The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese (Oxford Studies in Comparative Syntax) 0198896468, 9780198896463

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The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese

O X F O R D ST U D I E S I N C O M PA R AT I V E S Y N TA X General Editor Richard Kayne The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho The Grammar of Multiple Head-Movement: A Comparative Study Phil Branigan Parameters of Predicate Fronting Edited by Vera Lee-Schoenfeld and Dennis Ott A Unified Theory of Polarity Sensitivity: Comparative Syntax of Arabic Ahmad Alqassas Smuggling in Syntax Edited by Adriana Belletti and Chris Collins Anti-contiguity: A Theory of Wh-Prosody Jason Kandybowicz Nominal Arguments and Language Variation Li Julie Jiang Variation in P: Comparative Approaches to Adpositional Phrases Edited by Jacopo Garzonio and Silvia Rossi Locality and Logophoricity: A Theory of Exempt Anaphora Isabelle Charnavel The Syntactic Variation of Spanish Dialects Edited by Ángel J. Gallego The Linker in Khoisan Languages Chris Collins Questions of Syntax Richard S. Kayne Exploring Nanosyntax Edited by Lena Baunaz, Liliane Haegeman, Karen De Clercq, and Eric Lander Dravidian Syntax and Universal Grammar K. A. Jayaseelan and R. Amritavalli The Morphosyntax of Portuguese and Spanish in Latin America Edited by Mary A. Kato and Francisco Ordóñez Deconstructing Ergativity: Two Types of Ergative Languages and Their Features Maria Polinsky

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese Y U TA K A S AT O A N D SUN GD A I C H O

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho 2024 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2023946192 ISBN 9780198896463 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198896463.001.0001 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work.

Contents Preface Acknowledgments List of figures List of tables Abbreviations Timeline: Dynasties and major historical periods

x xii xiii xiv xvi xviii

1. Introduction 1.1  Overview 1.2  The book’s structure

1 2 3

2. Japanese and Korean 2.1  Introduction 2.2  Sounds of Korean and Japanese

7 7 7

2.2.1  2.2.2  2.2.3  2.2.4 

Korean consonants Korean vowels Japanese consonants Japanese vowels

8 10 11 14

2.3  Genetic relationships

15

2.4  Typological characteristics

18

2.5  Chinese influence on the lexicon 2.6  Conclusion

23 25

3. Writing systems 3.1  Introduction 3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use

26 26 27

2.3.1  Genetic affiliation 2.3.2  The Koreanic and Japonic language families 2.4.1  Syntactic typology 2.4.2  Morphological typology

3.2.1  Introduction 3.2.2  Methods of adaptation 3.2.2.1  Sound-representing techniques

3.2.2.2  Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method  3.2.2.3  Word-Order Rearrangement Method 

3.2.3  Application of adaptation methods 3.2.3.1  Poem-writing style  3.2.3.2  Hybrid style 

15 17 18 20

27 28 28 34 34

35 36 38

vi contents 3.3  Invention of scripts

3.3.1  Simplification of Chinese characters

3.3.1.1  Simplification of Chinese characters in Middle Korean  3.3.1.2  Simplification of Chinese characters in Middle Japanese 

3.3.2  Invention of Hangŭl

3.4  Newspapers in Japanese and Korean 3.5  Conclusion

4. Case and postpositions 4.1  Introduction 4.2  Topic vs subject 4.3  Case particles

4.3.1  Nominative, accusative, and dative case particles 4.3.2  Double Accusative Constraint 4.3.3  Genitive Drop

4.4  Postpositions

4.4.1  How postpositions differ from other particles 4.4.1.1  Deletability  4.4.1.2  Crosslinguistic correspondences  4.4.1.3  Licensing floated numeral quantifiers 

4.4.2  The locative postpositions in Japanese and Korean

40

40 41 41

43

45 49

50 50 51 54

54 55 57

62

64

67 68 69

71

4.5  Conclusion

74

5. Topic and focus 5.1  Introduction 5.2  Topic vs subject

75 75 76

5.2.1  Definiteness 5.2.2  Discourse and sentence-internal functions 5.2.3  Grammatical processes

5.3  Focus

5.3.1  What is focus? 5.3.2  Nominative subjects as narrow focus or a part of all focus 5.3.3  ‘Topic’-like nominative-marked subjects in Korean

5.4  Contrast 5.5  Conclusion

77 81 84

89

90 92 95

102 106

6. Word order and scrambling 6.1  Introduction

107 107

6.1.1.1  6.1.1.2  6.1.1.3  6.1.1.4  6.1.1.5 

107 110 113 116 121

6.1.1  Korean

Verbal predicates  Adjectival predicates  Nominal predicates with the copula  Light verbs, control complements, and auxiliaries  Basic clause structure 

107

contents  vii 6.1.2  Japanese 6.1.2.1  6.1.2.2  6.1.2.3  6.1.2.4  6.1.2.5 

Verbal predicates  Adjectival predicates  Nominal predicates with the copula  Gerund-auxiliary expressions  Basic clause structure 

125 126 127 132 134 138

6.2  Word order and scrambling phenomena

139

6.3  Conclusion

147

6.2.1  Korean 6.2.2  Japanese

7. Passives and causatives 7.1  Introduction 7.2  Passives 7.2.1  Korean 7.2.2  Japanese

7.2.2.1  Direct and indirect passive sentences  7.2.2.2  The uniform hypothesis and the nonuniform hypothesis 

7.2.3  Japanese passives in comparison with Korean passives

139 144

148 148 149

149 154 154 157

162

7.3  Causatives

164

7.4  Outstanding issues

183

7.5  Conclusion

189

7.3.1  Korean 7.3.2  Japanese

7.4.1  Passive/causative interaction 7.4.2  Direct vs indirect causation 7.4.3  Issues concerning Japanese passives

8. Relative clauses 8.1  Introduction 8.2 The semantic relationship between a head noun and its modifying clause

8.3  8.4  8.5  8.6 

8.2.1  Gapped relative clauses 8.2.2  Gapless relative clauses 8.2.3  Appositive clauses

A structural difference between relative and appositive clauses Relativizable positions Internally headed relative clauses Conclusion

9. Nominalization 9.1  Introduction 9.2  Nominalization in Korean

9.2.1 Nominalizers -(u)m and -ki 9.2.2 Complementizer -Kes

164 173 183 185 187

191 191 194

194 197 202

203 209 217 218

219 219 220 220 223

viii contents 9.3  Nominalization in Japanese

225

9.4  Genitive subjects in nominals 9.5  Conclusion

234 238

9.3.1  -No and -koto 9.3.2  -Tokoro 9.3.3  Genitive subjects and PRO control

10. Negation 10.1  Introduction 10.2  Different types of negation 10.2.1  10.2.2  10.2.3  10.2.4 

Negative verbs in Korean Negative particles in Korean Morphological negatives in Japanese Variation of negatives according to mood

10.2.4.1  The Korean negative verb mal-  10.2.4.2  The Japanese morphological negatives -na and -mai 

10.3  Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) 10.3.1  Negation of quantifiers

10.3.1.1  Inherently negative quantifiers, ‘minimizers’  10.3.1.2  The indefinite type 

10.3.2  Inherently negative adverbs and suffixes 10.3.3  Multiple NPI constructions

10.4  Conclusion

11. Tense and aspect 11.1  Introduction 11.2  Tense

11.2.1  Main clauses

11.2.1.1  Nonpast forms  11.2.1.2  Past forms  11.2.1.3  Double past tense -ess-ess in Korean 

11.2.2  Embedded clauses

11.2.2.1  Quotative clauses  11.2.2.2  Relative clauses 

11.3  Aspect

11.3.1  Imperfective and progressive 11.3.2  Perfective 11.3.2.1  Resultative  11.3.2.2  Perfect  11.3.2.3  Exceptional cases 

11.4  Conclusion

12. Honorifics 12.1  Introduction 12.2  Systems of honorifics

12.2.1  Addressee honorifics

225 230 231

239 239 239

241 244 246 254 254 254

255

255 255 257

258 260

265

266 266 266

268

270 275 278

279 281 284

288

290 293 293 298 299

302

303 303 305

308

contents  ix 12.2.1.1  Japanese  12.2.1.2  Korean 

12.2.2  Referent honorifics

12.2.2.1  Subject honorifics  12.2.2.2  Object honorifics 

12.3  Use of honorifics 12.4  Conclusion

References Index

308 309

313 313 316

317 323

324 335

Preface As linguists both working on Korean and Japanese, we have often encountered the need for a textbook on Korean/Japanese linguistics for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and instructors who teach Korean/Japanese language and Korean/Japanese linguistics. We bring different perspectives to the task: one as a teacher of Korean/Japanese and specialist on Korean/Japanese second language learning, one as a researcher in comparative syntax and morphology. This textbook has grown out of the lecture notes for the ‘Structure of Korean’ and ‘Structure of Japanese’ courses that we have taught over the past few decades. Korean and Japanese linguistics attracts the interest of not only students, researchers, and teachers working on the language, but of students and scholars of general linguistics. Korean is well known for such features as its three-way distinction among obstruents without a voicing distinction, case stacking, and multiple nominative and accusative constructions. The Korean writing system has long been a topic of interest to linguists and to those interested in writing systems in general. Japanese is often noted for its direct and indirect passives and the use of multiple writing systems in the same text. Both languages, due to their agglutinative nature, have overt morphological suffixes for grammatical functions including topic and nominative markers and elaborate honorific systems, which fascinates both morphologists and syntacticians. Their relative clauses appear to lack a gap, and yet they prohibit extraction from certain constructions, behaving similarly to European languages, which invites further investigation. We have written this book with such a broad audience in mind, but in particular for students in linguistics wishing to focus on Korean/Japanese as well as Korean/ Japanese studies students wishing to know more about the language for further studies and research. We have not attempted to ‘dumb down’ the linguistic content of the book, yet we first illustrate the basic morpho-syntactic and relevant semantic features of the two languages in each chapter for those unfamiliar with either or both of the languages and later introduce, from a neutral standpoint, important morpho-syntactic issues in either or both languages discussed often in a generative grammar framework. These debated issues, which are oftentimes controversial, typically display different ways in which Korean and Japanese behave and call for further research in the areas. This book provides a detailed survey of Korean/Japanese linguistics from a comparative perspective and attempts to take the student through most of the major issues in Korean/Japanese linguistics in a generative grammar way. Particularly, this work introduces how Korean and Japanese behave differently in

preface  xi constructions with a genitive marker (e.g., NP-deletion, Genitive Drop, and genitive subjects), sentential negation, multiple occurrences of NPIs (Negative Polarity Items), formation of causatives, ranges of passivization, and other morpho-syntactic constructions. It also depicts such topics related to pragmatics and sociolinguistics as differences between Korean and Japanese in perception and realization of ‘givenness’ as a topic marker and the influence of relationships of power and distance on the use of honorifics. These languages also behave similarly in the range of relativization, which pertains to a syntactic issue of movement vs in-situ operation for relativization as well as many other linguistic phenomena, e.g., case and postpositions, topic and focus, word order and scrambling. Before the discussion of these morpho-syntactic issues, we illustrate the phonological systems of the two languages and refer to phonological issues such as the status of the obstruent series in a manner useful and comprehensible to a student conversant with the basics of phonological description. We have also added typological perspectives in discussion of the two languages in relation to the surrounding languages, e.g., Ainu, Chinese, and Altaic languages, and socio-cultural and historical backgrounds regarding the adoption and adaptation of a script, i.e., Chinese characters, for writing. All errors in the book are entirely ours. We owe a particular intellectual debt to the following texts, which we have used in teaching Korean/Japanese Linguistics and East Asian Linguistics: Cho, Sungdai and John Whitman (2020). Korean: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cho, Sungdai and John Whitman (2022). The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Martin, Samuel (1992). A Reference Grammar of Korean. Rutland, VT: Charles Tuttle. O’Grady, William (1991). Categories and Case: The Sentence Structure of Korean. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sohn, Ho-min (2001). The Korean Language. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tsujimura, N. (1996). An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. We use the McCune‒Reischauer (Mc-R) romanization in the body of the text for proper names and titles, and Yale romanization (YR; Martin 1992: 8–12) for Korean data. We use Hepburn romanization for Japanese proper names and titles in the body of the text and Kunrei romanization for Japanese data. For ease of comprehension, some of the romanization and morpheme-to-morpheme glosses in the examples cited from other works have been changed to match the other examples in our work.

Acknowledgments We would like to express our sincere appreciation to our colleagues, friends, and students whose helpful comments and encouragement have been invaluable to us in the preparation of this book. This work was supported by the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of Republic of Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2016-LAB-2250004). We would like to thank Richard Kayne, General Editor at Oxford University Press and a series editor at New York University, for his support and encouragement in the preparation of this book and Jackie Pritchard at Oxford University Press for her careful work, editorial feedback and comments on the manuscript. The first author would like to thank students and colleagues at International Christian University and friends, professors at University of Hawaii at Manoa (particularly, John H. Haig, Machiko Netsu, William O’Grady, Hon-Min Sohn, and Timothy J. Vance) and Ella Lee (for her help with analysis of Korean data). The second author would like to express his appreciation for the support and input of several colleagues at State University of New York at Binghamton.

List of figures 3.1  Representation of a word (印)

3.2  The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle of 印 /yìn/ ‘India’

3.3  The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle of 鱈 /tara/ ‘codfish’ 3.4  鱈 tara ‘codfish’ for a part of the word detarame ‘nonsense’

29 30 31 32

3.5  The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle for k9

33

3.6  The midsagittal images producing /k/ and /n/

45

5.1  A dog and cat aiming at a rat

82

5.2  A cat aiming at a dog and rat

82

5.3  Information gap game sheet 1

98

5.4  Information gap game sheet 2

99

11.1  A timeline of events for (20)

279

11.2  Another timeline of events for (20)

280

11.3  The timeline of events for (24ii) (MC < QC < ST)

282

11.4  The timeline of events for (24iii) (MC < ST < QC)

282

11.5  The timeline for events (MC = QC < ST)

283

11.6  The timeline of events for (29iii) (RC < MC < ST)

285

11.7  The timeline of events for (29iv) (MC < RC < ST)

285

11.8  The timeline of events for (30iii) (MC < RC < ST)

286

11.9  The timeline of events for (30iv) (MC < ST < RC)

286

11.10  The timeline of events for (32b.iii) (MC = RC < ST)

288

11.11  The timeline of events for (32b.iv) (MC < RC = ST)

288

11.12  Classification of aspectual oppositions (Comrie 1976a: 25, Table 1)

288

12.1  The results of Ogino et al.’s (1990: 18) questionnaire survey

319

12.2 Percentage of sentence-final speech levels with interlocutors of different ages in Japanese and Korean (Lee 2018: 72, Figure 1)

322

List of tables 2.1  Colloquial Ainu transitive subject marking (Shibatani 1990: 28, Table 3.5)

22

2.2  Colloquial Ainu object marking (Shibatani 1990: 28, Table 3.6)

22

2.3  Composition of the Korean vocabulary (Taylor and Taylor 1995: 195)

23

2.4  Composition of the Japanese vocabulary (Hayashi 1982: 60, Okimori et al. 2006: 71)

24

3.1  印度 ‘India’ and 涅槃 ‘nirvana’ (the phonographic way) 3.2  The sound-meaning correspondences for 鱈

31 32

3.3  Sound-representing techniques

33

3.4  Three varieties of idu or adapted writing in Korean

36

3.5  The sound-meaning correspondences

39

3.6  Hangŭl representing consonants

44

4.1  Topic- and subject-prominence (Li and Thompson 1976: 459)

51

4.2  Topic and case particles in Japanese and Korean

55

4.3  Grammatical function‒semantic role correspondences

66

4.4  Three major functions of NPs

74

5.1  Korean ka and nun in terms of hearer- and episode-new/oldness (Lee and Shimojo’s Table 7, 2016: 101)

101

5.2  Japanese ga and wa in terms of hearer- and discourse-new/oldness (Lee and Shimojo’s Table 8, 2016: 101)

101

8.1  Relative relativizability (Keenan and Comrie 1977: 77, 78)

209

10.1  Sentential negation in Japanese and Korean

240

10.2  Negation in Korean sentences

246

10.3  Typology of copularization patterns (Pustet 2003: 71, Table 2.4)

247

10.4  Negation in Japanese sentences

253

11.1  Tense morphemes in Japanese and Korean

270

11.2  Tense of Japanese nonpast forms (relative to the moment of speaking)

272

11.3  Tense of Korean nonpast forms (relative to the moment of speaking)

275

11.4  The Japanese nonpast and past forms (relative to the moment of speaking)

276

11.5  The Korean nonpast and past forms (relative to the moment of speaking)

276

11.6 Adnominal tense morphemes in Korean (from Umeda and Murasaki 1982: 49‒51, translation by one of the authors)

286

11.7  Adnominal tense morphemes in Korean

286

list of tables  xv 11.8  Forms that show different grammatical aspects in Japanese and Korean

289

11.9  Japanese and Korean verbs in the progressive and resultative aspects

290

12.1  Six speech styles in Korean

310

12.2  Korean styles

311

Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used to label the linguistic terms in this volume. * # -

Ungrammatical Pragmatically infelicitous Postnominal/Verbal suffixes

1sg.S First person singular intransitive subject index marker 3.A Third person transitive subject index marker A Ainu Acc Accusative case particle Adn Adnominal marker ADV Adverb marker Aux Auxiliary bce Before Common Era Ben Benefactive auxiliary C Mandarin Chinese CAUS Causative marker ce Common Era CL(SF) Classifier Comp Complementizer Con Contrastive marker Cop Copula CP Complementizer phrase Dat Dative case particle Dec Declarative sentence-type suffix Def Deferential speech level, suffix, or particle DIR Directional particle EXCL Exclusive Fut Future tense suffix Futuritive adnominal FutN Gen Genitive case particle Ger Gerundive marker HNom Honorific nominative case Honorific marker Hon Hortative marker Hor IE Informal ending Imp Imperative marker INCL Inclusive Inf Infinitive suffix Ins Instrumental

abbreviations  xvii IP Inflectional phrase IPA International Phonetic Alphabet J Japanese JK Japanese kanji Jiantizi (Simplified Chinese characters) JTZ K Korean KH Korean hanca Locative marker Loc Neg Negative marker Nmn Nominalizer Nominative case particle Nom NPI Negative Polarity Item NPst Nonpast tense NV Negative verb OHon Object honorific PASS Passive marker Pl Plural marker Pln Plain speech level, suffix, or particle Pol Polite speech level, suffix, or particle Pot Potential PP Prepositional phrase Pres Present tense suffix PresN Present adnominal Prf Perfective Proj Projective marker Prop Propositive marker Past tense suffix Pst PstN Past adnominal Q Question marker Quo Quotative QWH Wh-question marker Yes‒no question marker QYN RC Relative clause Rep Reportative evidential modality Ret Retrospective marker SFP Sentence-final particle Subject honorific SHon SJ Sino-Japanese SK Sino-Korean Sup Suppositive Susp Suspective marker TAM Tense/aspect/modality Top Topic marker TP Tense phrase Vol Volitional marker VOT Voice onset time YR Yale romanization

Timeline: Dynasties and major historical periods China Southern Dynasties, 317−589 500 600

900 1000

Kofun (Old Tomb), ca 250−552 CE

N. Wei−N. Zhou, 386−581 Sui, 581−618

700 800

Japan

Tang, 618−907

Five Dynasties, 907−960 (10 Kingdoms in south)

Late Yamato, 552−710 Nara, 710−784

Korea Koguryŏ, ? −668 CE Paekche, ? −663

Silla ?−935 (unified 668)

Heian, 794−1185

N. Song, 960−1127 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500

Koryŏ, 918−1392 S. Song, 1127−1279 (Jurchen rule in N, 1127−1234) Yuan, 1271−1368 (Mongol rule)

Kamakura, 1185−1333

Muromachi, 1338−1573

Ming, 1368−1644

Chosŏn, 1392−1910

1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

Qing, 1644−1912

Republic, 1912− (on Taiwan, 1949−) People’s Republic, 1949

 Source: Holcombe (2017: xx)

Tokugawa, 1603−1868

Meiji, 1868−1912 Taishō, 1912−1926 Shōwa, 1926−1989 Heisei, 1989−

Japanese rule, 1910−1945 N/S Division, 1945−

1

Introduction This work describes two languages in East Asia, namely, Korean and Japanese. Our purpose is to shed a new light on what a human language is like by comparing two remarkably similar languages whose genetic affiliation is still under debate. Undoubtedly, it is informative to compare languages that differ dramatically. Thus we can examine the vast potential of human languages by doing so. Nevertheless, it is also very illuminating to compare two languages that are almost identical and differ only in subtle ways. Our work is of the latter type. Such an approach sometimes enables us to go deeper into language. In a scientific experiment to find out the properties of different things, for example, you control many factors and choose two groups of samples that differ minimally. Similarly, comparing Korean and Japanese allows us to examine various linguistic phenomena. If there are similar linguistic phenomena that can be observed in both languages, we can check if they really exhibit the same patterns. If they differ, we can examine what makes the difference. Nominative case is the typical morphological case in which the subject of a sentence appears. We can check if the nominative case in both Japanese and Korean behaves in the same way. Is this always responsible for triggering subject honorification (a grammatical process similar to subject‒verb agreement, see Chapters 4 and 12)? If the nominative case is not always responsible for subject honorification, do Japanese and Korean behave in the same way? A nominative object, for example, which is found in both languages, does not trigger subject honorification. This phenomenon, along with others, shows that ‘nominative object’ is not a subject indeed because, despite its morphological case, it does not function like bona fide nominative subjects. Nominative markers on subjects are sometimes replaced by some other particle such as a topic marker in these languages. When is the nominative marker replaced by a topic marker? Do Japanese and Korean have the same set of conditions that allow the occurrence of a topic maker in place of the nominative marker? A line of investigation like this allows us to go deeper into the relationships between forms and functions of languages. We believe this work is particularly beneficial for those people who have already finished an introductory course in linguistics and graduate students or researchers looking for further topics to pursue their studies or research. As this work introduces recent research discussions and findings on morpho-syntactic differences between Korean and Japanese, it is especially helpful for those interested in either or both languages. The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0001

2 introduction

1.1 Overview This work introduces two languages in East Asia, namely, Japanese and Korean, whose native speakers are around 200 million. Japan and South Korea (the Republic of Korea) are two of the non-Western developed countries with GDP close to 7 trillion US dollars, i.e., close to half the GDP of China and one-third that of the US. Both are relatively democratic states: South Korea ranks 23rd and Japan ranks 24th followed by the US ranking 25th according to the democracy indexes 2019.1 In the Human Development Index (HDI), Japan ranks 19th and South Korea 22nd, whereas the US ranks 15th and China 85th.2 The linguistic characteristics of these countries are overshadowed by Chinese. They are often considered subtypes of the Chinese language because of a large Chinese-origin vocabulary in those languages. Our work illustrates how these languages differ from Chinese. East Asia is linguistically diverse, comprising languages that belong to multiple linguistic families as well as language isolates whose genetic affiliation is not clear. A rough typological linguistic map of East Asia is characterized as Altaic-type languages in the north and Sinic-type languages in the south. Mongolian, Manchu, Tungusic, Yakut, and Uyghur are Altaic languages. Korean and Japanese may belong to the Altaic language family, although there is a dispute regarding their genetic affiliation.3 Regardless of their genealogical relationships, Korean and Japanese show typical syntactic and morphological characteristics of Altaic languages in that the object appears before the verb, postpositions and suffixes are often used, and they attach a host of suffixes to verbs to show grammatical functions. Korean and Japanese also share what seem to be like cognates with Altaic languages (which some argue to be borrowings). Chinese Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, some of which are not mutually intelligible, are characterized as more analytic, i.e., having fewer affixes for grammatical functions, and head-initial in that they have prepositions and the object after the verb. Vietnamese, which belongs to a language family different from the one that Chinese belongs to, also exhibits the above characteristics, namely, analytic and head-initial.

1  ‘Democracy Index 2019 A year of democratic setbacks and popular protest,’ EIU.com., retrieved January 24, 2020, cited from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index#cite_note-in​dex2019-7, October 10, 2020. 2  hdr.undp.org/en/content/2019-human-development-index-ranking. 3  The micro-‘A ltaic language family’ consists of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages; there are other languages, e.g., Korean and Japanese, proposed to belong to this language family. The existence of such a language family, however, is controversial and has been debated over the years and ‘there is no consensus whether the relatedness is proven’ (Johanson 2009: 31). We will continue to call the groups of languages referred to as micro-Altaic languages as Altaic without committing ourselves to their genealogical relatedness.



1.2 The book’s structure  3

1.2  The book’s structure Chapter 2.  Japanese and Korean This chapter gives background information about the sounds of Japanese and Korean and the genetic relationship between them. The phonological systems of the two languages are compared in the first section. The illustration of the sounds in the two languages will help the reader go through examples given in different systems of romanization. A very brief historical background of studies that investigated whether Japanese and Korean are related is introduced in the second section. The typological characteristics of Japanese and Korean are compared with other Northeast Asian languages, namely, Ainu and Mandarin in the third section. Lastly, Chinese influence on the lexicons of the two languages is discussed in the fourth section.

Chapter 3.  Writing systems Chapter 3 introduces the history of the writing systems in Japanese and Korean during the times when both peoples borrowed one from the Chinese language and when they developed different writing systems more suitable to them later. Both Koreans and Japanese initially used the Chinese language and its script for writing, i.e., Chinese characters (hànzì in Mandarin, hanja in Korean, and kanji in Japanese). Many methods of adapting Chinese characters to write texts in ways much closer to their vernacular languages were attempted by Koreans and Japanese.

Chapter 4.  Case and postpositions Chapter 4 illustrates the particles in Japanese and Korean that stand for the different functions of noun phrases (NPs). Andrews (1985) distinguishes three major functions of NPs in languages: i.e., semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical functions. The semantic functions pertain to the semantic roles that NPs play in a situation referred to by a sentence, e.g., an agent. The pragmatic functions are concerned with topic and focus. Grammatical functions here included the functions of subject and object in sentence structure. The two languages also have specific particles to be used for these grammatical functions. An issue regarding a different way a genitive construction behaves in these two languages is introduced.

