixes. Finally, some implications regarding the semantics of Voice and high applicative are discussed.