Chapter 5.  Topic and focus Chapter 5 describes the topic marker and nominative marker in Japanese and Korean. Li and Thompson (1976) classified these languages as having both

4 introduction topic-prominent and subject-prominent languages. Typically, the two languages distinguish particles for topic and nominative markers. The topic markers in these languages are illustrated particularly in contrast with the nominative markers that mark subjects, which is followed by the explanation of focus. The occurrence of focus is described in relation to the presence of a subject marked with a nominative marker in Japanese and Korean. The use of nominative subjects in Korean different from that in Japanese is also referred to. This chapter also explains another function of the Japanese and Korean topic markers, i.e., a marker for contrast.

Chapter 6.  Word order and scrambling Chapter 6 discusses the basic components of a sentence: a range of predicates classified in terms of the semantic type and number of their arguments and their syntactic categories, auxiliary verbs (auxiliaries and light verbs), and tense and mood morphemes. We discuss major differences between verbs and adjectives in the two languages. In our discussion of matrix clause phenomena, we discuss the marking of basic clause types: Korean has four distinct moods, i.e., declarative, interrogative, imperative, and propositive, whereas Japanese has limited distinction in mood. The basic sentence patterns in terms of word order are presented, and a syntactic process that changes the dominant word order, i.e., scrambling, is briefly illustrated.

Chapter 7.  Passives and causatives Chapter 7 sheds light on a centerpiece of Korean and Japanese syntax, i.e., passives and causative constructions. Three different types of Korean passives, i.e., lexical, morphological, and syntactic passives, are compared. Japanese passives divide into two types: direct and indirect passives. Their syntactic behaviors and analyses that account for them are shown. Korean causatives can be also differentiated into three groups: lexical, morphological, and syntactic causatives. The syntactic behaviors of Korean morphological and syntactic causatives are compared. Japanese causatives are formed with a bound morpheme -(s)ase-, but it is realized as sentences with biclausal structure, just like Korean syntactic causatives. Japanese causatives are compared with Korean syntactic and morphological causatives.

Chapter 8.  Relative clauses Chapter 8 sketches noun modification constructions in Japanese and Korean, which Comrie (1988) argues to be different from the European-type noun



1.2 The book’s structure  5

modification constructions. We illustrate two different types of Japanese and Korean relative clauses, which behave similarly in the range of relativizable syntactic positions. Noun modifications using appositive clauses are characterized in contrast with those using relative clauses. These languages also have internally headed relative clauses. This chapter also refers to a constraint on relativization in these languages, which is comparable to a constraint on extraction from complex noun phrases in European languages.

Chapter 9.  Nominalization Nominalization is a process of changing a verb or an adjective into a noun. Chapter 9 focuses on complement clauses with nominalizers. Complement clauses with two Korean nominalizers -ki and -(u)m and complement clauses with kes (a complementizer) are compared in regard to their syntactic structure, the morphological case of their subject (whether or not a genitive case in place of a nominative case is possible), and the presence or absence of a tense morpheme. Japanese nominalizers no, koto, and tokoro are compared regarding the semantic type of verbs that take them. All the Japanese nominalizers allow genitive subjects and only one of the Korean nominalizers, i.e., -(u)m, allows genitive subjects. An issue regarding genitive subjects in both languages is referred to at the end of this chapter.

Chapter 10.  Negation Chapter 10 contrasts the different ways in which Japanese and Korean negate sentences. Japanese utilizes a morphological method with which a morphologically bound negator is attached to a verb. To negate adjectival or nominal predicates, a negative form of the copula is used. Korean uses two different ways of sentential negation: long form of negation (LFN) with a negative verb and short form of negation (SFN) with a negative particle. The type of sentential negation employed, i.e., LFN or SFN, or both, also varies depending on the syntactic category of the predicate in Korean. For example, verbs and adjectives can be negated with LFN, whereas the copula (a nominal predicate) cannot. Negative Polarity Items and a difference in whether some of them are realized multiply in these languages are also discussed.

Chapter 11.  Tense and aspect Chapter 11 illustrates the tense and aspect systems in Japanese and Korean. According to Comrie (1976a), ‘Tense relates the time of the situation referred

6 introduction to to some other time, usually the moment of speaking’ (pp. 1–2). The temporal reference point in English is basically ‘the moment of speaking’, and it is the same in Japanese and Korean when the tense of main clauses is in question. ‘[S]ome other time’, however, also serves as the reference point in Japanese and Korean subordinate clauses. Two types of subordinate clauses, namely, quotative and relative clauses, are examined as to how their tense is determined. For aspect in Japanese and Korean, we focus on constructions with a verb followed by an auxiliary verb of existence, which can denote either imperfective or perfective situations. The aspect systems in Japanese and Korean are similar but, again, they differ in subtle ways. Their differences in tense and aspect as well as similarities are elucidated in this chapter.

Chapter 12.  Honorifics Chapter 12 illustrates the honorific systems of Japanese and Korean. As pointed out in Brown (2015: 303), Korean and Japanese have ‘the most developed systems of honorifics that can be found amongst the world’s languages’. They have addressee honorifics marked on the predicate of sentence, lack of which clearly indicates that the intention of the speaker is not to show respect linguistically to the hearer. They also have honorifics for the referent of a subject or nonsubject element (e.g., object). Although almost identical, their honorific systems differ greatly in the use of honorifics. How they differ in usage will be illustrated.

2

Japanese and Korean 2.1  Introduction This chapter gives overall background information about Korean and Japanese phonology, genealogy, and typology. It first illustrates the sounds of these languages and the systems of romanization used here, which we hope will help the reader go through the Korean and Japanese examples in this work. The illustration of the Korean and Japanese sounds is followed by sections on the genetic relationship between the two languages and typological characteristics of both, particularly in comparison with Chinese (Mandarin) and Ainu. Lastly, this chapter discusses Chinese influence on the lexicons of the two languages.

2.2  Sounds of Korean and Japanese Two different levels of identifying sound units in languages are usually postulated in linguistics. The sounds that are perceived as sound units by native speakers, i.e., phonemes, and the sounds that are actually realized as sound units across languages, allophones, for which definitions are given in (1). (1) Phonemes and allophones a. phoneme: ‘the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words. For example: . . . in English, the words pan and ban differ only in their initial sound: pan begins with /p/ and ban with /b/ . . .’ (Richard and Schmidt 2010: 432). b. allophone: ‘any of the different variants of a phoneme’ (Richard and Schmidt 2010: 21). For example, the Japanese phoneme /g/ is realized as [ɡ] word-initially and [ŋ] between vowels in the speech of some speakers (Vance 2008: 88). Both [ɡ] and [ŋ] are allophones of the phoneme /g/. The phonemes in Korean and Japanese are represented phonographically and/or logographically in their orthography (see Chapter 3 for the scripts used in these languages). For ease of those who are unfamiliar with orthographic writing in these languages, we have transcribed it in the Latin alphabet.

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0002

8  japanese and kore an Our principle of transliteration, as stated already, is as follows. The Yale system of romanization is used to refer to linguistic examples in Korean, and the Kunrei system of romanization is used to refer to linguistic examples in Japanese, following the common practice of linguistic works on Korean and Japanese. In principle, the McCune‒Reischauer system of romanization is used to refer to proper nouns (e.g., place names, titles of articles and books, historical periods, technical terms) in Korean, and the Hepburn system is used for proper nouns in Japanese. The following subsections show the correspondences between romanization, phonemes, and allophones in Korean and Japanese.

2.2.1  Korean consonants Sohn (1999: 153) gives the following set of Korean consonant phonemes in (2); there are nineteen consonant phonemes. (2) Consonant phonemes in Korean (Sohn 1999: 153, (2)), slightly changed Place of articulation Bilabial Alveo- Palatal1 Velar Glottal dental Articulatory manner stop

lax

voiceless or p voiced

c

k

aspirated

voiceless

ph

th

ch

kh

tensed

voiceless

p’

t’

c’

k’

fricative aspirated2 voiceless tensed

voiceless

lateral or flap

voiced

nasal liquid

t

voiced

s

h

s’ m

n

ŋ

l

The above consonant phonemes are transcribed in the same way in the Yale system except for the tense consonants /p’, t’, k’, s’/ and the velar nasal /ŋ/. The tense sounds are written as geminates, e.g., pp, and the velar nasal as ng, as shown in (3). (3) summarizes the correspondences between the above consonant phonemes, Hangŭl letters, Yale and McCune‒Reischauer (MR) romanization, and IPA. The symbols used in the Yale system for these consonants, as well as the Hangŭl letters corresponding to them, are used morphophonemically. The examples are written first in Yale, followed by MR.     1      2 

It is here treated as alveolo-palatal (Cho and Whitman 2020, 2022), as will be discussed shortly. /s/ is not treated as aspirated here but rather as a ‘plain’ sound (see Cho and Whitman 2020: 70).



2.2 Sounds of Kore an and Japanese  9

(3) Correspondences between phonemes, Hangŭl letters, romanization systems, and IPA symbols (Korean consonants) Phoneme /p/

Hangŭl ㅂ

Yale MR

Allophones

p

p

[b] between voiced sounds [p] elsewhere

b

/ph/

ㅍ

ph

p’

[ph] aspirated

/p’/

ㅃ

pp

pp

[p̮] tensed

/t/

ㄷ

t

d

t

[d] between voiced sounds [t] elsewhere

/th/

ㅌ

th

t’

[th] aspirated

/t’/

ㄸ

tt

tt

[t̮ ] tensed

/c/

ㅈ

c

j

ch

[dʑ] between voiced sounds [tɕ] elsewhere

/ch/

ㅊ

ch

ch’

[tɕh] aspirated

/c’/

ㅉ

cc

tch

[t̮ ɕ̮] tensed

/k/

ㄱ

k

g

k

[ɡ] between voiced sounds [k] elsewhere

ㅋ

kh

k’

[kh] aspirated

kk

kk

[k̮ ] tensed

/s/

ㅅ

s

s

[s]

/s’/

ㅆ

ss

ss

[s̮ ]

/kh/ /k’/

ㄲ

Example (Yale, MR)

바보 papo, pabo [pabo] ‘fool’ 풀 phwul (phul), p’ul [phul] ‘grass’

뿔 ppwul (ppul), ppul [p̮ul] ‘horn’

도둑 totwuk, toduk [toduk] ‘thief ’

화투 hwathwu, hwat’u [hwathu] ‘Korean ­playing cards’

사또 satto, satto [sat̮ o] ‘lord’

진지 cinci, chinji [tɕindʑi] ‘a meal (honorific)’ 김치 kimchi, kimch’i [kimtɕhi] ‘kimchi’

진짜 cincca, chintcha [tɕint̮ ɕ̮a] ‘real(ly)’

국어 kwuke, kugǒ [kugʌ] ‘national language’ 큰 khun, k’ŭn [khɯn] ‘big’ 아까 akka, akka [ak̮a] ‘a little while ago’ 사슴 sasum, sasŭm [sasɯm] ‘a dear’

쌀 ssal, ssal [s̮ al] ‘rice’

10  japanese and kore an Phoneme

Hangŭl

/h/

ㅎ

/l/

ㄹ

Yale MR

Allophones

h

h

[h]

l

l

r ㅇ

ng

ng

[ŋ]

/n/

ㄴ

n

n

[n]

m

m

[m]

ㅁ

호랑이 holangi, horangi [hoɾaŋi] ‘tiger’

[l] before a 멀리 melli, mǒlli [mʌlli] pause or a ‘far’ consonant 나라 nala, nara [naɾa] (except /h/), ‘country’ or after /l/ [ɾ] a flap elsewhere

/ŋ/

/m/

Example (Yale, MR)

공이 kongi, kongi [koŋi] ‘a pounder’

눈 nwun, nun [nun] ‘snow’ 몸 mom, mom [mom] ‘body’

MR romanization gives a hint about how these sounds are pronounced for those who are not familiar with phonological terms and symbols because this system closely reflects English spelling conventions. Those who would like to know more about the Korean sounds are encouraged to read Choo and O’Grady (2003). Korean has three-way contrasts among stops, i.e., plain (called ‘lax’ in (2)), aspirated, and tense. Plain stops may appear voiceless or voiced, depending on their environments, and hence voicing does not differentiate phonemes. Aspirated stops are accompanied with aspiration after release. Plain stops are also accompanied with a little bit of aspiration when they appear voiceless. Choo and O’Grady (2003: 25, 31, 36, 41) describe tense stops as pronounced with ‘no aspiration; extra strong closure; quick, crisp release of the closure; slightly higher pitch on the following vowel’. Generally, the amount of air puffed out (or the duration after the release of a stop and before the beginning of voicing, which is called the Voice Onset Time, VOT) increases in the order of tense stops, plain voiceless stops, and aspirated stops (Shin 2015).

2.2.2  Korean vowels Cho and Whitman (2020) list seven vowel phonemes as those used in the current varieties of Korean; they noted that ‘the two front round vowels /y/ and /ø/ exist only in the speech of older speakers, and most younger speakers have merged the two nonhigh front vowels /e/ and /ɛ/ (Shin 2015: 4)’ (p. 71). In addition, Korean has two semivowels /j/ and /w/. These vowels and semivowels are transcribed in Hangŭl, Yale and MR romanization, and IPA as in (4).



2.2 Sounds of Kore an and Japanese  11

(4) Correspondences between phonemes, Hangŭl letters, romanization ­systems, and IPA symbols (Korean vowels) Phoneme Hangŭl Yale MR Allophones Example (Yale, MR) ㅣ

i

i

[i]

ey ay

e ae

[e]

/a/

ㅏ

a

a

[a]

/o/

ㅗ

ㅓ

o

o

[o]

e

ǒ

[ʌ]

u

ŭ

[ɯ]

ㅜ

wu

u

[u]

ye yo

yǒ yo

[jʌ] [jo]

ㅘ ㅝ

wa we

wa wǒ

[wa] [wʌ]

/i/ /e/

/ʌ/ /ɯ/ /u/ /j/

/w/

ㅔ ㅐ

ㅡ ㅕ ㅛ

짐 cim, chim [tɕim] ‘luggage’

제자 ceyca, cheja [tɕedʑa] ‘disciple’ 고래 kolay, korae [koɾe] ‘whale’ 가방 kapang, kabang [kabaŋ] ‘bag’

노래 nolay, norae [noɾe] ‘song’ 섬 sem, sǒm [sʌm] ‘island’

늑대 nuktay, nŭktae [nɯkte] ‘wolf ’ 술 swul, sul [sul] ‘wine’

여우 yewu, yǒu [jʌu] ‘fox’ 학교 hakkyo, hakkyo [hakkjo] ‘school’ 과거 kwake, kwagǒ [kwaɡʌ] ‘past’ 꿩 kkweng, kkwǒng [k̮wʌŋ] ‘pheasant’

The semivowel /j/ is represented in Hangŭl by adding another line to a letter representing a vowel; adding another line to 우 /u/, for example, gives 유 /ju/. The semivowel /w/ is represented by either ㅗ or ㅜ and followed by another vowel, e.g., 돼지 /twedʑi/ ‘pig’.

2.2.3  Japanese consonants There have been debates as to which system is closer to the system of Japanese phonemes between Kunrei and Hepburn romanization. On the one hand, Vance (2008) proposed a phonemic system closer to Hepburn romanization, but on the other, books on introductory Japanese linguistics like Isaka (2016) present the one closer to Kunrei romanization as the Japanese phonemes. The system of phonemes used in this work is closer to Kunrei because this system is easier to handle, it has fewer phonemes, and many works on Japanese linguistics use this system of romanization, although contemporary native speakers of Japanese most likely have a phonemic system similar to the one proposed by Vance (2008). The system in (5) is such an example.

12  japanese and kore an (5) Japanese phonemic inventory (Yamaguchi 2007: 16) Phonemes Consonants Special consonants Vowels Semivowels Special vowel

/p, t, k, b, d, g, s, h, z, r, m, n/ /N, Q/ /i, e, a, o, u/ /j, w/ /R/

The twelve consonants are written in the Kunrei style in all the Japanese examples in this work, and the five vowels are also transcribed in the same way as in Kunrei except for slashes. The semivowel /w/ is written w, and the semivowel /j/ is written y. The syllabic (or more accurately moraic) nasal consonant /N/, which appears only syllable-­ finally, is written n or n’ (the latter before a vowel), e.g. ten ‘heaven’ for /teN/ and hen’i ‘variant’ for /heNi/. The first half of a long consonant /Q/ is written in the same sound as the one that follows, e.g., kitte ‘stamp’ for /kiQte/; i.e., a long consonant is transcribed as a sequence of geminate consonants. How the Japanese consonant phonemes correspond to Kunrei and Hepburn romanization and allophones is summarized in (6). The examples are first given in Kunrei, followed by Hepburn romanization. (6) Correspondences between phonemes, romanization systems, and IPA ­symbols (Japanese consonants) Phoneme Kunrei Hepburn Allophones /p/

p

p

[p]

/t/

t

ch ts t

[tɕ] before /i/ or /j/ [ts] before /u/ [t] elsewhere

/k/

k

k

[k]

/b/

b

b

[b]

/d/

d

d

[d] before /a/, /e/, or /o/

/g/

g

g

[ɡ]3

/s/

s

s sh

[ɕ] before /i/ or /j/ [s] elsewhere

    3 

For speakers with a velar nasal for /g/, [ŋ] is added as an allophone.

Example

パリ Pari, Pari [paɾi] ‘Paris’

お茶 otya, ocha [otɕa] 月 tuki, tsuki [tsɯki] ‘moon’ 戸 to, to [to] ‘door’ 木 ki, ki [ki] ‘tree’

ボス bosu, bosu [bosɯ] ‘boss’ だけ dake, dake [dake] ‘only’

ガス gasu, gasu [ɡasɯ] ‘gass’ 詩 si, shi [ɕi] ‘poem’ 塩 sio, shio [ɕio] ‘salt’



2.2 Sounds of Kore an and Japanese  13 /h/

h

f h h

[ɸ] before /u/ [ç] before /i/ or /j/ [h] elsewhere

/z/

z

j z

[dʑ]([ʑ]) before /i/ or /j/ [dz]([z]) elsewhere4

/r/

r

r

[ɾ]

/m/

m

m

[m] syllable-initial

/n/

n

n

[n] syllable-initial

/N/

n

m n n

[m] before a bilabial [ŋ] before a velar [n] elsewhere

/Q/

ふろ huro, furo [ɸɯɾo] ‘bath’ 火 hi, hi [çi] ‘fire’ 花 hana, hana [hana] ‘flower’

字 zi, ji [dʑi] ‘character’ ゼロ zero, zero [dzeɾo] ‘zero’

りす risu, risu [ɾisɯ] ‘squirrel’

虫 musi, mushi [mɯɕi] ‘bug’ なし nasi, nashi [naɕi] ‘pear’

神父 sinpu, shimpu [ɕimpɯ] ‘priest’ インク inku, inku [iŋkɯ] ‘ink’ あんな anna, anna [anna] ‘like that’

the same consonant はっか hakka, hakka as the following, [hakka] ‘peppermint’ e.g., [k] before /k/.

Voicing is a phonemic feature in Japanese, and it distinguishes stops, affricates, and fricatives. It is binary and different from Korean, which has a tripartite contrast among stops and affricates. The Japanese voiceless consonants are not contrasted in aspiration or tenseness. Cho and Whitman (2020: 65) noted that Korean lack of contrast in voicing is ‘unusual among the world languages, based on the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) Online (Dryer and Haspelmath 2013)’ because ‘only 49 in the WALS sample of 543 languages (9.01 percent) have average consonant inventory size and no voicing contrast for stops and fricatives’. They, however, also noted that Northeast Asian languages (Manchu, Evenki, Even, Nanai, Ainu, Yukaghir, and three Mongolic languages) do not have a voicing contrast, either, although they ‘have a contrast between aspirated and plain consonants’, and hence that no voicing contrast in Korean is ‘not unusual’ among     4 

/z/ tends to be realized as a fricative [z] or [ʑ] between vowels, otherwise it is realized as an affricate [dz] or [dʑ]. Vance (2008: 84) transcribes the voiced lamino-alveopalatal stop as [ɟʑ], but it is also widely transcribed as [dʑ] in textbooks for Japanese linguistics. We will use the latter in this work because it is easier to figure out that it is a voiced variant of [tɕ].

14  japanese and kore an them (Cho and Whitman 2020: 65). As the Chinese stops and affricates do not have voicing contrast but have a contrast in aspiration (Chinese retroflex fricatives contrast in voicing), Japanese having no contrast in aspiration and a contrast in voicing is unusual among Northeast Asian languages.5

2.2.4  Japanese vowels Japanese has five vowels and two semivowels, as shown in (5). (7) shows how those vowel phonemes are represented in Kunrei and Hepburn romanization and how they are realized as allophones. (7) Correspondences between phonemes, romanization systems, and IPA symbols (Japanese vowels) Phoneme

Kunrei

Hepburn

Allophones

/i/

i

i

[i]

/e/

e

e

[e]

/a/

a

a

[a]6

/o/

o

o

[o]

/u/

u

u

[ɯ]

/j/

y

y

[j]

/w/

w

w

[w]

/R/

ˉ

ˉ

[ː]

Example

価値 kati, kachi [katɕi] ‘value’ 風 kaze, kaze [kaze] ‘wind’ 歯 ha, ha [ha] ‘tooth’ 子 ko, ko [ko] ‘child’

船 hune, fune [ɸɯne] ‘boat’ 矢 ya, ya [ja] ‘arrow’

輪 wa, wa [wa] ‘loop’ 塔 tō, tō [toː] ‘tower’

The phoneme /R/, which stands for the latter half of a long vowel, is here represented by a macron (or a straight line) above a vowel, e.g., ō ‘king’ for /oR/, although Kunrei romanization usually uses a chevron-shaped circumflex above a letter, e.g., ô. Note, however, when there is a morphological boundary, two identical vowels are written, e.g., ōki-i ‘big-NPst’. In addition to segmental differences shown above, there are suprasegmental differences between Korean and Japanese. A syllable structure of CVC, that is, a syllable consisting of a syllable-initial (or onset) consonant, a nucleus vowel, and a syllable-final consonant (or coda), is not uncommon in Korean, e.g., pap ‘cooked rice’. In contrast, closed syllables are rare in (non-onomatopoetic) native Japanese words. In principle, a non-nasal syllable-final consonant never occurs in word-final position, although it can occur word-medially, kit.te ‘stamp’. A nasal syllable-final consonant is possible, e.g., udon ‘noodles’, but it often appears in Sino-Japanese or     5      6 

In fact, voicing was not a distinctive feature in Old Japanese, either (Frellesvig 2018: 19). Vance (2008) argues that /a/ is closer to [ɑ] than to [a].



2.3  Genetic rel ationships  15

foreign loanwords. Japanese is a mora-timed language and Korean a syllable-timed language (Sato 1998). That is, syllables tend to be realized with about the same durations in Korean, whereas morae (and not syllables) tend to be realized with about the same durations in Japanese. The Korean word pi.pim.pap (bibimbap, a name of a Korean dish) has three syllables, and each syllable has about the same duration when it is pronounced. On the other hand, the Japanese word u.don ‘noodles’ is made up of two syllables, u and don, and of three morae, i.e., u, do, n. Each mora, rather than each syllable, is pronounced with about the same duration. Short and long vowels are distinguished; thus, obasan ‘aunt’ is distinguished from obāsan ‘grandmother’. Japanese (e.g., Tokyo-Yokohama dialect) words are distinguished by pitch accent and the length of vowels. The word ame ‘rain’ with the accentuation pattern HL (high pitch followed by low pitch) is distinguished from ame ‘candy’ with the accentuation pattern LH. Pitch accent and vowel length do not serve as a phonemic feature in Korean, particularly among young speakers, although there is some regional and generational variation.

2.3  Genetic relationships 2.3.1  Genetic affiliation The Korean and Japanese languages are very similar, and there is no doubt that similarities between the two languages come from language contact over two millennia, at least, due to geographical proximity. Robbeets (2005: 35) summarized the linguistic situation of Japan during early contacts between Koreans and Japanese as follows. (8) ‘The present view is that the migrations causing historical discontinuity occurred much earlier, during the transition of Jōmon to Yayoi,7 and that it is not necessary to caricature these migrations as violent movements of horse-riding people. The immigrants were peaceful Peninsular farmers, who can better be compared to pig-raisers than to horse-riders. The cultural continuity between Yayoi and Kofun that is suggested in the Barnes‒ Edwards‒Hudson8 theory is likely to imply a linguistic continuity between both historical periods, although the Peninsular languages belonging to either the Puyǒ or Han language group may have heavily affected the language of the dominant proto-Japanese speech community in terms of extensive borrowing.’     7 

Jōmon Period: 10,000‒300 bce, Yayoi Period 300 bce‒300 ce (Robbeets 2005). Barnes (1993), Hudson (1999), and Edwards (1983). Hudson (1999) presented a convincing argument that the Proto-Japanese, the language spoken by the Yayoi people, was different from that of the Jōmon people.

    8 

16  japanese and kore an An intriguing question to ask is whether there is genetic affiliation between the two languages. There were some Japanese during the 18th century who noted that Japanese may be related to Korean and some Europeans during the 19th century who also referred to such a relationship. A German physician and botanist Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold came to Japan in the early 19th century; he became interested in languages in this region and studied ‘de etymologische overeenkomsten’ (‘the etymological agreements’) between Japanese and Korean as well as between Japanese and other Northeast Asian languages in the hope of showing their close relationships (Robbeets 2005: 21, footnote 4). A British diplomat W. G. Aston (1879: 303) concluded that ‘There can be no doubt that a genuine relationship exists between Japanese and Korean, but it is by no means easy to estimate its degree.’ A series of studies on the genetic relationship between Korean and Japanese as well as between their relationships with Altaic languages were conducted during the 20th century (see references cited in Johanson 2009, Robbeets 2005, and Whitman 2012). Martin (1966) presented ‘320 etymologies relating Japanese to Korean on the basis of regular sound correspondences’ (Johanson 2009: 31), and Whitman (1985) refined and expanded upon the etymological correspondences between the two languages. Vovin (2010: 239), however, presented evidence against Whitman’s (1985) analysis based on various reasons, one of which was a paucity of corresponding cognates in Ryukyuan languages, which are proven to be related to Japanese, from which he concluded that many of them are loanwords. Robbeets (2005: 26–27) lists a gamut of positions on Japanese relationships with Korean and Altaic languages. Cho and Whitman (2020: 13) discussed possible etymological matches in Korean shared with its neighboring languages like Tungusic, Mongolic, and J­apanese and concluded that ‘[u]ntil details like these are worked out, we must reserve judgment on the possibility of a genetic relation between any of its neighbors.’ Despite these skeptical positions on the genetic relation between Korean and Japanese, Koguryǒan is assumed to be closely related to Japanese (Beckwith 2007 and references cited there). San Guo Zhi (The Records of the Three Kingdoms, the records of the three kingdom period in China compiled in the 3rd century) referred to the ‘Eastern barbarians’ Koguryǒ, Puyǒ, Han, and Wa (Japan) and described the language of Koguryǒ as different from that of Han and similar to the language of the conquers of Puyǒ (Beckwith 2007: 37–38). Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms, i.e., Kyoguryo, Paekche, and Silla), compiled in the 12th century, recorded older place names in Paeckche and the southern and central part of Koguryǒ before they had been changed to Chinese in the 8th century (Beckwith 2007: 2). As place names are conservative in the sense that they usually are based on the language of people who have lived in the region for some time and are even succeeded by new settlers, as in the case of native American-origin place names in the US and Ainu place names in Hokkaido, the resemblance of lexical items reflected in the Kogoryoan place names to Japanese attracted many scholars and suggests a relationship between the two. Lee and Ramsey (2000: 276) noted that a question of whether Koguryǒan



2.3  Genetic rel ationships  17

is related to Sillan, i.e., Old Korean, ‘has become a political matter’, but they settled with the idea that they were ‘all related, however distant or close those relationships might have been’. Beckwith (2007), however, argues that Koguryǒan (as well as Japanese) is not related to Sillan (Old Korean). He presented a scenario that people who spoke Japanese-Koguryǒic languages in China moved from the south to Liao Xi (‘the area along the northwest coast of Liaotung Bay in the Yellow Sea’, p. 247), from which some moved to the northeast of China and the Korean peninsula (by sea or by land) and others took a sea-route to northern Kyūshū as Yayoi immigrants in the 4th century bce (Beckwith: 2007: 33–36, 242, 247). Vovin (2010: 239) argues that there was a large amount of borrowing from Old Korean to Central (present-day Kansai region) Japanese between the late 4th and late 7th century ‘prior to migration of proto-Japonic speakers to the Japanese archipelago’, whose language was related to ‘a Japanese substratum [in Korean], as indicated, for example, by the seemingly Japonic elements in pseudo-Koguryǒ place names’. It follows that there could have been, at least, two different waves of migration to prehistoric Japan: first by those who spoke Koguryǒic-Japanese and secondly by those who spoke Old Korean.

2.3.2  The Koreanic and Japonic language families The genetic affiliation of Korean and Japanese is far from definite, but they each constitute a language family consisting of mutually unintelligible languages, which are usually referred to as ‘dialects’ in both countries. The chapters on dialects in two books on the languages spoken in Korea and Japan, Shibatani (1990) and Sohn (1999), differ greatly. Shibatani (1990: 184) wrote, ‘Japan, a mountainous country with numerous islands, has a setting ideal for fostering language diversification; Indeed, Japanese is extremely rich in dialectal variations.’ In contrast, Sohn (1999: 57) wrote, ‘The Korean language is relatively homogeneous, with good mutual intelligibility among the speakers from different areas.’ The organization of the books is also different. The title of Shibatani’s (1990) book is The Languages of Japan, i.e., it is about two languages, Ainu and Japanese, whereas Sohn (1999) is solely about Korean. In addition, Shibatani (1990: 94) referred to Ryukyuan languages and stated that ‘the language of the Ryukyuan Islands is a dialect that branched off from Japanese’. This shows that Japan has been one of the multilingual countries in Asia, although the multilinguality of Japan has been denied and suppressed by Japanese governments since the Meiji era, which resulted in extinction of many languages. The language family Japonic consists of Japanese, Ryukyuan languages, spoken on the Amami and Ryūkyū islands, and Hachijō, spoken on Hachijō Island (Irwin and Zisk 2019: 1). Shimojo (2018: 88) wrote, ‘One widespread hypothesis divides Japonic into Ryukyuan and Japanese, the latter of which further divides into the Eastern and Western groups. The Hachijōjima dialect, which is spoken on

18  japanese and kore an Hachijōjima island of Tokyo, is treated either as a part of the Eastern group, or as a distinct branch in a sister relationship with Eastern and Western, or as a distinct branch in a sister relationship with Japanese.’ The Korean language is not alone, either. Cho and Whitman (2020: 13) wrote that Koreanic consists of Seoul, North and South Kyǒngsang, Cheju, North Hamkyǒng ‘dialects’, among others, and that ‘the dialects of South Chǒlla and Yanbian in China are mutually unintelligible’. Cheju Korean, particularly, was attested as a language unintelligible by the speakers of mainland Korean dialects (O’Grady, Changyong Yang, and Sejung Yang 2019).

2.4  Typological characteristics Korean and Japanese are similar particularly in typology.9 This section contrasts the characteristics of these languages with two of the surrounding languages, i.e., Ainu and Chinese, particularly regarding their syntactic and morphological t­ ypology.

2.4.1  Syntactic typology Syntactic typology concerns head directionality. The directionality of three types of heads in Korean, Japanese, Ainu, and Chinese (Pŭtōnghuà, Mandarin) will be examined below. These heads are verbs (or predicates), adpositions (prepositions, e.g., ‘from’, and postpositions), and nouns. Korean, Japanese, and Ainu are all head-final languages, whereas in general Chinese is head-initial. A head appears at the beginning of its phrase (followed by other elements that it takes) in head-initial structure, and a head appears at the end of its phrase (preceded by other elements that it takes) in head-final structure. Korean, Japanese, and Ainu are all SOV (subject‒object‒verb) languages, where arguments and adjuncts are followed by verbs, have postpositions, and place head nouns after noun-modifying elements, whereas Chinese is an SVO language with prepositions. Chinese nouns are usually modified by preceding elements, but in some cases, they can be modified by following elements. The object noun meaning ‘horse’ appears to the left of the verb ‘kill’ in (9a, b, c), whereas it appears to its right in (9d). (9) OV/VO

a. 곰이 Kom-i

    9 

말을 mal-ul

See Yurayong and Szeto 2020.

죽였다. cwukyess-ta. (K)



2.4 T ypological characteristics  19 b. 熊が

馬を

Kuma-ga

殺した。

korosita. (J)

uma-o

bear-Nom horse-Acc killed(-Pln) c. Kamuy

umma

rayke. (A)

bear

horse

kill

‘A bear killed a horse.’ (Shibatani 1990: 19 (14c)) d. Xióng shā sǐ-le bear

kill

(yì pǐ)

mǎ. (C)

dead one-cl horse

‘A bear killed a horse.’ The postposition ‘from’ follows the NP ‘Tokyo’ in (10a, b, c), but a preposition is placed before it in (10d). (10) postposition/preposition a. 나는

동경에서

왔습니다.

Watasi-wa

東京から

Tōkyō-kara

来ました。

I-Top

Tokyo-from

came-Def(-Pln)

Na-nun

Tongkyeng-eyse wass-supni-ta. (K)

b. 私は

c. Tokyo Tokyo

wa

kimasita. (J)

k-ek. (A)

from 1sg.S-come

‘I came from Tokyo.’ (Nakagawa 2013: 32) d. Wǒ

cóng

Dōngjīng lái. (C)

I

from

Tokyo

come

‘I am from Tokyo.’ The modifying element meaning ‘good’ all precedes the noun ‘young man’ in (11a, b, c, d). Chinese, however, allows a modifier to follow a head noun when it occurs as the complement of the verb yǒu ‘have’. In (11e), the hěn cōngmíng ‘very smart’ follows its head noun xuéshēng ‘student’. (11) noun modification a. 아주

acwu

좋은

cho-un

청년

chengnyen (K)

20  japanese and kore an b. とても

totemo

ii

いい

青年

very

good

young.man

seinen (J)

‘a very good young man’ c. ampene pirika sukup aynu (A) very

good

young man

‘a very good young man’ (Shibatani 1990: 39 (58a)) d. yígè

hěn

one-cl very

hǎo-de

niánqīng rén (C)

good-Adn young

person

‘a very good young person’ e. Wǒ xiànzài dài yī niánjí-de háizi. Bān-li yǒu I now have 1 grade-Adn child class-in have xuéshēng hěn cōngmíng. (C) student very smart ‘Now I am with first grade students. In the class there are very smart students.’

2.4.2  Morphological typology O’Grady et al. (1991: 229–231) give definitions for the following four types of morphological typology: isolating (or analytic), agglutinating, fusional (or inflecting), and polysynthetic types. We show only three of them, excluding the fusional type, because it is not relevant to the four languages in question. (12) Morphological typology (O’Grady et al. 1991: 229–231) a. The Isolating Type. ‘A language is isolating or analytic to the extent that its words consist of a single morpheme. Because most words consist only of a root, there are few bound morphemes (affixes).’ b. The Agglutinating Type. ‘An agglutinating language makes extensive use of words containing two or more morphemes (a root and one or more affixes). In such languages, each affix is clearly identifiable and characteristically encodes a single grammatical contrast.’ c. The Polysynthetic Type. ‘In a polysynthetic language, long strings of affixes or bound forms are united into single words, which may translate as an entire sentence in English. The use of portmanteau morphemes is common, although the extent to which this happens varies from language to language.’



2.4 T ypological characteristics  21

Chinese is usually taken as an example of the isolating type. This language, for example, does not have any grammatical bound morphemes for case, person, number, and gender to be marked on subjects and objects. The subject xióng ‘bear’ and the object (yì pǐ) mǎ ‘(one) horse’ in (9d) do not have any affixes. The words xióng ‘bear’ and mǎ ‘horse’ each constitute a single morpheme and are not followed by any affixes. Their grammatical functions subject and object are determined by the position in relation to the verb. The pre-verbal NP is subject, and the post(transitive) verb is object. O’Grady et al. (1991) argue that the perfective marker le in Chinese, which can be attached to a verb, is not considered to be an agglutinative affix because this can appear free, as shown in (13).10 Chinese, however, has some agglutinative elements, e.g., -de in hao-de in the case of (11d), functioning as an adnominal linker. (13) Xióng shā sǐ bear

yì pǐ

mǎ

le. (C)

kill die one-cl horse Prf

‘A bear killed a horse.’ Korean and Japanese are often treated as typical agglutinating languages. Subjects and objects in these languages are marked with affixes, i.e., subject and object markers, as shown in (9a, b), although they do not have any markers for person and gender. The Korean and Japanese subject markers encode a single grammatical function, i.e., it is nominative, and their object markers encode that they are accusative. An affix for plural entities is added, albeit optionally, when subjects and objects refer to plural entities, although such a plural affix is added only when nouns refer to human beings in Japanese. The verbs (or predicates) in these languages need to be marked for tense, as in (9a, b) and (10a, b). In addition to tense, some other morphemes are attached to verbs. The morpheme that shows deference to the addressee, for example, is marked on the verbs in (10a, b). Ainu is also an agglutinating language, but it exhibits some characteristics of the polysynthetic (and incorporating) type, too. The grammatical relations that verbs have with their core arguments are marked on the verbs, rather than on the arguments. Tables 2.1 and 2.2 show part of the system of subject- and object-indexing markers in Ainu. As the subject- and object-indexing markers for third person are phonologically null, the example in (9c) shows none of the overt morphemes given in these tables. The examples in (10c) and (15) show the subject-indexing marker on the verbs for first person singular intransitive subject, which happens to be the same as that for first person singular transitive subject in Table 2.1. (The transitive subject-indexing markers and the intransitive subjectindexing-markers are slightly different.)     10  The perfective marker le, however, has a slightly different meaning depending on whether it appears attached to a verb or like a sentence-final particle.

22  japanese and kore an Table 2.1  Colloquial Ainu transitive subject marking (Shibatani 1990: 28, Table 3.5) Singular

Plural

1st person

ku-

2nd person 3rd person

eØ

ci- (excl) a- (an-) (incl) eci- (-es) Ø

Table 2.2  Colloquial Ainu object marking (Shibatani 1990: 28, Table 3.6) Singular

Plural

1st person

en-

2nd person 3rd person

eØ

uni (excl) i- (an-) (incl) eci- (-es) Ø

(excl) and (incl) refer to ‘exclusive’ and ‘inclusive’ respectively, and the forms in parentheses indicate those suffixes unique to the Ishikari dialect.

Bugaeva (2012) points out the following differences between Ainu and Japanese. (14) ‘On a deep level, Ainu and Japanese are structurally very different languages, manifested by the presence of such properties in Ainu as pronominal verbal marking, no case marking on core arguments, mixed (but basically tripartite) alignment, head-marking possessive construction, no tense marking, but a great number of coded valency alternations (including applicatives) and noun incorporation, all lacking in Japanese.’ (p. 498) According to Bugaeva (2012: 489), Ainu has noun incorporation (whereby ‘a core argument (subject or object) of a clause becomes “attached to” or “incorporated into” the verb’), and this process applies to the non-agentive subject of a transitive verb (A), the object of a transitive verb (O), and the subject of an intransitive verb (S). She wrote that ‘Noun incorporation is not so common in the world’s languages and A-incorporation is hardly attested elsewhere’ (p. 489). (15b) is an example of A-incorporation, which has applied to the subject in (15a). A-incorporation resulted in valency decrease, whereby ‘the original A is removed from an argument position’ and ‘the original O promotes to S’ (Bugaeva 2012: 490).



2.5 Chinese influence on the le xicon  23

(15) Noun incorporation in Ainu (Bugaeva 2012: 490 (59)) a. nis cloud

Ø-en-reye-re. 3.A-1sg-crawl-caus

‘The clouds carry me (slowly).’ b. káni I

ku-nis-reye-re 1sg.S-cloud-crawl-caus

‘I am (slowly) carried by clouds.’ (Lit. ‘I am cloud-carried.’ ) Like Ainu, Japanese also displays an incorporating characteristic, e.g., its causative, desiderative, and potential morphemes incorporate a verb to form words (some instances of incorporation in Japanese are discussed in Chapter 7).

2.5  Chinese influence on the lexicon Both Korean and Japanese have a large proportion of Chinese lexical and morphological items as a result of borrowing both the script and language from China for writing early on (see Chapter 3). Table 2.3 shows the proportions of Sino-Korean words in dictionaries. The proportions of words shown under the dictionary published in 1957, K’ŭnsajǒn compiled by Hangŭl Hakhoe (Korean Language Society), reflect earlier decades because its compilation started in 1937, although it was interrupted by the Japanese police and completed after the liberation of Korea in 1945 (Taylor and Taylor 1995: 194–195). The 1961 dictionary is Kugǒ Taesajǒn11 compiled after 1945 (Taylor and Taylor 1995: 195). The Japanese dictionary published in 1891 is Genkai,12 the 1956 one is Reikai Kokugo Jiten,13 the 1969 one is Kadokawa Kokugo Jiten,14 and the 2002 one is Shinsen Kokugo Jiten, Eighth Edition.15 Table 2.3  Composition of the Korean vocabulary (Taylor and Taylor 1995: 195)

No. of Words Sino-Korean Native Foreign loan Hybrid     11 

1957

1961

1960s

164,125 52.1% 45.5 2.4

225,203 69.3% 24.4 6.3

64,355 45.4% 44.5 3.0 7.1

Edited by Yi Hŭi-sŭng and published from Minjung Sǒgwan. Compiled by Fumihiko Ōtsuki.     13  Edited by Tokieda Motoki and published from Chūkyō Shuppan.     14  Edited by Sen’ichi Hisamatsu and Kenzō Satō and published from Kadokawa Shoten.     15  Edited by Kyōsuke Kindaichi, Umetomo Saeki, Hatsutarō Ōishi, Masaaki Nomura and published from Shogakkan.     12 

24  japanese and kore an Table 2.4  Composition of the Japanese vocabulary (Hayashi 1982: 60; Okimori et al. 2006: 71)

No. of Words Sino-Japanese Native Foreign loan Hybrid

1891

1956

1969

2002

39,103 34.7% 55.8 1.4 8.1

40,393 53.6% 36.6 3.5 6.2

60,218 52.9% 37.1 7.8 2.2

73,181 49.1% 33.8 8.8 8.4

As both Tables 2.3 and 2.4 show, the proportions of Sino-Korean and SinoJapanese vocabulary constitute a large portion in both languages. Table 2.4 shows that the proportion of Sino-Japanese entries increased from the late 19th to early 20th century during the times of Westernization and modernization, new concepts were translated into Japanese from Western languages by using Sino-Japanese words and morphemes. Those newly coined Chinese-based words spread into Korean and Chinese. Duanmu (2000: 163) wrote that 70% of modern Chinese terms in certain domains were borrowed from Japanese, as in (16). (16) ‘Most increase in disyllabic words comes from borrowings after the Opium War. By some estimates (e.g. B. Wang 1998: 71), 70 per cent of modern Chinese terms, mostly compounds, in the humanities and social sciences are borrowed from Japanese alone. After the Opium War, many Chinese students went abroad to study modern knowledge, and they introduced a large amount of new vocabulary into Chinese. People who studied in the west introduced new terms directly from English. People who studied in Japan introduced new terms from Japanese, which itself had borrowed them from English. The second way soon won over, because when Japanese borrowed a term from English, it often created a compound out of Chinese characters that it had borrowed from China many years before.’ (Duanmu 2000: 163) Tranter (2012) classified the Chinese-based terms newly invented in Northeast Asia during the modern times into four categories, as shown in (17). Those in (17a) are examples of ‘Japanese neo-classical coinages from Chinese morphemes’ (Tranter 2012: 17), those in (17b) are examples of forms ‘resurrected and/or redefined’ from ‘obsolete Chinese words’ by Japanese, which sometimes have undergone ‘massive semantic change’ (pp. 17–18), those in (17c) are examples of forms ‘invented in China’ (and are not ‘Japanese coinages’) (p. 18), and those in (17d) are an example of forms ‘not clear which country first created or redefined’ (p. 18). The Chinese characters are written in the order of those used in Korea (Korean hanca, KH),



2.6 Conclusion  25

those used in Japan (Japanese kanzi, JK), and those used in China (Jiăntĭzì ‘simplified characters’, JTZ). When the same characters are used among the three languages, only one form is given. JK and JTZ are simplified forms of the variety used in KH. (17) Tranter (2012: 17 (15)), slightly changed, JK and JTZ added SJ

Chinese

a. chwulphan uywen kongep cengchayk sangep nayyong cengtang kwukhoy

SK

syuppan giin kōgyō seisaku syōgyō naiyō seitō kokkai

chūbăn yìyuán gōngyè zhèngcè shāngyè nèiróng zhèngdăng guóhuì

b. sahoy seykey hyengmyeng -cwuuy

syakai sekai kakumei -syugi

shèhuì shìjiè gémìng -zhŭyì

c. peplyul senke

hōritu senkyo

fǎlǜ xuănjŭ

d. kongwen

kōen

gōngyuán

KH, JK, JTZ

出版 議員,議員,议员 工業,工業,工业 政策 商業,商業,商业 内容 政黨,政党,政党 國會,国会,国会 社會,社会,社会 世界 革命 主義,主義,主义

‘publishing’ ‘parliamentarian’ ‘industry’ ‘(political) measure’ ‘commerce’ ‘content’ ‘(political) party’ ‘parliament’ ‘society’ ‘world’ ‘revolution’ ‘-ism’

‘law’ 法律 選舉,選挙,选举 ‘election’ 公園,公園,公园 ‘park’

In addition to those Sino-Korean and Sino-Japanese words, both Korean and Japanese have borrowings from other countries, particularly from Englishspeaking countries, and hybrid words which are made up of different etymological origins, as shown in Tables 2.3 and 2.4.

2.6 Conclusion This chapter illustrated the sounds of Japanese and Korean and the systems of romanization used in this work, the genetic relationship between the two languages and typological characteristics of both, particularly in comparison with neighboring languages, such as Chinese and Ainu, and Chinese influence on the lexicons of the two languages.

3

Writing systems 3.1 Introduction Language has existed since about the time humans (the species Homo sapiens) came into this world hundreds of thousands of years ago, but techniques for recording language, or writing, came into being relatively recently, about 5,000 years ago. The sources of writing systems, or scripts, currently used in the world, such as the Roman alphabet, Greek alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, Arabic alphabet, and some scripts used in Asia, such as the scripts for Hindi and Thai, are surprisingly limited. It is postulated that all of these scripts may be traced back to one source (Daniels and Bright 1996). The timing of their emergence and the paucity of their sources both show how difficult it must have been for writing systems to emerge in human history. Chinese characters (or hànzì 汉字) are another script, developed independently from the scripts mentioned so far. The writing systems now used in Japanese, namely Hiragana ひらがな and Katakana カタカナ, developed from Chinese characters. The writing system for Korean, Hangŭl 한글, however, is unique and is not related to any other script in the world, including Chinese characters. This chapter describes how Japanese and Koreans developed their respective writing systems. At the beginning, Japanese and Koreans borrowed Chinese characters for writing and both cultures were in a similar situation and used similar methods of writing using Chinese characters, but the history of writing in each country later diverged dramatically into different paths due to differences in the diplomatic and cultural relationships that the two countries had with China. Just like many other peoples in the world, Japanese and Koreans had no indigenous script to record their languages. Such a technique for recording and transmission of information may not have been important for a tribal people who had lived in a sustainable hunting and gathering society for hundreds or thousands of years, such as the Jōmon people in the northeast of Japan, but it becomes necessary when it is impossible to store, manage, and transmit a large amount of information for agricultural, administrative, and diplomatic purposes. This happened to the Koreans, and to the Japanese as well, when they came into contact with a gigantic civilization in East Asia, i.e., the Chinese civilization. They benefited from it, for example, by learning to grow rice, but were also threatened by the superpower as well. International relations in Northeast Asia in ancient times were surprisingly dynamic; states in China, Korea, and Japan were constantly realigning, changing foes and allies in the struggle for survival and expansion (Holcombe 2017). The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0003



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  27

Japanese and Koreans initially borrowed both a foreign language and script for writing; i.e., they used both the Chinese language and Chinese characters for writing. How and when these peoples started to use this foreign language and script, however, was a little different. The difference comes from their geographic distance from the source language, Chinese. Koreans, who lived on the northeast end of the Chinese area of the Eurasian continent, or the Chinese continent, in the areas on and around the Korean peninsula, had been faced with China on their borders (with its military pressure and many emigrants from it) and thus started to use the Chinese language and characters for writing earlier than did the Japanese. Chinese characters must have been used in Korea ‘as early as the first century bc’, and they must have been extensively used among the rulers in ancient kingdoms in Korea by the 3rd or 4th century ce (Sohn and Lee 2003: 23). It was recorded in Samguk Sagi (Historical Records of the Three Kingdoms, 1145) that one of the ancient three kingdoms in Korea, Koguryŏ (which started as a state in 37 bce) had a book recording its history, and the other two kingdoms Paekche and Silla also had written histories, dating respectively, from 375 ce and 545 ce. Koguryŏ also erected a stone stele Kwangget’o Wangbi (Stele of King Kwangget’o) in 414 ce, which recorded battles between Koguryŏ and other states nearby, Paekche, Silla, and Japan. Japanese, living on the Japanese archipelago off the Chinese continent, started to use the Chinese language and writing around the late 4th and early 5th centuries with the help of Koreans who already had experience in using this foreign language, as recorded in Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720 ce) and Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters, 712 ce), where it is stated that a Korean professor came with five books of Chinese classics (Yamaguchi 2006, Seeley 1991). What this means is that, although writing systems used today in Japan and Korea are very different, they have not developed independently from each other, but rather they have used similar methods, many of which must have been initiated by ancient Koreans struggling to adapt Chinese writing to their own. It will be shown below how Chinese writing has been adapted for use particularly during early times by illustrating methods of adaptation and how they were actually applied in Section 3.2. Section 3.3 describes later attempts at nativization of writing, particularly how new scripts were invented in the two countries. Section 3.4 shows today’s newspapers in Japanese and Korean.

3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use 3.2.1 Introduction As stated above, Chinese was initially used in very much the same way as Germanic people used Latin for writing, i.e., they used the Latin language and its script for recording independently of their vernaculars (Bloch 2014). Various attempts, however, have been made in Korea and Japan to adapt the Chinese writing for

28  writing systems the use of Koreans or Japanese not so literate in Chinese. This is because Chinese is typologically very different from both Japanese and Korean, as shown in Chapter 2. Chinese is a head-initial language, whereas Korean and Japanese are both head-­ final, and Chinese is often referred to as an exemplar of isolating languages, whereas Korean and Japanese are agglutinating languages. These factors, which caused numerous difficulties for Japanese and Koreans in the acquisition of Chinese, gave birth to several techniques that made texts written in Chinese much easier for Korean and Japanese native speakers to comprehend. Three different methods of adaption will be shown below in subsection 3.2.2: a method whereby Chinese characters are used to represent the sounds of native words and suffixes (3.2.2.1), a method whereby some native words and suffixes are added to Chinese sentences to clarify the grammatical function of each constituent (3.2.2.2), and a method whereby Chinese word order is rearranged to the word order of Korean or Japanese (3.2.2.3). Subsection 3.2.3 shows how these methods were applied to the development of native writings, particularly focusing on two types of approaches, i.e., poem-writing style (3.2.3.1) and hybrid style (3.2.3.2).

3.2.2  Methods of adaptation 3.2.2.1  Sound-representing techniques Chinese characters are logographic, i.e., each grapheme (or each sign functioning as a unit of writing) represents a morpheme. In contrast, the script currently used in the English alphabet or Korean Hangŭl is phonographic: i.e., each grapheme represents a sound. Two scripts currently used in Japanese called Hiragana and Katakana are also phonographic, but these two Japanese scripts differ from the English alphabet and Hangŭl in that they are syllabic1 writing systems where each grapheme represents a syllable (or more accurately a mora), whereas the English alphabet and Hangŭl are alphabetic writing systems where each grapheme represents a segmental sound. In principle, an alphabetic script has a grapheme for each consonant or vowel, whereas a syllabic script like Hiragana usually has a grapheme for a combination of a consonant and vowel. Note, however, that although Chinese characters are logographic, many of them contain a phonological part that represents a sound (DeFrancis 1984). One of the most fundamental differences between Chinese characters (logographic) and the scripts in Korean and Japanese (phonographic) is that there are in theory as many Chinese characters as there are morphemes (which are distinguished in terms of what they mean), whereas those native scripts in Korean and Japanese are completely dissociated from meaning. The number of graphemes in Korean or Japanese roughly corresponds to the number of phonological units as perceived by native speakers. As the Chinese script 1  More

accurately they are moraic rather than syllabic because each Hiragana or Katakana character represents a mora, which sometimes is part of a syllable (see Chapter 2).



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  29

is logographic, even some Chinese graphemes pronounced identically are differentiated in writing. 九 ‘nine’, 酒 ‘wine’, and 久 ‘long time’, for example, are all pronounced /jiŭ/, but they are given different shapes, or different graphemes. Before we illustrate below how Koreans and Japanese adapted Chinese characters to represent sounds, it needs to be mentioned here that three elements are always involved in writing words or morphemes: i.e., a (i) graphic representation, (ii) meaning, and (iii) sound. The Chinese character 印 is pronounced /yìn/ and means ‘(a) seal’ as shown in Figure 3.1.2 Graphic Representation

Sound /yìn/

Meaning ‘seal’

Figure 3.1  Representation of a word (印)

When Koreans and Japanese borrowed Chinese characters, they used the original graphic representations, meanings, and sounds as they were used in Chinese. Later on, Koreans and Japanese made changes to some of these three elements to represent sounds of their native morphemes. There are three major different ways to use Chinese characters to represent sounds in addition to the way ordinarily done in Chinese. As Japanese still use all of the four types of techniques to represent sounds with Chinese characters, Japanese examples are given in (1), which shows four different ways to read Chinese characters. Note, however, that ‘original sounds’ here are the sounds pronounced as the closest approximation to original Chinese sounds by native speakers of Japanese or Koreans according to the phonological system of their native languages and are thus different from how they were pronounced originally by Chinese. (1) How Chinese characters are used to represent sounds:

a. Original sound, original meaning: e.g., 印 /in/ ‘seal’

b. Original sound, different meaning: e.g., 印 /in/ ‘India’

c. Different sound, original meaning: e.g., 鱈 /tara/ ‘codfish’

d. Different sound, different meaning: e.g., (出)鱈(目) /(de)tara(me)/ ‘nonsense’ The way in which each one of the examples in (1) is read will be illustrated in the following. These techniques of reading Chinese characters will be referred to in this book as follows: the authentic way, as in (1a), the phonographic way, (1b), the logographic way, (1c), and the rebus way, (1d). 印 consists of two parts: the left part showing a hand pressing down and the right part showing a bending person (i.e., pressing down on a bending person). ‘The original meaning of “press down” then came to be used of pressing down on a seal’ (Henshall 1988: 129).

    2 

30  writing systems The authentic way The first and most basic method is to use Chinese characters to represent their ‘original’ sounds and meanings, which will be here referred to as the authentic way. Each Chinese character (a graphic representation) in principle represents a sound, or a syllable, and a meaning associated with it. 印, for example, is pronounced, i.e., /yìn/ and means ‘a seal’ in modern Chinese,3 and in both Japanese and Korean is pronounced in and means ‘a seal’ as well. Documents that need an official seal have this Chinese character in Japan. In this case the original association between graphic representation, sound, and meaning is kept intact, although the pronunciation of in is done in accordance with Japanese phonology. This is the authentic (or original) and basic way of using Chinese characters to represent sounds in Japanese and Korean. The other sound-representing techniques are done basically by means of severing the association between sound and meaning. This means that, in reading a Chinese character, either its original meaning or sound is ignored, and thus either its original sound or meaning is somehow kept for use. This gives several ways to associate a graphic representation with a new meaning or a new sound. The phonographic way Even in China, Chinese characters are sometimes used to represent just sounds dissociated from their original meanings. This is done when they write foreign words in Chinese characters, e.g., 印度 read /yìndù/ (literally ‘seal-degree’) in Chinese, /iNdo/ in Japanese, and /into/ in Korean, which are both pronounced [indo], to mean ‘India’. Note that the meaning of each Chinese character is irrelevant, and these Chinese characters are used only to represent sounds. In this case, 印 alone can also mean ‘India’ as in 中印 Zhōng-Yìn (C), Tyū-In (J), or CwungIn (K), which means ‘China‒India’ as in China‒India relationship. The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle for 印 meaning ‘India’ in Chinese is as shown in Figure 3.2, where the original meaning is replaced by a new one on the basis of the sound of the grapheme. Graphic Representation

Sound /yìn/

Meaning ‘seal’ → ‘India’

Figure 3.2  The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle of 印 /yìn/ ‘India’

This practice of using Chinese pronunciation dissociated from meaning is called here the phonographic way, was originally started in Chinese, and was widely used in Korean and Japanese as well. Another example of this type is 涅槃 /nièpán/     3 

The variety of modern Chinese referred to in this book is that of Pŭtōnghuà.



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  31

‘nirvana’. The grapheme-sound-meaning triangles for 印度 and 涅槃 are summarized in Table 3.1. Table 3.1  印度 ‘India’ and 涅槃 ‘nirvana’ (the phonographic way) Chinese characters

印(度)

涅槃

Literal meaning

New meaning

Chinese sound

Korean sound

Japanese sound

‘seal’-‘degree’

‘India’

/yìn(dù)/

/in(to)/

/in(do)/

‘alum’-‘bowl’

‘nirvana’

/nièpán/

/yelpan/

/nehan/

The logographic way Another way of using Chinese characters to represent sounds of native morphemes was to use a graphic representation and its meaning without using its original Chinese sound. The Chinese character 鱈 (鳕) /xuě/ ‘codfish’, for example, is used only to represent its meaning (without using its Chinese sound /xuě/) and is read in the way the native word with the equivalent or a close meaning is pronounced, i.e., /tara/ ‘codfish’ (J). The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle in this case is as shown in Figure 3.3, where the Chinese sound is replaced by the Japanese word for ‘codfish’ /tara/. Graphic Representation

Sound /xuě/ → /tara/

Meaning ‘codfish’

Figure 3.3  The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle of 鱈 /tara/ ‘codfish’

This practice of reading a Chinese character that semantically corresponds to the word in one’s own language is not as far-fetched as it may appear. If Chinese characters are truly logographic and differentiated crucially in terms of meaning, how they are pronounced is secondary. This is actually what is done with Arabic numbers, e.g., 1, 2, 3, all over the world. Arabic numbers, although representing identical concepts across countries, are pronounced in accordance with the language in which they are used, and they are not pronounced as they were originally pronounced: 45 is read forty-five /forti faɪv/ in English, /sì shí wŭ/ in Chinese, /sa-sip o/ in Korean, and /yoNzyū go/ in Japanese. This sound-representing technique will be called the logographic way. Chinese characters read this way abound in Modern Japanese, e.g., 山 /shān/ ‘mountain’ (C) is read / yama/ ‘mountain’ (J), 海 /hăi/ ‘sea’ (C) as /umi/ ‘sea’ (J), and 人 /rén/ ‘person’ (C) as /hito/ ‘person’ (J).

32  writing systems The rebus way There is actually another way to use the semantic aspect of Chinese characters to represent sounds dissociated from their original sounds. In the above, it was explained how the Chinese character 鱈 is used to represent /tara/ meaning ‘codfish’. This Chinese character has the sound and meaning in Table 3.2a originally in Chinese, but it is used for the Japanese word for ‘codfish’, which is considered semantically equivalent, as in Table 3.2b. This Chinese character is also used to represent (part of ) some other Japanese word which has the sound /tara/ but does not mean ‘codfish’ at all, as in Table 3.2c, where this Chinese character is used as a part of the word detarame ‘nonsense’. The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle in this case is as shown in Figure 3.4, where the meaning (in addition to sound) has undergone a change. Table 3.2  The sound-meaning correspondences for 鱈 Language

a. Chinese: b. Japanese: c.

Japanese:

鱈 鱈 鱈

Sound Meaning /xuě/

‘codfish’

/tara/

‘codfish’

/tara/

part of detarame ‘nonsense’ (See (1d))

Graphic Representation

Sound /xuě/ → /tara/

Meaning ‘codfish’

↓

part of detarame ‘nonsense’

Figure 3.4  鱈 tara ‘codfish’ for a part of the word detarame ‘nonsense’

In this case, the sound /tara/ (the Japanese word for ‘codfish’) stems from the original meaning of the Chinese character ‘codfish’, but it is used for a different meaning, or a part of a word with a different meaning. As a result, both sound and meaning differ from the original. This can probably be explained in a way most comprehensible to the reader by using the example of reading Arabic numbers in a way different from what has been shown above. When using Arabic numbers, in addition to reading 9 as /naɪn/ to mean ‘nine’, we can read 9 as /naɪn/ without meaning ‘nine’, as in k9 ‘canine’. Another example is 4 in 4sale. The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle for k9 is as shown in Figure 3.5. The sound /????/ is whatever the Arabic number 9 was pronounced in the language it was originally used. This sound is replaced by the English sound /naɪn/. The original meaning of 9 ‘nine’ is also replaced by another one,



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  33

a part of the word ‘canine’. The shift of sound and meaning in Figure 3.5 parallels the shift of sound and meaning for 鱈 in Figure 3.4. This way of reading Chinese characters will be referred to here as the rebus way. Graphic Representation (K)9

Meaning ‘nine’ ↓ part of k9 ‘canine’

Sound /????/ ↓ /(keI)naɪn/

Figure 3.5  The grapheme-sound-meaning triangle for k9

To sum up, there are four different ways in which Chinese characters are used to represent sounds in Japanese and Korean, as shown below. Table 3.3  Sound-representing techniques Techniques

Sound

Meaning Example

a. Authentic

original sound

original meaning different from original original meaning

b. Phonographic original sound c. Logographic d. Rebus

印 /yìn/ (C), /in/ (J, K) ‘seal’

印度 /yìndù/ (C), /iNdo/ (J), / into/ (K) ‘India’

the sound of a 鱈 /xuě/ (C)  /tara/ (J) ‘codfish’ semantically equivalent native word the sound of a different 鱈 /xuě/ ‘codfish’ (C)  /tara/ in semantically from detarame ‘nonsense’ (J) equivalent native word original

Chinese mainly follow the authentic way, but to transcribe foreign words they use the phonographic way as well. Koreans and Japanese used all the four ways at early stages of adaptation. The techniques in Table 3.3b‒d were used particularly to represent their native words and suffixes. Japanese still use all of these techniques today. When Koreans use Chinese characters now, they do so primarily in accordance with the authentic way, and only occasionally in accordance with the phonographic way, e.g., Han-Mi kwankyey ‘Korea‒US relationship’.

34  writing systems

3.2.2.2  Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method Another strategy taken to nativize Chinese writing for use was to add native grammatical morphemes (words or suffixes) to Chinese sentences to make clear the syntactic categories or grammatical functions of some elements, which clarifies their syntactic structure (e.g., which part is the subject and which part the predicate). Lee and Ramsey (2000) give an example using English and Korean grammatical morphemes to explain this adaptation method, as in (2): (2) In the beginning ey God i  created the heavens and the earth  hasyetta. at

(respectfully) did SUBJECT           

(from Lee & Ramsey 2000: 51) The locative postposition -ey ‘at’ is placed after the phrase in the beginning, the subject particle -i is placed after the subject God, and the dummy verb in the past tense with an honorific marker hasyetta is placed at the end of the sentence to mark the end of a sentence, or the predicate. This adaptation method will be here referred to as the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method. When supplying grammatical morphemes like dummy verbs and topic markers (as well as other grammatical elements such as case markers, postpositions, and inflectional suffixes), initially Chinese characters were used to represent such grammatical morphemes according to the sound-representing techniques in (Table 3.3b‒d).

3.2.2.3  Word-Order Rearrangement Method Often, alongside supplying grammatical morphemes, some changes in word order from Chinese head-initial order to native head-final order are made for ease of comprehension, which will be here referred to as the Word-Order Rearrangement Method. The sentence in (3) shows an example of adjustment of word order to Japanese syntax. In this sentence inscribed on the back side of the nimbus of the statue of the Medicine Buddha, Hōryūji Temple, Japan, the phrase 造寺 ‘build a temple’ is in accordance with Chinese syntax, but the phrase 薬師像作 ‘Medicine-Buddha-statue make’ is not. In the latter, the object NP 薬師像 ‘an image of Medicine Buddha’ precedes the verb 作 ‘make’ in accordance with Japanese syntax. This is an example of the Word-Order Rearrangement Method. (3) 将

would

造

build

寺

temple

薬師像

Medicine-Buddha-image

作

make

仕奉

serve

‘(he) . . . made a vow that he would build a temple and [make] a Yakushi ­ yorai [Medicine Buddha] image . . .’ (7th century, Seeley 1991: 27) n

詔

vow



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  35

3.2.3  Application of adaptation methods In the above, methods of adaptation whereby Chinese writing were converted to a variety of writing more closely encoding the native languages of Korea and Japan have been illustrated. This subsection shows some examples of how these adaptation methods were actually used, particularly focusing on two different approaches to nativizing Chinese to produce native writing, i.e., poem-writing style and hybrid style. Chinese characters continued to be used by Koreans according to Chinese syntax without mixing Korean elements in authentic official documents, laws, and scholarly works, but at the same time, efforts were made till the end of the 19th century to adapt and nativize some documents written in Chinese characters for the use of Koreans by using some or all of the methods illustrated above (Sohn 1999: 122, 124, Taylor and Taylor 1995: 206). As Japanese learned to use Chinese characters through Koreans (Seeley 1991: 4‒9), they likely learned both options for using Chinese characters, i.e., to use them authentically according to Chinese syntax and to use them with adaptations for Japanese use. The varieties of writings in Chinese characters adapted by Koreans are differentiated into three types in terms of which methods were used and the degree to which a method was used: they are idu (clerical reading), kugyŏl (phrase-separators), and hyangch’al (vernacular letters). Sometimes all three types of varieties were subsumed under the name idu (Sohn 1999: 124). They differ on two parameters: (i) application of the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method, and (ii) application of the Word-Order Rearrangement Method. Note that both parameters are related to typological differences between Chinese, on the one hand, and Korean and Japanese, on the other. Parameter (i) comes from the agglutinating features of Korean and Japanese, as opposed to non-agglutinating Chinese features, and parameter (ii) from the head-final word order of Korean and Japanese, as opposed to the head-initial word order of Chinese. There has been some debate on classifying idu into three varieties of adaptation, hyangch’al, kugyŏl, and idu (proper), and they do not necessarily fall neatly into the three categories, but ideally the three varieties are differentiated as in Table 3.4. Interestingly, Japanese also had these two parameters at work in making a style of writing indigenous to their country: ‘overt representation of Japanese elements’, corresponding to parameter (i), and ‘a degree of Japanese-influenced word-order’, parameter (ii) (Seeley 1991: 28). The development of adaptation in both Korean and Japanese writing will be illustrated in the following subsection according to this threefold differentiation. Adding as much native grammatical morphemes as possible and rearranging as much syntactic word order as possible, as in hyangch’al schematically shown in Table 3.4, seems to be the final goal of adaptation if Chinese writing is to be completely nativized. But this type of adaptation occurred early in the development of

36  writing systems Table 3.4  Three varieties of idu or adapted writing in Korean Parameter (i)

Parameter (ii)

Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation

Word-Order Rearrangement

hyangch’al Apply kugyŏl Apply to some idu Apply to some (proper)

Apply No changea Apply (to some)

aThis

is a feature particularly of sundok kugyŏl ‘kugyol reading in order’ (Cho and Whitman 2020: 45-46). There may be a ‘return dot’ that helps the reader to read text in Korean syntactic order rather than Chinese order, even though it is written in the latter order: ‘Examples from late Koryŏ of the use of oral formulas (口訣 kugyŏl) – adding grammatical elements to the Chinese text to indicate the case relationship of nouns and verb endings – are to be found in Buddhist texts ... The oral formula graphs (吐 t’o) provided to the right of a Chinese sentence are first read down as far as the return dot and then one goes back to the Top to read oral formula graphs on the left – all this is to rearrange the Chinese sentence into Korean syntactic order’ (Lee 2003: 88).

nativization in both Korea and Japan, particularly in the genre of poetry or songs. This type of texts written in poem-writing style will be first illustrated in 3.2.3.1, and a different type of texts written in ‘hybrid’ style, which resulted from application of both or either of the two methods of adaptation pertaining to the two parameters shown in Table 3.4 will be illustrated in 3.2.3.2.

3.2.3.1  Poem-writing style Hyangch’al was the type of writing used in the poems developed during the united Silla period (668‒935) and used until the beginning of Koryŏ dynasty (918‒1392). Such poems (or songs) were called hyangga (vernacular poems). Some hyangga were recorded in Samguk Yusa (Recollections of the Three Kingdoms, 13th century). Hyangga songs, being poetry, had a few Chinese loanwords, which were read in the authentic way, but were made up mostly of native words and grammatical morphemes, which were recorded by other sound-representing techniques in (Table 3.3b‒d), and these words were ordered according to Korean syntax. That is, they were written in accordance with both the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method and the Word-Order Rearrangement Method mentioned above. In the beginning part of the hyangga poem in (4), the first Chinese character 明 of 明期 polki is pronounced /míng/ and means ‘bright’ in modern Chinese. This character was read according to the logographic way, i.e., ignore the original sound and read it in the way the corresponding word is pronounced in Korean. The second Chinese character 期, which is read /qī/ and means ‘period’ in modern Chinese, was read in accordance with the phonographic way, i.e., ignore the original meaning and just use the pronunciation, which was close to /ki/ in earlier Chinese. The two Chinese characters 明期 together were intended to represent the native Korean adjective meaning ‘bright’ in its adnominal form, i.e., polki. The first



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  37

Chinese character 月 of 月良 tolala, which is read /yuè/ and means ‘moon’ in modern Chinese, was to be read /tol/ ‘moon’ in accordance with the logographic way (read it as a native word), and the Chinese character following it 良 (/liáng/ ‘good’ in modern Chinese) was read in the phonographic way to represent the locative postposition -(a)la. (4) 東京

明期

TWONG-KYENG polki east-capital

月良

tolala (from Lee and Ramsey 2011: 57)

bright moon-at

‘in the bright moon of the east capital’ Japanese poems similar to hyangga can be found in Man’yōshū (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, 759).4 Man’yōshū poems were also mostly made up of native words and grammatical morphemes written according to sound-representing techniques in (Table 3.3b‒d) and mostly in Japanese syntax. The example in (5) is the beginning part of a Man’yōshū poem in which each Chinese character represents one syllable (or mora) in accordance with the phonographic way (ignore their original Chinese meanings). Their pronunciations in modern Chinese are given below. Due to phonological change over time in both Japanese and Chinese, some sounds look different: 吉 /jí/ and 家 /jiā/ (C), whose syllable-initial sound, /j/, was closer to that of the Japanese /k/ about the time they were brought to Korea and Japan, and 比 /bĭ/ and 波 /bō/ (C), whose syllable-initial sound, /b/, was actually closer to the older Japanese pronunciation, i.e., /p/, which later changed to /h/. For some Chinese characters, syllable-final consonants were ignored, e.g., 能 / néng/ (C) for /no/ (J) and 遠 /yuăn/ (C) for /o/ (J).

(5) 由吉

yu-ki

能 no

伊呂 遠 i-ro

yóu-jí néng yī-lǜ snow

Gen

o

有婆比弖5 u-ba-hi-te

佐家流

sa-ke-ru

yuăn yŏu-pó-bĭ-dī zuŏ-jiā-liú

color Acc

steal-Ger

有米

u-me

能 no

波奈 . . . ha-na

yŏu-mĭ néng bō-nài

bloom-NPst plum

Gen

flower

‘Plum flowers are blooming white as if having stolen the color of snow . . .’ Man’yōshū 850 (From Yamaguchi 2006: 23, translation by one of the coauthors) Hyangga poems written in the hyangch’al method ceased to appear after the early part of the Koryŏ dynasty in Korea, whereas native poems in Japanese continued to be composed, first in Chinese characters, called Man’yō gana, and later in simplified forms of Chinese characters in Japan. Vernacular poems and songs     4 

Vovin (2017: xvii‒xviii) pointed out that ‘invaluable evidence for the Korean linguistic and cultural influence on Old Japanese language and civilization’ could be found in Book One of Man’yōshū, in the form of Korean meter, a Korean sentence, and Korean ‘loanwords’.     5  A variant (allograph) of 氐 dī, the name of an old tribe.

38  writing systems continued to be written or sung in Korea, but they were simply not recorded in hyangch’al. One reason may be due to the ease with which one can transcribe a vernacular language using Chinese characters. It must have been much easier to write Man’yōshū poems in Chinese characters than hyangga poems because the syllable structure of Old Korean was much more complex than Old Japanese. Old Korean had many heavy syllables with syllable-final consonants, whereas all syllables in Old Japanese were simple, or short, with a (C)V structure, and no syllable-final consonants. With a simple syllable structure, the number of syllables used in Old Japanese was limited, and all speakers of Old Japanese had to do was to find a set of Chinese characters that phonologically more-or-less matched with the Japanese syllables. In contrast, Old Korean had a quite a few syllables with various types of syllable-final consonants, and because of this, sometimes Chinese characters were used just to represent consonants (in addition to syllables).

3.2.3.2  Hybrid style Another type of approach developed when classical Chinese texts were modified into varieties closer to native texts, particularly, through application of the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation and the Word-Order Rearrangement Methods. This type of writing, which has undergone both or either of these adaptation methods and contains relatively many Chinese words, will be referred to as the hybrid style, following Seeley (1991).6 Using the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method, as done by kugyŏl, is one way, without tampering with word order. In kugyŏl texts, some case markers, postpositions, dummy verbs meaning ‘do’ or ‘be’, and inflectional suffixes were added to Chinese texts using Chinese characters (using sound-representing techniques in Table 3.3b‒d). The kugyŏl method was used from the late Koryŏ period to the Chosŏn dynasty. In the example of kugyŏl writing in (6), the grammatical morphemes (which represented Korean particles and dummy verbs) are underlined. Without these added grammatical morphemes, the sentence is an authentic Chinese sentence. Chinese characters used for kugyŏl were often simplified from the original as shown in the fourth row, as shown in (7). The underlined Chinese characters 厓, 伊, 尼, 隠, and 羅 were read in accordance with the phonographic way (based solely on their original sounds), and 爲 in accordance with the logographic way (readings based on their meanings). The sounds and meanings of those Chinese characters and their Korean morphemes are summarized in Table 3.5.7

    6 

Seeley (1991) defines hybrid style as follows. ‘Texts of this type, which contain written forms which show the influence of both Chinese and Japanese will be referred to hereafter in the present study as being in “hybrid” style’ (p. 26). Hybrid style for Korean is the type of style which contains ‘written forms which show the influence of both’ Chinese and Korean.     7  The Chinese pronunciations and meanings given are those of modern Chinese.



3.2  Adapting Chinese writing for use  39

(6) Kugyŏl

天地之間萬物之中 厓

ey

唯人 伊最貴

i

at (7)

爲尼所貴乎人者

honi

隠以其有五倫也

nun

subject does, and so . . . topic

厂

イ

ソヒ

羅

la is

阝

‘In the multitude of the myriad things midst heaven and earth (at that place), Man (he) is the most noble (and so): what is noble in man (it) is his possession of the Five Human R ­ elationships (it is).’ (Lee and Ramsey 2011: 83, 84)

Table 3.5  The sound-meaning correspondences

Chinese ­pronunciation Chinese meaning intended Korean morpheme Korean meaning

厓

伊

‘cliff ’

yá

-ey ‘at’

尼

隠

羅

surname, ‘to do’ ‘he/she’ -i ho-

‘nun’

‘to hide’

‘net, sift’

-nun

-la

subject marker

‘and so topic …’ marker

yī

爲

wéi

‘to do’

ní

-ni

yĭn

luó

‘is’

Another subtype was called idu (proper), in which some phrases were put in Korean word order rather than Chinese order, in addition to supplying grammatical morphemes. Idu texts usually were written by both the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation and the Word-Order Rearrangement Methods. This subtype of textual varieties was used before the Koryŏ dynasty started till the end of the Chosŏn dynasty. The example in (9) is a Koreanized version of the Chinese sentence in (8). In (9) some grammatical morphemes, e.g., the accusative particle 乙 -ul and the verbs 爲 ha- ‘do’ and 有 is- ‘exist’ as well as their inflectional suffixes, are added in accordance with the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method, and the position of the verbs 犯(為去乃) ‘violate, but’ and 有(去乙) ‘exist’ is moved to the end of each of the sentences in accordance of the Word-Order Rearrangement Method.

40  writing systems (8) Original Chinese text 雖

七 出

犯

tho’ violate 7

有

三 不

go.out exist 3

去

not go

‘Even though there may be a violation of the “Seven Reasons for Divorcing a Wife,” there are three (reasons) not to go.’ (Lee and Ramsey 2011: 53) (9) Idu text

必于 七 出 pilok tho’

7

乙 ul

犯

爲去乃 三 不 hokena

go.out OBJ violate do, but

3

去

not go

有去乙 iskenul exist

(Lee and Ramsey 2011: 53) Japanese also started to create varieties of texts in hybrid style, using the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation and the Word-Order Rearrangement Methods mentioned above around the 7th century. The hybrid methods idu and kugyŏl used in Korea can be also found in Japanese. In both languages, the writing in the hybrid style, using both the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation and Word-Order Rearrangement Methods, gave rise to later writings and eventually to current writings. In addition, the Man’yōshū poem-type writing gave birth to later Japanese writing styles and, by writing Chinese characters that represented Japanese syllables, or Man’yō gana in a cursive way led to the development of the kana syllabic scripts. which will be elaborated on in the next subsection. The approaches and adaptation methods taken at early stages of adopting Chinese writing and script in Korea and Japan were very similar. It was probably because Koreans started to struggle with Chinese writing and script earlier than Japanese and Japanese learned from the Koreans such as Korean scribes in Japan who had experience in using and adapting Chinese characters and writing. The appearance of writings in Korean and Japanese started to diverge when new scripts came into use in both countries.

3.3  Invention of scripts 3.3.1  Simplification of Chinese characters There were two types of script invention that took place in Japan and Korea: one is simplification of Chinese characters and the other is invention of an entirely new scientific script. The latter invention was ingeniously done in Korea, and the former type of invention was done in both Korea and Japan. This subsection shows instances of Chinese character simplification in Korea in 3.3.1.1 and similar simplification in Japan, which resulted in two Japanese syllabaries, Hiragana and Katakana, in 3.3.1.2.



3.3 Invention of scripts  41

3.3.1.1  Simplification of Chinese characters in Middle Korean In kugyŏl writing, where the Grammatical-Morpheme Supplementation Method was used, some of the Chinese characters used repeatedly to represent grammatical morphemes were simplified by just writing an isolated part of Chinese characters, e.g., タ instead of 多, カ for 加, ヤ for 也 in Korea.8 As most Chinese characters were written with comparatively many strokes, fewer strokes made it less burdensome to represent sounds. Surprisingly, some of the simplified characters had identical forms and phonemic values with Japanese Katakana. Simplification of Chinese characters, however, did not develop into another writing system in Korean as happened in Japanese. Some of the possible reasons for this is that (i) as stated already, Korean syllable structure was so complex that it would be very difficult to create a set of symbols solely by means of Chinese characters, whether simplified or not, and (ii) as Korean dynasties since the Koryŏ dynasty administered civil-service examinations on literary classical Chinese (kwagŏ 科挙) on the model of China to recruit bureaucrats and high-ranking officials, adapted varieties of Chinese texts, i.e., idu or kugyŏl writings, may have been considered not authentic and disparaged as crutches for those who could not handle Chinese properly. At any rate, development of another full-fledged writing system by simplifying Chinese characters used in idu and kugyŏl writings, did not happen in Korea. Idu and kugyŏl writing continued to be used along with the use of authentic literary classical Chinese writing until and even after the invention of a scientific writing system, now called Hangŭl, in the 15th century. 3.3.1.2  Simplification of Chinese characters in Middle Japanese Japan, surrounded by seas to the east of the Asian continent, is geographically and politically remote from China. As civil-service examinations were administered only for a short period of time and ineffectively, such examinations had little impact on Japanese society. Probably because of this, although philosophical and religious books written in literary classical Chinese were respected and learned by some elites who were expected to be literate in classical Chinese, having practical ways of writing which deviated from authentic classical Chinese was probably not considered as big a digression in Japanese society as in Korea. Japanese had a lot more leeway to develop writing systems of their own. What happened in Japan was a development from poem-writing style and hybrid style; both resulted in simplification of Chinese characters to represent sounds of the Japanese language. In the former case, Man’yō gana, or a set of Chinese characters used to r­ epresent Japanese syllables, were simplified by writing them in a cursive way, e.g., 安  あ, and formed the Hiragana syllabary. In case of hybrid style writing, parts of Man’yō gana or Chinese characters were isolated     8  Those signs as shown above in (7), i.e., 厂, イ, ソ, ヒ, 阝, and simplified kugyŏl.

below the English glosses, are also

42  writing systems (and sometimes went through cursivization as well) to represent sounds, just as done in kugyŏl, e.g. タ /ta/ for 多, and formed the Katakana syllabary.9 Both the Hiragana and Katakana syllabaries were fully established by the 10th century through the works and practice of many individuals over hundreds of years. Because both syllabaries emerged more or less spontaneously and had various individual bases, there were several variants with different simplified Chinese characters representing the same syllables until standardization under the Meiji government at the beginning of the 20th century. Writing in Hiragana in Early Middle Japanese (after the end of the 8th century) resulted in a host of literary works, of which many were written by female writers. At about the same time, writing grammatical morphemes of hybrid style texts in Katakana resulted in mixed writing of Chinese characters and Katakana (kanji-kana majiri-bun). Each grapheme of Hiragana or Katakana represented only a syllable of Japanese completely dissociated from the meaning of its original Chinese character and, thus, could fully function as a phonogram. The example in (10) is a passage of an early literary work Konjaku Monogatari-shū (12th century) written in a mixture of Chinese characters and Katakana. The grammatical morphemes were written in the phonological script Katakana (written in small letters), and the Chinese characters (written in capitals) were used for content words, some of which represented native Japanese words, e.g., 立 tati- ‘stand’, read in the logographic way, and some represented Chinese words, e.g., 世界 sekai ‘world’, read in the authentic way. The mixed writing style with Chinese characters and Katakana as shown in (10) has been basically continued in Japanese writing until today, except that Katakana was confined to foreign loanwords and replaced by Hiragana to write grammatical morphemes after 1945. (10) 立テ

TATI-te

皆

浜

ニ 出ヌ。

beach

to

MINA HAMA ni

stand-Ger all

可為キ

IDE-nu

SU-BE-ki

方

无クテ、

HAU NA-kute

go-out-Prf can-do-Adn way

none-Ger

‘All stood up and went out to the beach. As there was nothing that they could do’ 遥ニ

補陀落

世界

far

Potalaka-world

ノ

HARUKA-ni HUDARAKU-SEKAI no

方

HAU

ニ 向テ、 ni

Gen direction to

MUKAHI-te look-Ger

‘they looked in the direction of the Potalaka world afar’     9 

Some researchers speculated that Katakana was developed under the influence of kugyŏl. Lee and Ramsey (2011: 84), for example, wrote that ‘But many in Japan as well as Korea believe that the beginnings of Katakana and the orthographic principles they represent, derive at least in part from earlier practices on the Korean peninsula.’ Tranter (2001), however, presented reasons against a direct connection between the two scripts.



3.3 Invention of scripts  43 心

ヲ

発シテ

heart

Acc bring.up-Ger all

KOKORO o

OKO-site

皆

声

ヲ

voice

Acc raise-Ger

MINA KOWE o

‘all lifted their spirit up and shouted louder in voices’ 観音

ヲ

Guanyin

Acc pray

KWANWON o

念ジ

挙テ

AGE-te

奉ル

事

无限シ。

humbly

thing

limitless-is

NEN-zi TATEMATU-ru KOTO KAGIRI-NA-si

‘(they) did not stop praying to Goddess of Mercy Guanyin.’ (Konjaku Monogatari-shū, 12th century, from Yamaguchi 2006: 65, translation by one of the coauthors)

3.3.2  Invention of Hangŭl Korea started earlier than Japan in using Chinese language and characters and inventing several methods to adapt this foreign writing system suitable to Korean readers, but, probably because the influence from the Chinese civilization was so intense and Korean syllable structure was too complicated, fully developed texts in Korean did not emerge until the 15th century when a new script, Hangŭl, was invented. King Sejong, the fourth king of the Chosŏn dynasty, had scholars invent a new phonological script in 1443 and promulgated it in 1446 in the book titled Hunmin Chŏng’ŭm (Correct Sounds for the Education of People), which described how this script (now called Hangŭl in the Republic of Korea) could be used and what for. The creation of a script like this is unprecedented in human history in that it was deliberately invented to represent human sounds on the basis of scientific study of the articulation of sounds, with the results of the study reflected in the shape of each alphabetic letter. In Hunmin Chŏng’ŭm it was written, among other things, that it was invented as an aid to correctly learn the sounds of Chinese characters, the then official script, but it did and still does serve to represent Korean sounds perfectly. After Hangŭl was made available for use, although the use of idu and kugyŏl continued, its promulgation enabled people to write full-fledged Korean texts for literature, poetry, and songs. One example is the 15th-century Hangŭl annotation style (ŏnhae-ch’ae), which was used, among other purposes, in the translation of Buddhist scriptures, Confucian Neo-Confucianist, and other Chinese literary works into Korean texts. This laid the foundation for developing full-fledged Korean writings in the late 19th century. The example in (11) is a passage from Sŏkpo Sangjol (1447) written in the annotation style (ŏnhae-ch’ae). The portions written in Chinese characters (read by the authentic or phonographic way) are written in capitals, and the portions written in Hangŭl in small letters in (11).

44  writing systems (11) Lee and Ramsey (2011: 209)

‘Sudatta asked Homi: “What dishes is the host taking trouble to prepare with his own hands? Do (you) invite the crown prince, wishing to serve him? Do (you) invite the minister, wishing to serve him?”’ (Lee and R ­ amsely 2011: 209‒210.) In the following, the Hangŭl graphemes for consonants are briefly explained to show how this script is truly scientific. Hunmin Chŏng’ŭm shows seventeen consonant sounds, of which fourteen are listed in Table 3.6, excluding three graphemes no longer used in modern Korean (except for , which is shown in parentheses for the purpose of explanation of ㅎ). The five graphemes under basic in Table 3.6 were chosen as basic forms, from which other graphemes were derived. The shapes of these five basic graphemes were based on the place and manner of articulation as written under shape-of. The grapheme ㄱ, whose pronunciation is written /k/ according to the Yale romanization, depicts the back of the tongue closing the throat in the back, as shown in Figure 3.6a, i.e., a velar sound. The grapheme ㄴ /n/ depicts the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, particularly at the alveolar ridge, i.e., an alveolar, as shown in Figure 3.6b. The grapheme ㅁ /m/ depicts the shape of the mouth with the lips closed, i.e., a bilabial, and the grapheme ㅅ /s/ the shape of the front teeth (depicting an alveolar fricative). The grapheme ㅇ depicts the shape of the throat, or the larynx, presumably a view of the larynx seen from the above. This symbol is used to show that there is no syllable-initial consonant, which means that a vowel is produced by vibrating the vocal folds down in the larynx. Table 3.6  Hangŭl representing consonants shape-of the back of the tongue closing the velum the tongue touching the alveolar ridge

basic ㄱ/k/

ㄴ/n/

1-added 2-added liquid constricted aspirated ㄷ/t/

closed lips (bilabial) ㅁ/m/ ㅂ/p/ alveolar fricative (alveolo-palatal affricate) ㅅ/s/ ㅈ/c/ larynx ( ) ㅇ

ㅋ/kh/

ㅌ/th/

ㅍ/ph/

ㅊ/ch/ ㅎ/h/

ㄹ/l/



3.4 Newspapers in Japanese and Kore an  45 (a)

(b)

Figure 3.6  The midsagittal images producing /k/ and /n/ Source: Matsuzaki and Kawano (1998: 186–187), adapted from Kokuritsu Kokugo Kenkūjo (1990)

It was written in Hunmin Chŏng’ŭm that the sound of a grapheme written in the third column of Table 3.6 under 1 (stroke)-added is a ‘fortified’ variant. The graphemes ㄷ /t/, ㅂ /p/, and ㅈ /c/ are ‘fortified’ variants of ㄴ /n/, ㅁ /m/, and ㅅ /s/ respectively. This means that /t/, /p/, and /c/ are pronounced by adding a closure to /n/, /m/, and /s/, as hinted by an added stroke. The sound /t/ is produced by closing the nasal passage by raising the velum, but the tongue touches exactly the same place, i.e., the alveolar ridge, as the /n/ in Figure 3.6b. For the sound /p/, the same process takes place: the velum is raised to close the nasal passage, but the lips are closed as in /m/. (In case of ㅂ /p/, however, it was actually not that one stroke is added but rather that two side strokes are written longer.) In the case of the sound /c/ (an affricate) a closure is made by the tongue touching the post-alveolar zone, and an accompanying sibilant /s/. The graphemes ㅋ /kh/, ㅌ /th/, ㅍ /ph/, and ㅊ /ch/ in the fourth column under 2 (strokes)-added, where two strokes are added, all represent an aspirated version of the sound of the grapheme on the left-hand side. (Again, in case of ㅍ /ph/, it was not exactly the case that two strokes were added.) Finally, the grapheme ㅎ /h/ also accompanies a strong puff of air at the vocal folds, i.e., a glottal fricative /h/. We have shown so far how Japanese and Koreans have developed their own methods and scripts before modern times. The next section shows the final steps in the creation of writing systems of Japanese and Korean as we see them today.

3.4  Newspapers in Japanese and Korean In the 19th century both Japanese and Koreans opened their countries to the world and started to struggle to modernize their countries to defend their independence in the face of Western colonialism. One of the most important issues during this modernization period in both countries was the creation of a style of writing much closer to speech than the literary language described earlier, in order to reach a

46  writing systems wider readership. This movement was called the genbun itchi undō (J) or ŏnmun ilchi undong (K). The basic way of writing in each language, however, has been largely established as described above. One of the results of the Kabo reform in Taehan Chaeguk (the Great Korean Empire) between 1894 and 1896 was a decree that laws and decrees be written in Hangŭl, possibly mixed with Chinese characters. The Meiji government (186−1912) in Japan standardized Hiragana and Katakana as well as issuing laws pertaining to the Japanese orthography in the early 20th century. The early part of the 20th century saw difficult times in the Far East, with Korea being colonized by Japan and Japan engaging in a war to expand its territories. After Japan was defeated in 1945, both Korea and Japan started anew as democratic modern nations. Korea went through difficult times again as it experienced a civil war, which divided the nation into two. Both Korean governments issued laws that all official documents be written solely in Hangŭl. The Japanese government also issued laws pertaining to the orthography of Japanese. One of the differences after 1945 in Japanese was that Hiragana was chosen for writing native morphemes along with Chinese characters, and Katakana began to be used only to write foreign loanwords or names, a practice already started during the Edo period. Examples of Korean and Japanese newspapers today are given in (12) and (13). Japanese decided to continue to use Chinese characters and write grammatical morphemes in Hiragana and foreign loans in Katakana, which means that three different writing systems, at least, are used in Japanese newspapers. As content words are usually written in Chinese characters, and they visually stand out, there are no spaces between words or phrases, just as in Chinese writing. In contrast, Koreans have decided to write everything in Hangŭl, in principle; that is, a single writing system is used. As there are no Chinese characters and everything is written in phonological writing, there are spaces provided around units of writing, i.e., ŏjŏl. The Korean, Japanese, English, and Chinese passages in (13)−(15) are from a book review posted in DongA-com (http://www.donga.com/) on October 17, 2020.

(12) Korean10 남자는

Namca-nun

정말

cengmal

여자보다

길을

잘

찾을까.

yeca-pota

kil-ul

cal

chac-ul-kka

man-Top

really

woman-than

way-Acc

well

find-Fut-Q

남녀의

능력이

다른지

논쟁이

male-female-Gen

ability-Nom

different-if

dispute-Nom

Namnye-uy

nunglyek-i

talu-n-ci

noncayng-i

    10  https://www.donga.com/news/Culture/article/all/20201016/103463280/1, accessed on October 17, 2020.



3.4 Newspapers in Japanese and Kore an  47 벌어지면

언제나

enceyna

tungchangha-nun cilmun-i-ta.

등장하는

질문이다.

arise-if

always

appear-PresN

question-Cop-Pln

peleci-myen 그럼에도

우리에게

Kulumeyto

이

질문을

cilmun-ul

wuli-eykey i

nevertheless us-for 분석한

책은

찾아보기

chayk-un

analyze-Pst

book-Top find-Nmn

男性は

本当に

힘들다.

chacapo-ki himtul-ta

女性より

difficult-Pln うまく

Dansei-wa

hontō-ni

zyosei-yori

man-Top

really

woman-than well

「男女の

Dan-zyo-no

能力は

nōryoku-wa

male-female-Gen ability-Top

sagasu-no-darō-ka

way-Acc find-would-Q

differ-if

Comp dispute-Nom

appear-when

always 科学的に

探すのだろうか。

という 論争が

登場する

質問を

umaku miti-o

kotonaru-no-ka toiu

常に

tuneni

道を

異なるのか」

起こると、 okoru-to

kwahakcek-ulo

this question-Acc scientifically

punsekha-n

(13) Japanese11

과학적으로

ronsō-ga

tōzyōsuru

質問だ。

situmon-da.

しかし、

この

appear

question-Cop

but

this

分析した

Sikasi

kono

本は

見当たらない。 find-not

situmon-o

kagakuteki-ni

bunsekisita

hon-wa

question-Acc

scientifically

analyzed

book-Top

miatar-anai.

(14) English12 Is it true that men find paths better than women? This question is always asked when there is dispute over whether men and women have different capabilities. However, we have not seen any book that scientifically analyzes this question.

https://www.donga.com/jp/home/article/all/20201017/2213476/1人間の 「道探しの本能」が歴 史を作る, accessed on October 17, 2020.     12  https://www.donga.com/en/home/article/all/20201017/2213440/1/Instinct-to-find-pathscreates-history-of-humanity, accessed on October 17, 2020     11 

48  writing systems (15) Chinese13 男人

真的

比

man

really

than woman more possible find

Nánrén zhēn-de bǐ 男女的

Nánnǚ-de

女人

nǚrén

能力

nénglì

male-female-Gen ability 有

争论

have

dispute

yǒu

这个 问题。

appear

this

chūxiàn zhège wèntí. 科学

zhǎodào kēxué find

是否

shìfǒu

fēnxī

找到

huì

路

zhǎodào lù

不同,

只要

bùtóng,

zhǐyào

吗?

ma?

way Q

一 yī

whether different whenever once 就

会

then

can

huì

尽管

如此, 我们

还是

很

this

still

very difficult

Jǐnguǎn rúcǐ,

question despite 分析

会

gèng

zhēnglùn jiù

出现

找到

更

该

问题的

gāi wèntí-de

wŏmen háishì hěn

we

书

难

nán

shū.

science analyze the question-Adn book

Superficially the Korean and Japanese passages in (12) and (13) look very different because of the scripts in which they are written, but actually they are very similar to each other because both languages contain many words from Chinese and are typologically almost identical. The underlined portions in the passages exhibit a difference in word order. The English preposition than in (14) corresponds to the Chinese preposition bǐ in (15), and it is realized as the Korean postposition -pota in (12) and the Japanese postposition -yori in (13). The English verbs find, (have not) seen and analyzes in (14) are all followed by their objects, just like their Chinese correspondents zhǎodào, zhǎodào, and fēnxī in (15). The corresponding Korean verbs chac-, chacapo-, and punsekha- in (12) are preceded by their objects, just like the corresponding Japanese verbs sagasu, miatar(-anai), and bunsekisita in (13). The Chinese-origin words in Korean and Japanese are capitalized in (12) and (13). Those capitalized words in bold face are made up of identical Chinese characters, or identical Chinese morphemes. That is, namnye ‘male-female’, nunglyek ‘ability’, noncayng ‘dispute’, tungchang(ha) ‘appear’, cilmun ‘question’, kwahakcek ‘scientific’, and punsek(ha) ‘analyze’ in (12) and their Japanese equivalents in (13) are based on the exact same Chinese morphemes. Four of those seven cognates appear in the Chinese passage in (15), which are highlighted in bold.     13 

https://www.donga.com/cn/home/article/all/20201015/2211127/1特朗普全家出动,在宾夕法 尼亚展开游说, accessed on October 17, 2020.



3.5 Conclusion  49

3.5 Conclusion The process by which Koreans and Japanese started to use Chinese writing and came up with methods of adaptation to make Chinese writing suitable for the writing of their own languages has been described. Those adaptations include methods to represent sounds, insert native morphemes, and to rearrange word order. Both Koreans and Japanese found ways to invent new scripts, Hiragana and Katakana in Japan through the simplification of Chinese characters, and Hangŭl in Korea through the invention of an entirely new type of script. These scripts enabled Korean and Japanese people to write freely in their own languages.

4

Case and postpositions 4.1  Introduction Andrews (1985: 65) lists three major kinds of functions played by NPs appearing in the sentences of any language: namely, (i) semantic, (ii) pragmatic, and (iii) grammatical functions. The semantic functions are also called semantic or thematic roles (or Θ-roles), e.g., agent, patient. The pragmatic functions concern the newness and givenness of information, e.g., topic and focus. The grammatical functions refer to relationships in grammatical structure, such as subject or object. The three major functions of NPs in Japanese and Korean are largely differentiated by particles (joshi (J), chosa or t’ossi (K)) attached to them. Put differently, there are three different kinds of functions to the particles that attach to NPs in Japanese and Korean, i.e., the semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical functions. We include topic markers in the discussion of case particles, although they are traditionally not included as such (see Chapter 5 for more about topic and focus). This is because it is often impossible to utter natural sentences without a topic in Japanese and Korean and the topic marker behaves similarly to case particles like nominative or accusative markers in being able to drop in casual speech and to be modified by floated numeral quantifiers.1 It will be shown in the following how these three major functions are materialized in Japanese and Korean particles. This chapter will illustrate how three types of Japanese and Korean particles match the above three-way classification of major functions of NPs. First, ­particles for Japanese and Korean topics are shown in contrast with particles for subject in these languages in 4.2. Secondly, a nominative case marker (one of the case markers) is contrasted with a topic marker in 4.3. Thirdly, other case particles are introduced in 4.4. Some differences in usage between Japanese and Korean case particles are mentioned. Fourthly, particles that mainly mark semantic functions (often referred to as postpositions) are discussed in 4.5. How postpositions differ from case particles is shown in this section.

    1 

Tsujimura (2014) includes the Japanese topic particle wa in case particles.

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0004



4.2  Topic vs subject  51

4.2  Topic vs subject Some languages in the world, according to Li and Thompson (1976: 460), ‘. . . can be more insightfully described by taking the concept of topic to be basic, while others can be more insightfully described by taking the notion of subject as basic’.2 They classify languages into four basic types according to their subject-prominent and topic-prominent properties, as shown in Table 4.1. Table 4.1  Topic- and subject-prominence (Li and Thompson 1976: 459) Subject-prominent languages

Topic-prominent languages

Indo-European Niger-Congo Finno-Ugric . . .

Chinese Lahu (Lolo-Burmese) Lisu (Lolo-Burmese) . . .

Subject-prominent and topic-prominent

Neither subject-prominent nor topic-prominent

Japanese Korean . . .

Tagalog Illocano . . .

Li and Thompson (1976: 460) define the topic as ‘a discourse notion’, a notion expressed across sentences in discourse, e.g., conversation, while they define the subject as ‘a sentence-internal notion’ (p. 466). The topic of a sentence refers to something (the referent of which is) easily identifiable by both speaker and hearer (e.g., because it has been mentioned before), and is thus known to both (Li and Thompson 1976: 461). Topics are usually expressed at the beginning of a sentence and are followed by new information, as they are there to state ‘what the sentence is about (“topicality”)’ (Andrews 1985: 77). Examples of topics in English sentences are given in (1) and (2), where they are highlighted in capitals. (1) SPEAKING OF THE PARTY, John was not there last night. (2) SPEAKING OF JOHN, he got married last week. Sentences can be complete without a topic, but they cannot be complete without a subject. The subject is an essential part of a sentence, and it has ‘a selectional relation with’ the predicate (Li and Thompson 1976: 461). The semantic type of the subject argument is determined by the predicate. The subject of the sentences in (3), which are capitalized, must be some entity that is capable of visiting. A friend of mine can visit, but that theory normally cannot, which renders the sentence in     2 

See Chapter 5 ‘Topic and focus’ of this book for more detail.

52  case and postpositions (4) anomalous. Subject being a sentence-internal notion, a sentence without it, as in (5), is not a good sentence. (3) A FRIEND OF MINE will visit me. (4) *THAT THEORY will visit me. (5) *Will visit me.

Li and Thompson (1976) state that topic-prominent languages typically have a topic construction, as shown below. The example is from Chinese. (6) Nèikē shù yèzi dà. (C) (Li and Thompson 1976: 468 (23)) that

tree leaf

big

‘That tree has big leaves.’ (Or literally, ‘That tree, (its) leaves are big.’ ) Two NPs in (6) are underlined; the first one is a topic, and the second one is a subject. The predicate in (6) is dà ‘big’, and it is predicated of the subject yèzi ‘leaves’. The predicate dà ‘big’ is not predicated of the topic nèikē shù ‘that tree’. This predicate says nothing about the size of the referent of the topic ‘that tree’, which can actually be very small (but with big leaves). The topic is placed at the beginning of the sentence in (6) to convey to the hearer the new information that its leaves are big. Li and Thompson (1976) give examples of each type of language, as shown in Table 4.1. Japanese and Korean are classified as languages which have the properties of both subject- and topic-prominent languages. Belonging to both of the groups, Japanese and Korean also have a topic construction like Chinese. Unlike Chinese, however, these languages have particles to mark subject and topic, whereby they clearly distinguish these two different functions, as shown in (7).3 The topic NPs are marked with the topic particles wa (J) and -nun (K), and the subject NPs are marked with the subject particles -ga (J) and -i (K) in (7). (7) a.  あの木は

Ano ki-wa

b. 저 나무는

Ce namwu-nun

that tree-Top

葉っぱが

大きい。

잎이

크다.

leaf-Nom

big(-Pln)

happa-ga iph-i

ōkii. (J)

khu-ta. (K)

‘That tree has big leaves.’

    3 

Sohn (1980‒1981) argues that Korean and Japanese are just as topic-prominent as Chinese, and in Chinese the notion of subject ‘clearly plays a role’ (p. 6) as well.



4.2  Topic vs subject  53

One of the differences between topic and subject particles (also called topic and subject markers) is that topic particles essentially do not denote the grammatical or semantic relationship of the NP that they have attached to, while subject particles denote both grammatical and semantic functions. Thus, as stated above, the trees referred to in (6) and (7) may not be big, but their leaves must be big. The sentences in (8) with topics can express either of the readings given in the English translations, depending on context.4 The cat is construed as the biter or the agent in the event of biting, or it is construed as the bitee or the patient (see Chapter 5 for more detail). (8) a. 猫は

Neko-wa

b. 고양이는

かんだ。

kanda. (J) 물었다.

Koyangi-nun mwul-ess-ta. (K) cat-Top

bit(-Pln)

‘A s for the cat, it bit something.’ or ‘A s for the cat, something bit it.’ Case particles, which include subject particles, always clarify the grammatical and semantic function of the NPs they attach to (by way of the predicate they occur with). The nominative NPs in (9a‒d) are subjects. (9) a. 猫が

Neko-ga

c. 고양이가

かんだ。

b. 猫が

물었다.

d. 고양이가

kan-da. (J)

Koyangi-ka mul-ess-ta. (K) cat-Nom

bite-Pst(-Pln)

‘The cat bit something.’

Neko-ga

かまれた。

kam-are-ta. (J) 물렸다.

Koyangi-ka mwul-li-ess-ta. (K) cat-Nom

bite-pass-Pst(-Pln)

‘The cat was bitten.’

The primary function of subject particles is to indicate the grammatical function, i.e., subject, through which the semantic functions of the NPs to which they are attached are interpreted in accordance with predicates they occur with. The subject case particles can thus be used with an agent as in (9a, c), or with a theme (or patient) as in (9b, d), depending on the predicates they occur with. There are other case particles similar to subject particles in denoting grammatical and, indirectly, semantic functions. The following section describes case particles in Japanese and Korean.     4 

Japanese and Koreans allow arguments understood from the context to be realized as phonologically null.

54  case and postpositions

4.3  Case particles 4.3.1  Nominative, accusative, and dative case particles Both modern Japanese and modern Korean mark grammatical functions more explicitly with case particles than did earlier stages of those languages (Frellesvig 2010: 126‒127; Lee and Ramsey 2011: 229). NPs, in principle, must be marked with case particles in written style unless they are followed by a topic particle or a postposition. In addition to particles for subject, or nominative case particles, which we have briefly illustrated above, there are other case particles that mark grammatical functions, namely, accusative, dative, and genitive case particles. Observe the Japanese and Korean examples in (10a, b), in which the subject okāsan/emeni ‘mother’ is marked with a nominative particle, the direct object okasi/kwaca ‘sweets’ with an accusative particle, and the indirect object kodomo/ ai ‘child’ with a dative particle.5 The first nouns in (10c, d) are followed by a genitive case marker, modifying the second ones. (10) a. お 母さんが Okāsan-ga

b. 어머니가

Emeni-ka

子供に

お菓子を

あげた。

아이에게

과자를

줬다.

kodomo-ni okasi-o

ai-eykey

mother-Nom child-to

kwaca-lul

age-ta. (J) cwu-ess-ta. (K)

sweets-Acc give-Pst(-Pln)

‘The mother gave some sweets to her child.’

c. お母さんの

本

d. 어머니의

책

okāsan-no emeni-uy

mother-Gen

hon (J) chayk (K) book

‘the mother’s book’ Table 4.2 lists the particles that have appeared so far and their variants. Note that the particles -nun, -ka, and -lul are used when the nouns that they attach to end in a vowel, and their variants -un, -i, and -ul are used when the nouns they attach to end in a consonant.

    5 

Although dative case particles are generally treated as case particles, they behave like postpositions in some way.



4.3 Case particles  55

Table 4.2  Topic and case particles in Japanese and Koreana Topic particles Case particles

topic nominative accusative dative genitive

Japanese

Korean

-wa -ga -o -ni -no

-nun, -un -ka, -i -lul, -ul -eykey, -hantheyb -uy

a Nominative case is typically used with subject, accusative case typically with direct object, and dative

case typically with indirect object. They, however, can be used for some other grammatical or semantic functions in some cases.

b -Eykey and -hanthey are animate dative markers. For inanimate NPs, -ey is used instead.

The case particles showing grammatical functions in Japanese and Korean behave mostly in a similar way, but there are some differences between the two languages in the behaviors of some of the particles mentioned above. The following subsections, 4.3.2 and 4.3.3, touch upon different behaviors of case particles in Japanese and Korean. 4.3.2 introduces some constraints on the multiple occurrence of case particles in Japanese and the lack thereof in Korean, and 4.3.3 Genitive Drop in Korean and the lack thereof in Japanese.

4.3.2  Double Accusative Constraint Japanese has the Double-o Constraint (Shibatani 1973a), which prevents two NPs marked with an accusative case particle from appearing within the same VP (or clause), whereas Korean does not have such a constraint. VP stands for a verb phrase, which refers to a complete predicate or the part of a sentence excluding the subject. The Korean sentence given earlier in (10b) can also be expressed as shown in (11b) below with two occurrences of an accusative marker, whereas the corresponding Japanese sentence is ungrammatical, as shown in (11a). A similar contrast in grammaticality is shown in the Japanese and Korean sentences in (12a, b). (11) a. *お母さんが 子供を

お菓子を あげた。

*Okāsan-ga

kodomo-o okasi-o

Emeni-ka

ai-lul

b. 어머니가

아이를

과자를

kwaca-lul

age-ta. (J) 줬다.

cwu-ess-ta. (K)

mother-Nom child-Acc sweets-Acc give-Pst(-Pln) ‘The mother gave her child some sweets.’

56  case and postpositions (12)  a. *子供が

妹を

肩を

ぶった。

*Kodomo-ga imōto-o kata-o

b. 아이가

but-ta. (J)

여동생을

어깨를

ekkay-lul

때렸다.

ttayli-ess-ta. (K)

Ai-ka

ye-tongsayng-ul

child-Nom

younger-sister-Acc shoulder-Acc hit-Pst(-Pln)

‘The child hit his younger sister on the shoulder.’ Although there is a difference between Japanese and Korean in the acceptability of multiple occurrences of an accusative case particle, nominative case particles can occur more than once in both languages. The Japanese and Korean sentences in (13) have two occurrences of a nominative particle, and they are judged grammatical.6 (13) a. 象が

Zō-ga

b. 코끼리가

Khokkili-ka

鼻が

長い。

코가

길다.

hana-ga

kho-ka

nagai. (J) kil-ta. (K)

elephant-Nom nose-Nom long(-Pln) ‘The elephant has a long trunk.’ A caution is in order, however, concerning the phenomenon of multiple nominative when the case particle is attached to a ‘floated’ numeral quantifier, i.e., a numeral that appears away from the noun or NP that it modifies. Floated numeral quantifiers cannot be marked with a case particle in Japanese, be it accusative or nominative. The Japanese and Korean sentences in (14a, b), where only the subject NP gakusei/haksayng ‘student’ is marked with a nominative particle, but not its floated numeral quantifier hitori/hana ‘one person’, are both grammatical. If both the subject NP and its floated numeral quantifier are marked with a nominative particle, the sentence becomes ungrammatical in Japanese, as in (14c). This, however, is not the case with the corresponding Korean sentence in (14d). The Korean sentence in (14d), where both the subject NP haksayng and its floated numeral quantifier hana ‘one’ are marked with a nominative particle, is grammatical. (14) Case marking on floated numeral quantifiers a. 学生が

Gakusei-ga

    6 

一人

hitori

訪ねて

tazunete

きた。

ki-ta. (J)

Nominative mainly marks subject, but it also marks other grammatical functions. A focus NP in (13) is marked with a nominative case. In some Japanese and Korean sentences, object is sometimes marked with a nominative case.



4.3 Case particles  57 b. 학생이

하나 찾아

왔다.

Haksayng-i hana chaca w-ass-ta. (K)

c. *学生が

一人が

訪ねて

きた。

찾아

왔다.

*Gakusei-ga hitori-ga tazunete ki-ta. (J)

d. 학생이

하나가

Haksayng-i

hana-ka

chaca

w-ass-ta. (K)

student-Nom one-Nom visiting come-Pst(-Pln) ‘One student came to visit me.’

4.3.3  Genitive Drop The use of genitive markers differs greatly between Japanese and Korean. Prenominal elements within an NP, in principle, need to be marked genitive in Japanese, whereas some such elements can appear caseless (Genitive Drop, An 2014) in Korean, as can be seen from the contrast between (15) and (16). The Japanese genitive marker -no in all the examples in (15) is obligatory; they are ungrammatical without it. The Korean genitive marker -uy in all the examples in (16), on the other hand, is optional; deleting it does not result in ungrammaticality. (15) Japanese examples a. 花子の

車

Hanako-no

kuruma

(16) Korean examples (An 2009: 4 (5)) a. 민수(의)

차

Minsu-(uy)

cha

Hanako-Gen car

Minsu-Gen

car

‘Hanako’s car’

‘Minsu’s car’

b. ローマの Rōma-no

破壊

hakai

b. 로마(의)

Roma-(uy)

파괴

phakoy

Rome-Gen destruction

Rome-Gen destruction

‘Rome’s destruction’

‘Rome’s destruction’

c. 昨日の

kinō-no

天気 tenki

c. 어제(의)

ecey-(uy)

날씨

nalssi

yesterday-Gen weather

yesterday-Gen weather

‘yesterday’s weather’

‘yesterday’s weather’

d. 台北の

Taipei-no

天気 tenki

d. 타이베이(의) 날씨 Taipei-(uy)

nalssi

Taipei-Gen weather

Taipei-Gen

weather

‘Taipei’s weather’

‘Taipei’s weather’

58  case and postpositions e. エイリアンの

侵略

eirian-no

e. 외계인(의)

sinryaku

alien-Gen

침략

oykyein-(uy) chimlyak

invasion

alien-Gen

‘aliens’ invasion’

invasion

‘aliens’ invasion’

The Korean genitive case marker, however, cannot be omitted freely. The prenominal elements in (17) need to be all marked genitive; deleting it results in ungrammaticality—*(uy) means that deleting the element in the parentheses results in ungrammaticality. (17) Korean examples (An 2009: 4‒5 (6)) a. 돌로*(의)

공격

d. 공포*(의)

kongkyek

tol-lo-*(uy)

순간

kongpho-*(uy) swunkan

stone-with-Gen attack

terror-Gen

‘an attack with stones’

‘a moment of terror’

b. 세권*(의)

책

e. 유럽으로*(의)

sey-kwen-*(uy) chayk three-cl-Gen ‘three books’

c. 하루키와*(의)

Haruki-wa-*(uy)

moment 여행

ywulep-ulo-*(uy) yehayng

book

Europe-to-Gen

trip

‘a trip to Europe’

인터뷰

inthepywu

Haruki-with-Gen interview ‘an interview with Haruki’ An (2014) argued that Genitive Drop takes place when prenominal NPs and prepositional phrases (PPs) are Θ-marked by the head noun, that is, when they are semantically selected by the head noun. For Genitive Drop, An (2014) assumes a nominal structure like the one in (18b) rather than (18a), an earlier version of nominal structure assumed in generative grammar. (18) a.

b.

NP

DP

NP

N

DP

John′s

book

John

Dˈ D ˈs

NP book (Abney 1987: 79 (62))



4.3 Case particles  59

Such semantic relationships that prenominal elements have with their head nouns include semantic roles of arguments (and adjuncts), e.g., a patient/theme as in (16b) and an agent as in (16e), a possessor as in (16a), a time as in (16c), and a location as in (16d). The inclusion of temporal and locative roles is justified by An (2014: footnote 20), drawing on Anderson (1983) and Larson (1985). In fact, temporal and locative phrases do appear as genitive phrases in English also, e.g., yesterday’s meeting, London’s weather. In contrast, those PPs in (17a, c, e) are all adjuncts not Θ-marked by the head N, which explains why Genitive Drop does not take place in them. The NPs in (17b, d) are unlikely to be Θ-marked by their head nouns because the relationships between them are some kind of modification rather than semantic selection. An (2014, 2009) gives evidence from Japanese that the relationships between the NPs in (17b, d) and their head Ns are non-thematic. Saito et al. (2008) argued that NP-deletion7 in Japanese, which Korean lacks, happens only when arguments remain as remnants. Let’s first look at a phenomenon of NP-deletion in English. In (19b), reliance on Mary in John’s reliance on Mary, whose structure is given in (19a), is deleted (or replaced by an empty category). Note that the semantic function that John is supposed to bear with the elided noun reliance is the same as the one Bill has with the head noun reliance, that is, John is Θ-marked in the same way as Bill is by reliance. (19) a. [dp [dp John]i [d’ [d ’s] [np ti [n’ [n reliance] [pp on Mary ]]]]] (Saito and Murasugi 1990: 290 (27b))

b. [dp Billi’s [np ti reliance on Mary]] is more problematic than [dp John’s [np e]] Now observe Saito et al.’s examples of NP-deletion in Japanese in (20). (20) Japanese NP-deletion in Saito et al. (2008: 253, (21) (22)), slightly changed a. 香奈の

[Kana-no Kana-Gen

態度は

よいが

花子の

attitude-Top

good-though

Hanako-Gen

taido]-wa

態度は

よくない。

attitude-Top

good isn’t

taido]-wa

yoi-ga,

yoku nai.

‘Though Kana’s attitude is good, Hanako’s isn’t.’

    7 

Saito et al. (2008) refer to the NP-deletion discussed here as N’-deletion.

[Hanako-no

60  case and postpositions b. ローマの

破壊は

京都の

[Rōma-no

hakai]-wa

Rome-Gen

destruction-Top Kyoto-Gen

hakai]-yori

hisan-datta.

破壊より

[Kyōto-no

悲惨だった。

destruction-than miserable-was ‘Rome’s destruction was more miserable than Kyoto’s.’

c. *晴れの

日は

*[Hare-no hi]-wa

よいが、

雨の

日は

[ame-no hi]-wa

yoi-ga,

落ち込む。 otikomu.

clear-Gen day-Top good-though rain-Gen day-Top feel-depressed ‘Clear days are OK, but I feel depressed on rainy days.’

d. *美香は

一日に

三冊の

Tarp-Top

one-day-in

three-cl-Gen book-Acc read-though

Hanako-wa

iti-niti-ni

[go-satu-no

hon]-o

five-cl-Gen

book-Acc read

*Mika-wa 花子は

[san-satu-no

iti-niti-ni 一日に

五冊の

Hanako-Top one-day-in

本を

hon]-o 本を

読むが、 yomu-ga, 読む。

yomu.

‘Mika reads three books in a day, but Hanako reads five.’ The words struck through with a line in (20) stand for elided parts. The examples in (20a, b) are grammatical with (or without) such elision, namely, NP-deletion. Those in (20c, d) are grammatical without elision, but they turn ungrammatical when NP-deletion applies. Saito et al. (2008) argue that NP-deletion takes place when a prenominal element appears in the specifier position of DP, a determiner phrase, which is a functional category taking an NP as its complement, as shown in (21), where Kyōto(-no) ‘Kyoto’s’ is in the specifier of DP, and the noun hakai ‘destruction’ heads an NP. In this structure Saito et al. (2008) assume that Kyōto moves from where t (its trace) is to the specifier position of DP and is marked with genitive case. (21) The structure of Kyōto-no hakai ‘Kyoto’s destruction’ (Saito et al. 2008: 254) DP Dˈ

Kyōto no

D

NP t

N hakai



4.3 Case particles  61

Hanako-no ‘Hanako’s’ in (20a) occupies the same position as Kyōto-no in (20b), or (21), due to its semantic relation with the head noun, which licenses NP-deletion. In contrast, ame-no ‘rain-Gen’ in (20c) and go-satu-no ‘five (copies of ) books-Gen’ in (20d), do not occupy the specifier of DP for lack of such semantic relationship, and thus they cannot license NP-deletion, as shown in (20c, d). Genitive marking on ame and go-satu is done contextually, as shown in (22). The insertion rule in (22) ensures that (i) no is inserted after XP, which is some kind of phrase within NP, and (ii) XP-no occurs as a sister of some projection of the head noun —Nα stands for a projection of N. (22) Mod-Insertion (Saito et al. 2008: 249 (7), slightly changed) [np . . . XP Nα] → [np . . . XP Mod Nα], where Mod = no. An (2014) gives the phenomenon in (20d) as a piece of evidence for obligatory genitive marking of sey-kwen ‘three copies (of )’ in (17b). Similarly, kongpho-uy swunkan ‘a moment of terror’ in (17d) can be accounted for by assuming that kongpho ‘terror’ has the same relationship as ame in ame-no hi ‘rainy day’ in (20c), i.e., modification, and they are both not Θ-marked by the head noun. An (2014) states that Genitive Drop in Korean needs to apply locally. The agent of chimlyak ‘invasion’, which is optionally marked genitive in (23a), must be marked genitive, when there is an intervening genitive marked element, as shown in (23b). (23) a. 공산군(의)

침략

kongsankwun(-uy) chimlyak communist-Gen

invasion

‘the communist army’s invasion’ (An 2014: 374 (23c))

b. *공산군

*kongsankwun

남한의

Namhan-uy

침략

chimlyak

communist-army South-Korea-Gen invasion ‘the communist army’s invasion of South Korea’ (An 2014: 375 (25))

An (2014: 377) attributes the difference between Korean and Japanese in genitive marking to the domain where Mod-Insertion in (22) applies: it applies to an element that merges with any projection of the head noun (regardless of whether or not the element is in a Θ-marking local domain), whereas in Korean it only applies to an element outside the ‘local domain’ of the head noun. An element that appears outside the local domain like those examples in (17) needs to be marked with -uy in Korean (as well as in Japanese). A Θ-marked element also needs to be marked genitive when it is outside the local domain, as shown in (23b). Kongsankwun

62  case and postpositions ‘the communist army’ is an agent of chimlyak ‘invasion’, but it is outside the local domain, as indicated by Namhan ‘South Korea’ marked with -uy, and thus it cannot be realized without a genitive marker. Kongsankwun in (23a), on the other hand, may be overtly realized outside the local domain (and hence it appears with -uy), or it may be realized within the local domain (and hence it appears without -uy). A problem with An’s (2014, 2009) approach, however, is that it is not completely clear what elements can be considered to be Θ-marked.8 The (animate) dative postposition -eykey can be considered to be an argument of a noun denoting transfer of an object to someone, e.g., in the case of swuye ‘presenting’, and thus is Θ-marked by it, and yet it cannot undergo Genitive Drop, as shown in (24a). NP-deletion in a construction with zyuyo, the noun equivalent to swuye, also allows NP-deletion in Japanese, as shown in (24b). It shows that the notion of Θ-marking needs to be defined more clearly. (24) a. 나는

선수들에게*(의)

메달

수여를

player-Pl-to-Gen

medal

awarding-Acc see-Pst-Pln

Na-nun senswu-tul-eykey-*(uy) meytal swuye-lul I-Top

‘I saw the players awarded with medals.’ b. (?)A選手への (?)A-sensyu-e-no A-player-to-Gen B選手への [B-sensyu-e-no B-player-to-Gen

보았다

po-ass-ta. (K)

メダル授与は

当然だが、

medal-awarding

natural-Cop-but

medaru-zyuyo-wa

メダル授与は

tōzen-da-ga,

納得がいかない。

medaru-zyuyo]-wa

nattoku-ikanai. (J)

medal-awarding-Top

make-no-sense

‘I understand the award of a medal to Player A but don’t understand the award of a medal to Player B.’

4.4 Postpositions In addition to particles that mark topics, subjects, objects, and possessors, there are other types of NPs that appear with particles in Japanese and Korean. They are NPs followed by a type of particles specifically referred to as postpositions, some of which are shown in (25). (Postpositions are highlighted in bold.) Those postpositions typically indicate semantic functions rather than pragmatic or grammatical functions.     8 

Watanabe (2010) argued against the analysis of Japanese numeral quantifiers presented by Saito et al. (2008), which An (2014) based his discussion on. Watanabe pointed out that numeral quantifiers can indeed occupy the specifier of a functional category (which is not DP) and NP-ellipsis is possible in structures like (20d) (but an overt genitive case cannot appear there). Watanabe (2010) reformulated the contextual genitive-marking rule in (22).

(25) Goal

4.4 Postpositions  63 Postpositions in Japanese and Korean a. メリーが

学校へ

行った。

b. 메리가

학교에

갔다

Mary-ga

Mary-ka

gakkō-e hakkyo-ey

Mary-Nom school-to ‘Mary went to school.’

歩いた。

d. 메리가

역까지

걸었다

eki-made yek-kkaci

Mary-Nom station-up-to ‘Mary walked to the station.’

arui-ta. (J) kel-ess-ta. (K) walk-Pst(-Pln)

e. スーが

パリから

来た。

f. 수가

파리에서

왔다

Sue-ga Sue-i

Sue-Nom

Pari-kara Pali-eyse

Paris-from

‘Sue came/comes from Paris.’

ki-ta. (J) w-ass-ta. (K) come-Pst(-Pln)

g. ジェーンが プールで

泳いだ。

h. 제인이

헤엄쳤다

oyoi-da. (J)

Jane-ga

pūru-de

Jane-i

swuyengcang-eyse heyemchi-ess-ta. (K)

Jane-Nom

수영장에서 pool-at

‘Jane swam in the pool.’

i. ジェーンが 部屋に Jane-ga

j. 제인이 Jane-i

Jane-Nom k. メリーが Mary-ga

swim-Pst(-Pln) いた。

heya-ni

i-ta. (J)

pang-ey

iss-ess-ta. (K)

방에

room-at

‘Jane was in her room.’

Path

go-Pst(-Pln)

駅まで

Mary-ka

Locative

k-ass-ta. (K)

c. メリーが Mary-ga

Source

it-ta. (J)

この 道を

kono miti-o

있었다

be-Pst(-Pln) 行った。 it-ta. (J)

64  case and postpositions l. 메리가

Mary-ka

이 i

Mary-Nom this

길을

kil-ul

street-along go-Pst(-Pln)

‘Mary went down this street.’

Instrumental m. メリーが

はしで

食べた。

젖가락으로

먹었다

Mary-ga

hasi-de

Mary-ka

coskalak-ulo

n. 메리가

갔다

k-ass-ta. (K)

Mary-Nom chopstick-with

tabe-ta. (J) mek-ess-ta. (K) eat-Pst(-Pln)

‘Mary ate with chopsticks.’ As shown above, postpositions, as their name indicates, are placed after an NP, but this is no different from the other particles described so far (case and topic particles) because they are all placed after an NP. In the following it will be shown how these ‘postpositions’ differ from case and topic particles.9

4.4.1  How postpositions differ from other particles These three types of particles crucially differ in the degree of presence. Postpositions have the highest degree of presence among Japanese and Korean particles because they are associated with particular semantic functions, while topic particles are not intrinsically associated with any semantic function, and the relationships between case particles and semantic functions are not uniquely fixed. It has already been shown above that topic particles cannot by themselves be associated with any semantic function. The topics in (8) neko wa/koyangi-nun ‘cat-Top’ can be construed either as the agent of biting or the patient of biting, depending on the context of utterance. Case particles, whose main role is to indicate their grammatical functions, can be associated with semantic functions only by way of the verbs or adjectives with which they occur, but they cannot be associated with semantic functions without reference to their predicates. Elements that a genitive marker attaches to also have different kinds of semantic roles in relation to their head nouns. Case particles primarily indicate the grammatical functions borne by the NPs that they attach to, and it is through these grammatical functions their semantic functions are determined. Nominative-marked NPs can bear either the semantic role of agent or that of patient,10 depending on the verb they occur with. The     9 

Tsujimura (2014: 133‒140) illustrates Japanese postpositions and case particles. The case particle ga (J) or -ka (K) can mark arguments with some other semantic roles, e.g., an experiencer.     10 



4.4 Postpositions  65

subject NPs neko and koyangi ‘cat’ in the nominative appear as agents in (9a, c), and they appear as patients in (9b, d). The patient role can be also expressed by object NPs in the accusative, as shown in (26). (26) a. 犬が

猫を

Inu-ga

かんだ。

neko-o

b. 개가

고양이를

kan-da. (J) 물었다

koyangi-lul mwul-ess-ta. (K)

Kay-ka

dog-Nom cat-Acc

bite-Pst(-Pln)

‘The dog bit the cat.’ Moreover, as shown above in (11b) and in (27a) below, an accusative-marked NP can bear a Recipient Goal role in Korean. The NP John-ul in (27a) functions here as the recipient goal, namely, the goal of giving, i.e., where the gift ends up being located. This accusative-marked NP, however, cannot occur as a goal argument in a passivized sentence, as in (27b); an NP in the dative case can function as a goal in a passive sentence, as in (27c). (27) a. 내가 존을 Nay-ka John-ul I-Nom

연필을 yenphil-ul

주었다 (O’Grady 1991: 59 (25)) cwu-ess-ta.

John-Acc pencil-Acc give-Pst-Pln

‘I gave John a pencil.’

b. *연필이

*Yenphil-i

존을

John-ul

주워졌다 (O’Grady 1991: 59 (26)) cwu-e-ci-ess-ta.

pencil-Nom John-Acc give-pass-Pst-Pln ‘(*)The pencil was given John.’ (* in American English, O’Grady 1991: 59 (29c))

c. 연필이

Yenphil-i

pencil-Nom

존에게

주워졌다 (O’Grady 1991: 62 (5))

John-Dat

give-pass-Pst-Pln

John-eykey cwu-e-ci-ess-ta.

‘The pencil was given to John.’ Table 4.3 summarizes what has been stated above. The association between a case particle and a semantic role is not fixed and there are no one-to-one correspondences. Grammatical-function (GF) changing processes like passivization change the semantic roles associated with case particles. As shown in Table 4.3, an NP in the nominative can function either as agent or theme, and an NP in the accusative can function as theme or goal. An NP in the accusative, however, cannot always function as goal when the verb cwu- ‘give’ appears in the passive as in (27b).

66  case and postpositions Table 4.3  Grammatical function‒semantic role correspondences Case

Predicate

Semantic Example role

Nominative

kam- (or kan-), mwul- ‘bite’ kam-are-, mwul-li- ‘be bitten’ kam- (or kan-), mwul- ‘bite’ cwu- ‘give’ (but not with cwu-e-ci- ‘be given’ as in (27b)) cwu- ‘give’

Agent Theme/ Patient

Accusative

Dative

Goal

(9a), (9c) (9b), (9d) (26a), (26b) (11b) (10b)

In contrast, postpositions express fixed semantic roles. They bear the same semantic roles irrespective of the verb or adjective with which they occur or whether the verb that they occur with changes its voice from active to passive (a GF-changing process), unlike the examples with nominative or accusative particles. Postpositions often have more than one meaning, i.e., they are polysemous, e.g., -eyse in Korean can mean ‘at/in’ and ‘from’, and the form-meaning correspondences are usually one-to-many. But this is just a case of polysemy; the meaning of postpositions is constant. The meaning of de/-eyse in (28) denotes a location whether the verb appears in the active as in (28a, b) or in the passive as in (28c, d), whereas the semantic role of an NP in the nominative in the active sentences (28a, b) changes in the passive sentences (28c, d), from agent to theme. (28) a. 草原で

Sōgen-de

b. 초원에서

ライオンが

シマウマを

つかまえた。

라이언이

얼룩말을

잡았다

raion-ga

Chowen-eyse laion-i step-at

lion-Nom

sima-uma-o

tukamae-ta. (J)

ellwuk-mal-ul cap-ass-ta. (K) zebra-Acc

catch-Pst(-Pln)

‘The lion caught a zebra on the grasslands.’

c. 草原で

シマウマが

つかまえられた。

d. 초원에서

얼룩말이

잡히었다

zebra-Nom

catch-pass-Pst(-Pln)

Sōgen-de

sima-uma-ga tukamae-rare-ta. (J)

Chowen-eyse ellwuk-mail-i cap-hi-ess-ta. (K) step-at

‘A zebra was caught on the grasslands.’ We have shown above that postpositions, unlike topic and case particles, are associated with particular semantic functions and, therefore, that their presence in terms of semantics is much stronger than topic and case particles. It will be shown



4.4 Postpositions  67

in the following subsections, 4.4.1.1‒4.4.1.3, that because of such a difference, topic and case particles are often ‘invisible’ in some constructions or languages.

4.4.1.1 Deletability Firstly, because of the difference in their association with particular semantic functions, case and topic particles may sometimes be dropped in spoken language (although never in writing), whereas postpositions cannot be dropped. The topic, nominative, and accusative particles are dropped from the examples in (29), and yet all these sentences are grammatical. In contrast, the examples in (30), from which the postpositions made (J) and kkaci (K) ‘up to’ are dropped, are ungrammatical for the intended meaning (compare them with (25c, d)). (29)

Dropping topic and case particles a.

Dropping topic particles

(i) この

象

鼻が

短い!

(ii) 이

코끼리

코가

짧다

Kono zō I

this

khokkili

hana-ga kho-ka

mizikai! (J) ccalp-ta! (K)

elephant nose-Nom short(-Pln)

‘This elephant has a short trunk!’ b.

Dropping nominative case particles

(i) あなたは Anata-wa

you-Top

何   ほしい? nani 

  hosi-i? (J)

what   want-Pres

‘What do you want?’

(ii) 눈물

나겠다

Nwunmwul na-keyss-ta. (K) tear

come-out-Fut-Pln

‘(I feel like I’m) going to cry’ c.

Dropping accusative case particles

(i) ご飯

食べた?

(ii) 밥

먹었어?

Gohan tabe-ta? (J) Pap meal

mek-ess-e? (K) ate

‘Have you eaten?’

68  case and postpositions (30) Dropping postpositions a. ジェーンが

駅*(まで)

歩いた。

제인이

역*(까지)

걸었다

Jane-ga Jane-i

Jane-Nom

eki-*(made) yek-*(kkaci)

arui-ta. (J) kel-ess-ta. (K)

station-up-to walk-Pst(-Pln)

‘Jane walked to the station.’ It is not the case, though, that case and topic particles can always drop. Whether or not they can drop depends on the style, context, and syntactic structure of an utterance. In general, postpositions can never be dropped irrespective of style, context, and syntactic structure. One complication, however, is that there are both exceptional case particles and exceptional postpositions, namely, the dative case particles and the allative and path (or traversal) postpositions. Unlike other nominative and accusative particles, dative case particles cannot be dropped, and, unlike other postpositions, the allative and traversal postpositions can be dropped. Those particles and allative and traversal postpositions are exceptional and mostly behave differently from other particles of the type with which they are classified.

4.4.1.2  Crosslinguistic correspondences Secondly, both Japanese and Korean have case and topic particles, i.e., markers for both grammatical and pragmatic functions. Languages surrounding them do not have an overt subject marker ( Yurayong and Szeto 2020) and, although Chinese utilizes topic-comment structure extensively, it morphologically marks neither subject or topic, as shown above. Chinese, however, does have prepositions corresponding to Japanese and Korean postpositions, as shown in (31a) and (32a). The Chinese goal xuéxiào ‘school’ is marked with a preposition dào ‘to’, forming a prepositional phrase, although the subject Jiăn ‘Jane’ is not marked with anything in (31a). In contrast, both the Japanese and Korean goals gakkō (J) and hakkyo (K) ‘school’, on the one hand, and subjects, on the other, are marked with a particle. The goals are marked with postpositions -de (J) and -ey (K) ‘to’ and the subjects are marked with nominative markers -ga (J) and -i (K) in (31b, c).

(31) a. Jiăn dào xuéxiào păoqù. (C) Jane to

school

‘Jane ran to school.’

b. ジェーンが Jane-ga

run-go

学校へ 走って

いった。

gakkō-e hasit-te it-ta. (J)



4.4 Postpositions  69 c. 제인이 Jane-i

학교에

뛰어

hakkyo-ey

갔다

k-ass-ta. (K)

ttwi-e-

Jane-Nom school-to

running go-Pst(-Pln)

‘Jane ran to school.’ Similarly, the location túshūguăn (C) ‘library’ is marked with a preposition zài ‘in’, although the subject wŏ ‘I’ is not marked with any affix in (32a). In contrast, the locations tosyokan (J) and tosekwan (K) ‘library’ are marked with a postposition -de (J) or -eyse (K), and the subject is topicalized and followed by a topic marker -wa (J) or -nun (K) in (32b, c). (32) a. Wŏ zài túshūguăn kàn I

in

library

shū. (C)

read book

‘I read a book in the library.’

b. 私は

図書館で

本を

読む。

c. 나는

도서관에서

책을

library-in

book-Acc read-NPst(-Pln)

Watasi-wa tosyokan-de hon-o yom-u. (J) Na-nun tosekwan-eyse chayk-ul

I-Top

읽습니다

ilk-nun-ta. (K)

‘I (will) read a book in the library.’

4.4.1.3  Licensing floated numeral quantifiers Thirdly, NPs followed by a case or topic particle can be associated with a numeral quantifier which does not occur within their projection, whereas NPs within PPs do not allow such a floated numeral quantifier occurring outside the PP to modify them. The numeral quantifier hitori ‘one person’ occupying a modifier position within an NP in (33a) can appear outside of it as a floated numeral quantifier, as in (33b), because the NP in question is marked with the nominative particle -ga. Similarly, the numeral quantifier han-kwen ‘one (bound) copy’ occupying a modifier position within an NP in (34a) can appear outside of it as a floated numeral quantifier, as in (34b), because the NP in question is marked with the accusative particle -ul. (33)

a. 一人の

[Hito-ri-no one-cl-Gen

b. 学生が

[Gakusei]-ga student-Nom

学生が

gakusei]-ga

来た。

ki-ta. (J)

student-Nom come-Pst 一人

来た。

hito-ri ki-ta. (J) one-cl come-Pst

‘One student came.’

70  case and postpositions (34)

a. 학생이

[한권의

책]을

샀다

book-Acc

buy-Pst-Pln

[han-kwen-uy chayk]-ul

Haksayng-i

student-Nom one-cl-Gen

b. 학생이

[책]을

한권(을)

student-Nom book-Acc

one-cl-Acc

buy-Pst-Pln

‘A student bought one book.’ 学校から

学生が

三人

school-from

student-Nom 3-cl

[[Hitotu-no gakkō]-kara] gakusei-ga one-Gen

b. *学校から

샀다

[chayk]-ul han-kwen(-ul) s-ass-ta. (K)

Haksayng-i

(35) a. 一つの

s-ass-ta. (K)

学生が

come-Pst

一つ

三人の

one

3-person-Gen student-Nom come-Pst

*[[Gakkō]-kara] hitotu san-nin-no school-from

来た。

san-nin ki-ta. (J)

gakusei-ga

来た。

ki-ta. (J)

‘Three students came from one school.’ The numeral quantifier hitotu ‘one’ occupying a modifier position within an NP in (35a) cannot appear outside of the PP containing this NP, as shown in (35b), because the NP in question is followed by the postposition kara ‘from’ and thus is contained within a PP. Nor can the numeral quantifier han ‘one’ occupying a modifier within an NP in (36a) appear outside of the PP containing this NP, as in (36b), because the NP in question is followed by the postposition -eyse ‘in’ and thus contained within a PP. (36) a. [[한 침대]에서]

세

[[Han cimtay]-eyse] sey one

bed-in

b. *[[침대]에서]

haksayng-i

잤다

cass-ta. (K)

three student-Nom slept-Pln

한/하나 세

*[[Cimtay]-eyse] han(a) bed-in

학생이

one

sey

학생이

haksayng-i

잤다

cass-ta. (K)

three student-Nom slept-Pln

‘Three students slept in one bed.’ So far, we have shown differences between postpositions, on the one hand, and case and topic particles, on the other. Although all these particles are subsumed under the same category ‘particles’, postpositions are different from the other two types in that their presence is semantically motivated, not pragmatically or grammatically, and thus they cannot be dropped, have corresponding forms in some other languages, and cannot be associated with a floated quantifier. Case and topic particles behave differently in all respects.



4.4 Postpositions  71

4.4.2  The locative postpositions in Japanese and Korean This last subsection describes two types of locative postpositions in Japanese and Korean. As stated above, Japanese and Korean postpositions basically have corresponding prepositions in Chinese and English as well, and they are not so difficult to learn for second-language learners, except probably for the distinction between two locative particles, -ni vs -de (J), or -ey vs -eyse (K), which are both translated as ‘at/in’ and denote a location.11 In the examples given earlier in (25g‒j), these postpositions all mean ‘in’, and with the preceding NPs, they mean ‘in the swimming pool’ or ‘in her room’. Many languages in the world do not distinguish these two kinds of locative expressions. The difference is that one type, -de/-eyse, indicates the location where a dynamic action takes place, while the other type, -ni/-ey, indicates the location where something is located, particularly the location of some (non-agentive) theme argument. The latter (-ni or -ey), therefore, is used with verbs of existence as well as verbs which mean ‘to stay’ and ‘to live’. In (25i, j) the verbs i- (J) and iss- (K) ‘to be (located at)’ are used. The former dynamic type (-de or -eyse) is used with activity verbs to show the location of activities. In (25g, h) the verbs oyog- (or oyoi-) (J) and heyemchi- (K) ‘to swim’ are used. The postpositions for ‘location of existence’ ni and -ey sometimes appear to co-occur with dynamic verbs, as shown in (37a‒d). In the examples in (37a, b), where motion verbs are used, the NP gakkō/hakkyo ‘school’ is not followed by the postposition for ‘location of activity’ de or -eyse. This is because school is not where the action of going (i.e., movement of one place to another) takes place. School is the goal of motion, where the (referent of ) subject ends up being; it, therefore, takes the postposition for ‘goal’ or ‘location of existence’. (37) a. ジョンが 学校に John-ga

b. 존이

John-i

行った。

gakkō-ni itta. (J) 학교에

갓다

hakkyo-ey kass-ta. (K)

John-Nom school-to ‘John went to school.’

went(-Pln)

c. メリーが

公園に

ゴミを

d. 메리가

공원에

쓰레기를

Mary-ga

Mary-ka

kōen-ni

gomi-o

kongwen-ey ssuleyki-lul

Mary-Nom park-at

捨てた。

sute-ta. (J) 버렸다

peli-ess-ta. (K)

garbage-Acc throw-away-Pst(-Pln)

‘Mary threw trash away in the park.’     11  The difference between the two different kinds of locative markers discussed here may roughly correspond to the two different locations where the Chinese locative preposition zài ‘in’ appears, which Teng (1975) described as the inner and outer locatives.

72  case and postpositions e. メリーが

公園で

ゴミを

捨てた。

f. 메리가

공원에서

쓰레기를

버렸다

Mary-ga

Mary-ka

kōen-de

gomi-o

kongwen-eyse ssuleyki-ul

Mary-Nom park-at

sute-ta. (J)

peli-ess-ta. (K)

garbage-Acc throw-away-Pst(-Pln)

‘Mary threw away trash at the park.’ The difference between (37c, d), on one hand, and (37e, f ), on the other, is that in the former the postpositions -ni and -ey do not mark where Mary’s action of throwing took place, but rather they show where the (referent of the) object ends up being, i.e., in the park, and in the latter the postpositions -de and -eyse mark where Mary’s action took place, i.e., in the park, and they do not show where the (referent of the) object ends up being. In (37c, d), Mary could be outside the park, throwing trash into the park over the fence, and in (37e, f ) the trash Mary threw away might have ended up being outside the park, i.e., Mary threw the trash over the fence outside the park, e.g., into the street. Very complicated and subtle though the difference is, the two different types of locative postpositions in both Japanese and Korean behave in a very similar way. Interestingly, however, in certain constructions, some verbs take another locative form than the one that is usually used with them. Observe the examples in (38) to (41). The verbs sin- (J) and cwuk- (K) ‘to die’ have to cooccur with the locative postposition -de or -eyse ‘in’, as shown in (38), but they can cooccur with -ni or -ey ‘in’, when they occur in a resultative construction with iru or iss- ‘be’, as shown in (39). In contrast, the verbs hik- (or hii-) and yencwuha- ‘to play’ have to take the locative postposition -de or -eyse, as shown in (40), and they never take -ni or -ey in a progressive construction, as shown in (41), despite the fact that both Japanese and Korean resultative and progressive constructions are superficially (almost) identical in consisting of a verb in the gerund (J/K) or infinitive (K) followed by a verb of existence i(ru) or iss- ‘to be’. (See Chapter 11 for resultative and progressive constructions.) (38) a. 人が

Hito-ga

b. 사람이

Salam-i

家で/*に

死んだ。

집에서/*에

죽었다

ie-de/*ni

sin-da. (J)

cip-eyse/*-ey cwuk-ess-ta. (K)

person-Nom home-at ‘Someone died at his home.’

die-Pst-(Pln)



4.4 Postpositions  73

(39) Resultative construction a. 人が

部屋で/に

死んで

Hito-ga

heya-de/ni

Salam-i

pang-eyse/-ey cwuke

b. 사람이

방에서/에

someone-Nom home-at

sinde 죽어

いる。

iru. (J) 있다

iss-ta. (K)

die-Ger/Inf is-(Pln)

‘Someone is dead (and lying there) in the room.’

(40) a. ジェーンが Jane-ga

b. 제인이 Jane-i

Jane-Nom

部屋で/*に

ギターを ひいた。

방에서/*에

기타를

heya-de/*ni

gitā-o

pang-eyse/*ey kitha-lul room-in

guitar

hii-ta. (J)

연주했다

yencwuhayss-ta. (K) played

‘Jane played her guitar in the room.’ (41) Progressive construction a. ジェーンが

部屋で/*に

ギターを

ひいて いる。

방에서/*에

기타를

연주하고

Jane-ga

heya-de/*ni

Jane-i

pang-eyse/*ey12

kitha-lul

room-in

guitar-Acc play-Gr

b. 제인이

Jane-Nom

gitā-o

hii-te

i-ru. (J)

있다

yencwuha-ko iss-ta. (K) is-(Pln)

‘Jane is playing her guitar in the room.’ The above contrast can be accounted for by the ‘double-construction’ approach proposed by Chae (2018), in which he argues that iss- in the progressive construction, (41), is an auxiliary taking a VP containing a verb and its argument(s) as its complement, and that iss- in the resultative construction, (39), is not an auxiliary but a main predicate (iss-) preceded by an adjunct VP. Assuming the same applies to Japanese resultative and progressive constructions, the locative postposition -ni or -ey to appear in (39) can be considered as the locative phrase for the main predicate iss- or iru; and the locative postposition -de or -eyse can be considered as the locative phrase of the verb in the gerund or infinitive. In the progressive construction, iss- and iru are auxiliaries taking a VP as their (sole) argument, a locative expression for these auxiliaries does not show up in (41), and hence the occurrence of -ni and -ey is not allowed. (See Chae (2018) for the exact structures Korean resultative and progressive constructions appear in and the references for     12  An (2000) pointed out that the locative postposition -ey is marginally allowed in a progressive construction in Korean.

74  case and postpositions double- and single-construction approaches to analysis of Korean progressive and resultative constructions.) This section has shown that postpositions differ from topic and case particles in that they express particular semantic roles within a sentence. The evidence presented above in support of this difference involves the deletability of the particles, crosslinguistic correspondences, and barrierhood for floated numeral quantifiers.

4.5 Conclusion In the above, we have shown how Japanese and Korean particles are used in terms of the three major functions of NPs. The three major functions of NPs in Japanese and Korean, as shown above, are marked by three different types of particles, as shown in Table 4.4. The primary function of nominative, accusative, and dative case particles is to mark the grammatical function of the NPs to which they are attached, e.g., subject or object, but as the semantic function of argument NPs they attach to is determined by the cooccurring predicate, they are also included among the particles showing semantic functions. There are other particles called delimiters in Korean linguistics that have not been discussed above; -to (K)/ -mo (J) ‘also’, -man (K) / -dake (J) ‘only’, -cocha (K) / -sae (J) ‘even’ are examples of such particles. Delimiters do not have any of the three different kinds of functions (i.e., semantic, pragmatic, and grammatical functions) but entail the existence or nonexistence of a similar situation, just like also and only.

Table 4.4  Three major functions of NPs Major function Examples

Particles

Semantic functions

-ga, -o, -ni, -e, -made, -kara, -ni, -de ‘at/in’, -ni ‘at/in’, -o ‘along/through’, -de ‘by’ (J); -i/ka, -(l)ul, -eykey, -ey ‘to’, -kkaci, -eyse ‘from’, -eyse ‘at/in’, -ey ‘at/in’, -(l)ul’ along/through’, -(u)lo (K) -wa (J) -(n)un (K) -ga, -o, -ni (J) -i/-ka, -(l)ul, -eykey (K)

Pragmatic function Grammatical functions

Agent, Theme, Source, Goal, Location, Path, Instrument Topic Subject, Object

5

Topic and focus 5.1  Introduction In communicating with others, information is exchanged using the structure that combines old and new information (although the old information can be omitted). Topic concerns old information and focus provides new information. Korean and Japanese both have a ‘topic’ marker, which plays a role in marking old information by attaching to an element in the sentence and also to mark new information by not attaching to an element that functions as (part of ) focus. This chapter introduces how this topic marker is used to mark both old and new information and a subtle difference in its use between the two languages. Korean and Japanese have a particle for topics distinct from that for subjects. The distinction between them perplexes learners and teachers of those languages as well as linguists working on them (Kuno 1973, Heycock 2008). In many languages the subject of a sentence often functions as a topic and there is no clear distinction between subjects and topics crosslinguistically. Even in Chinese, an exemplar of topic-prominent languages, topics are distinguished as such only when subjects appear independently of them. If there is no topic independent of the subject, it is not clear whether the subject functions only as subject or as topic as well. Accordingly, it is also difficult for Chinese native speakers to learn to distinguish the subject and topic markers in Korean and Japanese. The use of these topic and subject (or nominative) markers is crucially related to topic and focus, although it is not the case that all topics or all focuses are always expressed with one or the other of those markers. In fact, any grammatical element, e.g., an object, an oblique, or a predicate, can appear as either topic or focus. This chapter, however, examines topic and focus particularly in connection with subjecthood. This is because subjects in these languages are also often realized as topics, just as in other languages, and therefore are followed by a topic marker. Subjects sometimes receive focus simply because they do not appear with a topic marker. Thus, in Korean and Japanese, whether subjects are marked with a topic or nominative marker is closely related to their status as topic or focus. The nominative-marked subjects in (1a) and (2a) are interpreted as focus, as the English translation shows. They are most likely to be uttered in a context in which people wonder who is a student at that university. The subjects in these sentences answer the question of who. The sentences with subjects marked with a topic The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0005

76  topic and focus marker in (1b) and (2b) are uttered in a different context in which a particular person Jane at the scene was introduced to the interlocutor as to what she is. (1) a. 제인이 Jane-i

그

대학교

학생이다

tayhakkyo haksayng-i-ta. (K)

ku

Jane-Nom that university student-Cop-Pln ‘It is Jane who is a student at that university.’

b. 제인은

Jane-un

그

ku

대학교

학생이다

tayhakkyo haksayng-i-ta. (K)

Jane-Top that university student-Cop-Pln ‘Jane is a student at that university.’

(2) a. ジェーンが その 大学の Jane-ga

sono daigaku-no

Jane-Nom

that

学生だ。

gakusei-da. (J)

university-Gen student-Cop-Pln

‘It is Jane who is a student at that university.’

b. ジェーンは Jane-wa

Jane-Top

その 大学の

sono daigaku-no that

学生だ。

gakusei-da. (J)

university-Gen student-Cop-Pln

‘Jane is a student at that university.’ As shown above, the topic and nominative markers in Korean and Japanese on the whole behave in a very similar manner, but they do behave differently. This chapter will elucidate the similarities and differences between Korean and Japanese in the use of the topic and nominative markers. We will first illustrate how the topic markers are differentiated from the nominative markers in Korean and Japanese, particularly using the framework presented by Li and Thompson (1976), and also sketch the properties of topichood in these languages in the following section, 5.2. We discuss focus and in what circumstances the nominative marker acquires this function in Section 5.3. Section 5.4 illustrates another function of the ‘topic’ markers, i.e., contrast. Section 5.5 concludes this chapter.

5.2  Topic vs subject The topic markers are -nun (after a noun that ends with a vowel) and -un (after a noun that ends in a consonant) in Korean, and -wa in Japanese, and they are distinct from the nominative markers -ka (after a noun that ends with a vowel) and -i (after a noun that ends with a consonant) in Korean, and -ga in Japanese. The



5.2 Topic vs subject  77

particles that are used as topic markers, however, have another function, contrast, i.e., to indicate a contrast of the element that they attach to with something else in discourse. The function of contrast will be explicated in Section 5.4. In a classic work on subject and topic by Li and Thompson (1976), they differentiated topics from subjects across languages as follows. (3) Topic and subject properties (Li and Thompson 1976: 459–466) a. A topic must be definite, but a subject need not be definite. (‘Definiteness’ is defined, citing Chafe (1976), as follows: ‘I think you already know and can identify the particular referent I have in mind’ p. 461.) b. A topic does not have a ‘selectional relation’ with a predicate, but a subject always has a ‘selectional relation’ with a predicate. c. ‘Verb determines “Subject” but not “Topic”’ (p. 463). d. A topic has a discourse function, but a subject has a sentence-internal function. e. Topics do not agree with verbs, but subjects may agree with verbs, depending on the language. f. A topic appears in sentence-initial position, but a subject does not have to appear in sentence-initial position, e.g., VSO languages. g. Topics do not play a special role in grammatical processes such as reflexivization, passivization, Equi-NP deletion, serialization, and imperativization, but subjects do play a special role in such processes. We will examine how the topic and nominative markers in Korean and Japanese fare regarding the above properties in the following subsections.

5.2.1 Definiteness Lee and Ramsey (2000), referring to a newly introduced character in a Korean fairy tale, noted that it can only be marked with a nominative marker -ka but never with a topic marker -nun, as shown in (4): (4) ‘In example (14) [i.e., our example (5a) below], makwi halmeni “witch” is new information. It is the subject of the sentence and the focus of attention, and as such, it cannot be followed by nun. The sentence would be ungrammatical if nun were substituted for ka after this word.’ (Lee and Ramsey 2000: 166) The same character, when referred to again in the sentence that follows the first one, however, is marked with the topic marker -nun, as shown in (5b). This is because of the definiteness requirement given in (3a).

78  topic and focus (5) Case marking of a character in a Korean fairy tale a. 옛날

옛날

Yeysnal yeysnal long-

옛적에

아주

마음씨

고약한

마귀

very

temper

ill

witch

yeyscekey acwu maumssi koyakhan Makwi

long-ago old-days

할머니가/*는

있었답니다

iss-ess-ta-pni-ta. (K)

halmeni-ka/*nun

old-woman-Nom/*Top be-Pst-Pln-Pol-Pln ‘Once upon a time, long ago, there was a very evil witch.’ (Lee and Ramsey 2000: 166 (14))

b. 그

마귀

할머니는/?가

that

witch

old-woman-Top/(?)Nom very small mushroom-like

cip-ey

honca salko     iss-ess-ta-pni-ta. (K)

Ku 집에

makwi halmeni-nun/(?)ka 혼자

house-in alone

아주 작은 버섯같은

acwu cakun peses-kathun

살고      있었답니다

living    be-Pst-Pln-Pol-Pln

‘The old witch lived alone in a very small mushroom-like house.’ The witch, mentioned for the first time in the story when it is read to a listener, cannot be expected to be identifiable by him or her and therefore cannot be ‘definite’ and thus cannot be marked with a topic marker in Korean. But when the same referent is mentioned a second time, the witch is mentioned using a topic marker because it refers to the same witch mentioned in the previous sentence. In view of this referring function, it is seen as an anaphoric use of a topic marker (Kuno 1973) whereby the NP marked by a topic marker refers to someone or something that has been mentioned previously in the discourse (conversation, story, or text). The topic marker -wa in Japanese is used in the same way, as shown in (6). (6) Case marking of a character in a Japanese fairy tale 昔 ずっ と昔 大変 心の 曲がった a. 昔 Mukasi, mukasi, zutto mukasi, taihen kokoro-no magatta long-

long-ago

very long-ago very

heart-Gen crooked

魔女の お婆さんが/*は       いたそうです。 mazyo-no obāsan-ga/*wa     ita-sō-desu. (J) witch-Gen old-woman-Nom/*Top  was-Rep-Pol ‘Once upon a time, there lived a very evil witch.’



5.2 Topic vs subject  79 b. その 魔女の

お婆さんは/(??)が とても 小さな

Sono mazyo-no

obāsan-wa/(??)ga

that

old-woman-Top/*Nom very small

witch-Gen

totemo tīsa-na

きのこみたいな

うちに

一人で

住んで いました。 sunde

imasita. (J)

mushroom-like

house-in

alone

living

was

kinoko-mitai-na

uti-ni

hitoride

‘The old witch lived alone in a very small mushroom-like house.’ The witch mentioned for the first time in the story must be marked with the nominative marker -ga and not with the topic marker -wa, but when mentioned for the second time in the following sentence, it is more natural to mark it with the topic marker -wa than with the nominative marker -ga.1 A novelist, however, may begin a novel using a topic marker -nun or -wa, as in (7a) and (8a), rather than without it as in (7b) and (8b) when introducing a character for the first time for the sake of a special dramatic effect. (7) The beginning of a novel (Korean) a. 비

오는

어두운

공원에

커다란

가방을

갖고

park-in

big

bag-Acc

carrying

Pi

o-nun etwuwun kongwen-ey khetalan kabang-ul kac-ko

rain

falling dark

있는

iss-nun be-PresN

여자는

yeca-nun

서 se

있었다

iss-ess-ta. (K)

woman-Top standing be-Pst-Pln

‘The woman with a huge bag was standing in the very dark park in the rain.’

b. 비

오는

어두운

공원에

커다란

가방을

갖고

park-in

big

bag-Acc

carrying

Pi

o-nun etwuwun kongwen-ey khetalan kabang-ul kac-ko

rain

falling dark

있는

iss-nun be-PresN

여자가

yeca-ka

서 se

있었다

iss-ess-ta. (K)

woman-Top standing be-Pst-Pln

‘A woman with a huge bag was standing in the very dark park in the rain.’     1 

However, it is possible to continue a story with -ka or -ga rather than -nun or -wa, even if the referent has been mentioned already and thus is given. It is for a special ‘staging’ purpose, namely, a special rhetorical device to make a change in a discourse, which Maynard (1987: 62) dubs ‘the strategy of non-thematizing’. Non-thematized participants ‘[m]ost frequently . . . continue to be marked by ga although they represent “given” information’ (Maynard 1987: 62). Such a device brings about the following effect: ‘Non-thematized participants often become the focus of attention when their action and description are introduced as if constituting new information from the point of view of thematized participants. Because of this dramatic impact, the non-thematized participant’s action is described vividly and its movement is often more likely to receive closer attention’ (Maynard 1987: 62).

80  topic and focus (8) The beginning of a novel (Japanese) a. 雨が

降る

暗い 公園に 大きな カバンを 持って

Ame-ga

huru

rain-Nom

falling dark

いる

女性は

kurai kōen-ni ōkina park-in big

立って tatte

いた。

kaban-o

motte

bag-Acc

carrying

ita. (J)

iru

zyosei-wa

is

woman-Top standing was

‘The woman with a huge bag was standing in the very dark park in the rain.’

b. 雨が

降る

暗い 公園に 大きな カバンを 持って

Ame-ga

huru

kurai kōen-ni ōkina

rain-Nom

falling dark

park-in big

いる

女性が

is

woman-Nom standing was

iru

zyosei-ga

立って tatte

いた。

kaban-o

motte

bag-Acc

carrying

ita. (J)

‘A woman with a huge bag was standing in the very dark park in the rain.’

The sentences in (7b) and (8b), in which the newly introduced character is marked with a nominative marker, are normal ways of beginning a novel, just as in (5a) and (6a). Instead, if a character in a novel is introduced with a topic marker as in (7a) and (8a), it is presented as if there were a preceding context, although not mentioned in the novel, where this character had been introduced, and the author were referring to that person. This character, most likely the main character of this novel, is mentioned as ‘this particular woman I have in mind’. This special effect of presenting a new character in a novel for the first time as if he or she had been mentioned in earlier discourse comes from the anaphoric use of the topic marker. The NP with a topic marker is supposed to refer back to someone or something mentioned already in the discourse. A topic marker can also be used in the first mention of something even if no dramatic effect is intended. An NP that is mentioned for the first time can be attached with a topic marker when the speaker assumes that the addressee knows what it refers to. This is when the NP refers to the members of a whole set. It is the generic use of a topic marker (Kuno 1973). Whales in (9a) and (10a), even uttered without any relevant preceding context, should be easily identifiable so long as the addressee knows what kolay/kuzira ‘whale’ means. The sentences in (9a) and (10a) may be uttered by someone looking down at the ocean to mean that the species of whale inhabits the ocean, rather than the land. (9b) and (10b), where kolay and kuzira are marked with a nominative marker, on the other hand, are likely to be uttered when the speaker refers to a particular whale or whales found living in this part of the sea, not in the entire ocean.

(9)

5.2 Topic vs subject  81 Generic vs existential (Korean) a. 고래는

Kolay-nun whale-Top

이 I

바다에 살고

pata-ey sal-ko iss-ta. (K)

this sea-in

living be-Pln

‘Whales live in this ocean.’

b. 고래가

Kolay-ka whale-Nom

이 i

있다

바다에 살고

있다

pata-ey sal-ko iss-ta. (K)

this sea-in

living be-Pln

‘Whales live in this sea.’ (10) Generic vs existential (Japanese) a. クジラは

Kuzira-wa whale-Top

この 海に

住んで いる。

kono umi-ni sunde

iru. (J)

this

living

is

sea-in

‘Whales live in this ocean.’

b. クジラが

Kuzira-ga

whale-Nom

この 海に

住んで いる。

kono umi-ni sunde

iru. (J)

this

living

is

sea-in

‘Whales live in this sea.’ The Korean and Japanese topic markers, as shown above, are attached to ‘definite’ NPs, either when their referents have been already mentioned in the discourse, i.e., used anaphorically, or when they are used as generic terms.

5.2.2  Discourse and sentence-internal functions The topic marker is used for a discourse purpose, as noted in (3d) by Li and Thompson (1976). In (3d), the topic is characterized as bearing a discourse function in which it serves as the theme of discourse and sets ‘the framework within which the predication holds’ (Li and Thompson 1976: 464). That is, a topic is something about which predication is made in the form of focus. A topic may look similar to a subject because the subject is also something that is being predicated about. Nevertheless, a topic is not realized as a grammatical subject, although it can be. Topic functions like a subject in a discourse when it is presented as old information in information structure. It is followed by new information, or focus, which functions like a predicate. In contrast, ‘the functional role of the subject can be defined ­within the confines of a sentence as opposed to a discourse’ (Li and Thompson 1976: 464). We will examine this sentence-internal function of the nominative marker in contrast with the topic marker in Korean and Japanese below. Each of the sentences in (11a) and (12a) lacks an overt argument and hence is not complete in what it means, and yet it is still quite clear that it means that a dog bit

82  topic and focus something, rather than that a dog was bitten by something. There is no need to examine the context of utterance to confirm the semantic role of the NP in the nominative. (11) a. 개가

Kay-ka dog-Nom

물었다

mwul-ess-ta. (K) bite-Pst-Pln

‘A dog bit (something).’

b. 개는

Kay-nun dog-Top

물었다

mwul-ess-ta. (K) bite-Pst-Pln

‘The dog bit (something).’ or ‘(Something) bit the dog.’

(12) a. 犬が

かんだ。

Inu-ga

kanda. (J)

dog-Nom

bit

‘A dog bit (something).’

b. 犬は

かんだ。

Inu-wa

kanda. (J)

dog-Top

bit

‘The dog bit (it).’ or ‘(It) bit the dog.’ In contrast, when NPs are marked with a topic marker in Korean and Japanese, as in (11b) and (12b), their semantic roles are dependent on the context of utterance. The semantic role of the topic-marked NPs in (11b) and (12b) is never clear without checking the context of utterance. It could be either the agent or the patient depending on the context in which the sentences were uttered. Suppose there were a dog, cat, and rat in the scene as shown in Figures 5.1 and 5.2. The semantic role of the NP with a topic marker in (11b) and (12b) is the agent when there was a preceding context in which was uttered, ‘The dog and the cat competed to bite the rat (as in Figure 5.1). The cat could not bite the rat, but . . .’ and after this (11b) or (12b) was uttered. (b) (a)

(b) (a)

(c)

Figure 5.1  A dog and cat aiming at a rat

(c)

Figure 5.2  A cat aiming at a dog and rat



5.2 Topic vs subject  83

Alternately, the semantic role of the NP marked with a topic marker in (11b) or (12b) is the patient when there was a preceding context where it was said that ‘The cat tried biting at both the dog and the rat (as in Figure 5.2); it could not bite the rat, but . . .’ and then (11b) or (12b) was uttered. Thus, the semantic role of a nominative-marked NP is clear without checking the context of utterance, whereas the semantic role of topic-marked NP can only be clarified in light of the context of utterance. The topic marker in this case only reveals its discourse function that it is definite, but not its semantic function. The sentence-internal function of a subject that is referred to in (3d) is related to the subject properties in (3b) and (3c), such that a subject must have a ‘selectional relation’ with its predicate and that it (or its semantic role) must be determined by its verb. Observe the sentences in (13) and (14). (13)

저희

회사는

사장님이

our

company-Top

president-Nom very

coh-usi-n

pwun-i-pni-ta. (K)

Cehuy 좋으신

hoysa-nun

너무

sacangnim-i

분입니다

nemwu

good-SHon-Adn person-Cop-Pol-Pln ‘A s for my company, the president is a very good person.’ (14)

私どもの

会社は

Our

company-Top president-Nom very

Watakusi-domo-no kaisya-wa 人です。

社長が

syatyō-ga

とても いい totemo ii

good

hito-desu. (J) person-Cop.Pol ‘A s for my company, the president is a very good person.’ The nominal predicate ‘being a good person’ is predicated of the subject, the company president, in (13) and (14), and not of the topic, ‘our company’, which cannot be ‘a good person’, in line with the property in (3b), i.e., a ‘selectional relation’. The sentences in (15) and (16) show a similar contrast between topic and nominative markers. Minsu in (15a) and Kana in (16a) can be marked with either a subject or topic marker without yielding an infelicitous sentence. On the other hand, ‘ramen’ in (15b) and (16b) can only be marked with a topic marker but not with a nominative marker due to the property in (3c). This is because the verb ‘eat’, which takes an agent and a patient as its arguments, requires the agent to be its subject, not the patient. That is, the verb requires that its subject be an entity that can eat

84  topic and focus something, which ramen is not; hence, ‘ramen’ marked with a nominative marker is ungrammatical. It can, however, be marked with a topic marker because the semantic role of a topic is not determined by the verb. The topic can be construed as a patient or otherwise, depending on the context. (15) a. 민수가/는

Minsu-ka/nun Minsu-Nom/Top

먹었다

mek-ess-ta. (K)

eat-Pst-Pln

‘Minsu ate (something).’

b. 라면*이/은

먹었다

mek-ess-ta. (K)

Ramyen-*i/un ramen-*Nom/Top

eat-Pst-Pln

‘(Someone) ate ramen.’

(16) a. 香奈が/は

食べた。

tabeta. (J)

Kana-ga/wa Kana-Nom/Top

ate

‘Kana ate (something).’

b. ラーメン*が/は Rāmen-*ga/wa

ramen-*Nom/Top

食べた。

tabeta. (J) ate

‘(Someone) ate ramen.’

5.2.3  Grammatical processes Another set of topic and subject properties referred to by Li and Thompson (1976) pertains to grammatical processes, as in (3e) and (3g), which all crucially involve the subject of a sentence but not a topic. Here we will examine whether the grammatical processes of subject‒verb agreement and reflexivization apply to NPs marked with a nominative marker rather than a topic marker in Korean and Japanese. The results of ‘agreement’ and reflexivization tests, however, give a mixed picture in some exceptional cases, which will be shown later in this section. Korean and Japanese do not have subject‒verb agreement as observed in languages like Italian, but they have a similar grammatical process called subject honorification. This is a process of marking a predicate with honorifics whereby the speaker can show respect to the subject linguistically. Observe the sentences in (17). The referents of the subjects of the sentences in (17a, b), ku halmeni ‘that old lady’ and sono sensei ‘that teacher’, are socially worthy of linguistic respect, and



5.2 Topic vs subject  85

thus it is felicitous to use the honorific verb of existence kyeysi- or irassyar- ‘to be (with)’ in place of the corresponding plain verb of existence iss- or i- ‘to be’. In contrast, with the same referents in object position and a puppy in subject position, as in (18a, b), the use of honorifics is inappropriate, and thus both (18a) and (18b) are infelicitous. This is because the subject honorifics are not being used in accordance with the social status of the subject in (18a, b). (17) Subject honorifics (with the target of respect in subject position) a. 그

Ku

할머니분께서

강아지를 데리고

puppy-Acc be-accompanied-by be.SHon-Pln

‘That old lady is with a puppy.’

b. その

kyesi-ta. (K)

halmeni-pwun-kkeyse kangaci-lul teyliko

that old-lady-Nom/Hon 先生が

계시다

子犬を

koinu-o

連れて turete

いらっしゃる。

irassyaru. (J)

Sono

sensei-ga

that

teacher-Nom puppy-Acc be-accompanied-by be.SHon.NPst (J)

‘That teacher is with a puppy.’ a. *강아지가

(18) Subject honorifics (with the target of respect in object position) *Kangaci-ka puppy-Nom

그

ku

할머니분을

*Koinu-ga

puppy-Nom

계시다

licking

be.SHon-Pln

halmeni-pwun-ul halth-ko kyeysi-ta. (K)

that old-lady-Acc

‘The puppy is licking the old lady.’

b. *子犬が

핥고

その 先生を

なめて いらっしゃる。 namete irassyaru. (J)

sono

sensei-o

that

teacher-Acc licking be.SHon.NPst

‘The puppy is licking the teacher.’

Now observe the sentences in (19) and (20). In (19a, b) and (20a, b) sensayngnim or sensei ‘teacher’ is the subject as well as the agent of an operation and na or watasi ‘I’ is the object or patient of an operation. The subject honorifics are used in both the a- and b-sentences. The object/patient na or watasi is topicalized in the b-sentences, but in both (19a, b) and (20a, b) the honorific form agrees with the subject. Now in (19c, d) and (20 c, d), na or watasi ‘I’ is the subject, marked with a nominative marker, and it plays the role of an agent, and the patient sensayngnim or sensei ‘teacher’ is topicalized. Note that (19d) and (20d) are ungrammatical because the honorific form of the verb cannot agree with the subject, i.e., na or watasi ‘I’. The topic-marked NPs in (19d) and (20d) cannot play any role in subject honorification, which renders the sentences ungrammatical.

86  topic and focus (19) Subject honorifics (Korean) a. 그

Ku

선생님이

나를 수술하셨다

sensayngnim-i na-lul swuswulha-syess-ta. [sensayngnim as the agent]

that teacher-Nom I-Acc operation-do-SHon.Pst-Pln ‘The doctor performed an operation on me.’

b. 나는

그

Na-nun ku I-Top

선생님이

수술하셨다

sensayngnim-i swuswulha-syess-ta. [sensayngnim as the agent]

that teacher-Nom operation-do-SHon.Pst-Pln

‘A s for me, that doctor performed an operation.’

c. 그

Ku

선생님은

내가

수술했다

sensayngnim-un nay-ka swuswul-hayss-ta. [sensayngnim as the patient]

that teacher-Top

I-Nom operation-did-Pln

‘A s for that teacher, I performed an operation.’

d. *그 선생님은

내가

수술하셨다

*Ku sensayngnim-un nay-ka swuswulha-syess-ta. [sensayngnim as the patient]

that teacher-Top

I-Nom operation-do-SHon.Pst-Pln

‘A s for that teacher, I performed an operation.’ (20) Subject honorifics (Japanese) a. その

先生が

私を

手術なさった。

watasi-o syuzyutu-nasatta. [sensei as the agent]

Sono

sensei-ga

that

teacher-Nom I-Acc

operation-did.SHon

‘That doctor performed an operation on me.’

b. 私は

Watasi-wa I-Top

その 先生が

手術なさった。

syuzyutu-nasatta. [sensei as the agent]

sono

sensei-ga

that

teacher-Nom operation-did/HSon

‘A s for me, that doctor performed an operation.’

c. その

先生は

私が

手術した。

watasi-ga syuzyutu-sita. [sensei as the patient]

Sono

sensei-wa

that

teacher-Top I-Nom

operation-did

‘A s for that teacher, I performed an operation.’

d. *その

*Sono that

先生は

sensei-wa

私が

手術なさった。

watasi-ga syuzyutu-nasatta. [sensei as the patient]

teacher-Top I-Nom

operation-did.SHon

‘A s for that teacher, I performed an operation.’



5.2 Topic vs subject  87

The same contrast can be observed with reflexivization. In the sentences in (21) and (22), Mary is the subject and Sue the object, and Sue is topicalized in the b-sentences. In both the a- and b-sentences of (21) and (22), the reflexive pronoun caki or zibun ‘self ’ can only refer to the subject, i.e., Mary, but not the object Sue, be it topicalized or not. (21) Reflexivization (Korean) a. 메리가/는

Mary-ka/nun

수를

자기를 위해서 파티에

Sue-lul caki-lul wihayse phathi-ey chotayhayss-ta.

Mary-Nom/Top Sue-Acc self-Acc for

party-to invited-Pln

‘Mary invited Sue to a party for self ’s sake.’

b. 수는

Sue-nun Sue-Top

초대했다

메리가

자기를

Mary-ka

caki-lul

위해서

파티에

초대했다

party-to

invited-Pln

wihayse phathi-ey chotayhayss-ta.

Mary-Nom self-Acc for

‘A s for Sue, Mary invited her for self ’s sake.’ (22) Reflexivization (Japanese) a. メリーが/は

Mary-ga/wa Mary-Nom/Top

スーを Sue-o

自分の

ために

zibun-no tame-ni paatii-ni

Sue-Acc self-Gen

sake-for party-to

‘Mary invited Sue to a party for self ’s sake.’

b. スーは

Sue-wa Sue-Top

メリーが Mary-ga

パーティーに

自分の

ために

パーティーに

zibun-no tame-ni paptii-ni

Mary-Nom self-Gen

sake-for party-to

呼んだ。 yonda.

invited 呼んだ。 yonda.

invited.

‘A s for Sue, Mary invited her to a party for self ’s sake.’ As shown above, subjects rather than topics trigger the grammatical processes of subject honorification and reflexivization, and yet there are some cases where topics can play a role in these processes. This is particularly true in the case of possessor-oriented subject honorification, in which subject honorifics agree with the possessor of the referent of the subject. The sentences in (23) and (24) are such examples. Kim-sacangnim ‘President Kim’ is the possessor of the subject kohyang ‘hometown’ in (23), and okyakusama ‘the patron’ is the possessor of the subject gozitaku ‘home’ in (24). The possessors appear in the genitive in (23a) and (24a) and are topicalized in (23b) and (24b). In either case, the predicates in (23) and (24) can be marked with subject honorifics even though these sentences have a nonhuman subject, which is not supposed to be the target of respect in Korean and Japanese. The genitives or topics in (23) and (24) are targeted as subject honorifics. Such subject honorifics are not accepted by every native speaker, but they can be heard in conversations.

88  topic and focus (23) Possessor-oriented honorification (Korean)2 a. ?김선생님의 ?Kim-sacangnim-uy Kim-president-Gen

고향이

kohyang-i

머시다

me-si-ta.

hometown-Nom distant-SHon-Pln

‘President Kim’s hometown is distant.’ (Yoon 1987: 152 (19a)) b. ?김선생님은 ?Kim-sacangnim-un Kim-president-Top

고향이

머시다

kohyang-i

me-si-ta.

hometown-Nom distant-SHon-Pln

‘President Kim’s hometown is distant.’ (Cf. Yoon 1987: 152 (19b)) (24) Possessor-oriented honorification (Japanese) a. ?お客さまの ?Okyakusama-no patron-Gen

ご自宅が

gozitaku-ga

遠くて (い)らっしゃる。

tōkute

(i)rassyai-masu-ne.

hometown-Nom distant be.SHon-Pol.NPst-SFP

‘The patron’s (= your) hometown is distant.’ b. ?お客さまは ?Okyakusama-wa patron-Top

ご自宅が

遠くて (い)らっしゃる。

gozitaku-ga

tōkute

(i)rassyai-masu-ne

hometown-Nom distant be.SHon-Pol.NPst-SFP

‘The patron’s (= your) hometown is distant.’ Korean and Japanese reflexive pronouns caki and zibun can also have a topic as their antecedent in a similar construction. The reflexives in (25) refer to the topic ku yeca-nun or sono zyosei-wa ‘that woman’, whose husband was stabbed to death by a robber. (25) Possessor-oriented reflexivization a. 그

Ku that

칼로

여자는

yeca-nun,

강도가

kangto-ka

[자기의 남편을]

[caki-uy namphyen-ul]

woman-Top robber-Nom self-Gen husband-Acc 찔러

죽였다

cwuki-ess-ta. (K)

khal-lo

ccill-e

knife-with

cutting kill-Pst-Pln

‘A s for that woman, a robber killed [self ’s husband] by stabbing with a knife.’ (Kang 1986: 230 (5a))

b. その

Sono

that     2 

女性は

zyosei-wa

強盗が

gōtō-ga

自分の

[zibun-no otto-o]

woman-Top robber-Nom self-Gen

See O’Grady (1991: 131–133) for similar examples.

夫を

husband-Acc



5.3 Focus  89 ナイフで

切って 殺した。

korosita. (J)

naihu-de

kitte

knife-with

cutting killed

‘As for that woman, a robber killed [self ’s husband] by stabbing with a knife.’ The examples in (23)‒(25) are exceptional cases in which topics participate in grammatical processes, and the subject in both Korean and Japanese in principle can always participate in such processes if the grammatical conditions are met.3 It can be concluded from the above that, in principle, a nominative-marked subject but not a topic-marked NP can participate in grammatical processes in Korean and Japanese, although there are some exceptional constructions in which topics can be involved in subject honorification and reflexivization.4 Such exceptional sentences have a topic serving as the possessor of an NP in the clause that follows it whereby some pragmatic or logophoric5 consideration allows the topic to participate in a grammatical process. So far, we have contrasted topic markers with subject markers with regard to all the properties listed by Li and Thompson (1976) except for the property in (3f ), i.e., their position in a sentence. This will be discussed in Section 5.4 where we illustrate contrast. We have shown above that the topic has a discourse function, that it is definite but inherently does not have such sentence-internal functions as indicating some kind of semantic relationship with the predicate or participating in grammatical processes, except for certain exceptional cases. In the following section, Section 5.3, we will discuss focus.

5.3 Focus We have seen how Korean and Japanese topic and nominative markers behave with regard to the topic and subject properties listed by Li and Thompson (1976). In this section we will turn our attention to focus. We will first explain what we mean by focus in Section 5.3.1, then we will examine the status of focus, ­especially in connection with the status of subjecthood, in 5.3.2, and lastly we will refer to some uses of Korean nominative marked subjects that appear to behave like ­topics in 5.3.3.

    3 

For different approaches to multiple subject constructions in Korean, see Yoon (2015). Shibatani (1978) presented similar arguments and examples for Japanese.     5  Iida (1996: 12) defined logophoricity as follows: ‘The notion of logophoricity identifies the individual whose speech, thoughts, feelings, or general state of consciousness are reported or reflected in the linguistic context’ and illustrated the use of the Japanese reflexive pronoun zibun in terms of such a point of view.     4 

90  topic and focus

5.3.1  What is focus? Focus is an elusive notion that is defined in various ways, just like topic. It is used here as a kind of information focus, which ‘correlates with the questioned position in the relevant (implicit or explicit) wh-question or alternative yes-no question that the sentence would be responsive to’ (Gundel and Fretheim 2004: 181). It can be best exemplified with answers to wh-questions, as in (26)‒(28). The italicized parts in the replies are focuses answering the preceding wh-questions. A focus does not have to be a subject or NP. Even the whole sentence can be a focus as in (28B). (26) A: Who brought these flowers? B: Jane did. (27) A: What did you buy? B: I bought some new clothes. (28) A: What happened? B: A car crashed into a shop. Cleft-sentences can also be used to present a focus, as shown in the sentences in (29). Andrews (1985: 62–63) contrasted the two sentences by stating that the sentence in (29a) ‘presumes that the hearer knows that somebody or something kills the duckling, but not who or what’, whereas the one in (29b) ‘presumes that the hearer knows that the farmer killed somebody or something, but not who or what’. (29) a. It is the farmer that kills the duckling. (Andrews 1985: 62 (2a)) b. It is the duckling that the farmer kills. (Andrews 1985: 62 (2b)) To illustrate focus in Korean and Japanese, we particularly follow Jun (2015: 179) and interpret focus as a kind of ‘[n]ew information that updates the stored knowledge of the listener’. It should be noted here that a focus can refer to some definite entity mentioned already in a discourse as well as a referentially new entity. Heycock (2008: 59) gives the examples in (30) and notes that ‘there is no requirement that the referents of focal constituents be textually new’. Me is the focus in (30B) as it answers who, despite the fact that it is uniquely identifiable as referring to the speaker. (30) A: Who did your parents contact? B: My mother phoned me, of course. (Heycock 2008: 59 (7)) Jun (2015) contrasted referential givenness and relational givenness and illustrated the notions of focus and topic in Korean and Japanese in terms of the latter, i.e.,



5.3 Focus  91

relational givenness, drawing on the divisions proposed by Gundel and Fretheim (2004). Something that has been mentioned already in a discourse, and thus is ‘already within the discourse domain of the interlocutors at the time of utterance’, has to do with referential givenness, whereas relational givenness has to do with ‘whether or not the information can update the stored knowledge of the listener’ (Jun 2015: 1979). The notion of topic discussed earlier and defined in terms of definiteness in Section 5.1 needs to be revised accordingly. That is, even if something has been mentioned already, it can be presented as focus, whereby the speaker updates the listener’s stored knowledge, as in (30). Jun (2015: 180) succinctly illustrated the two different kinds of new and old information as in (31). Crucially some referentially old information can be presented as relationally new information, i.e., as focus. (31) Relational givenness vs referential givenness (Jun 2015: 180 (2)) relationally old information

relationally new information

referentially old information

referentially new information

Focus in Korean and Japanese can be realized in a sentence in more than one way, e.g., using prominence, word order, and case marking, but we will focus here on its relationship with a nominative marker, as we did with topic. The nominative-marked subjects in (32A) and (33A), which answer the preceding wh-question word ‘who’ nwu-ka or ‘which’ dotti-ga, are focuses in those sentences, and so are those wh-question words asking who or which person in (32Q) and (33Q). Those nominative subjects in (32A) and (33A) are referentially old because they were mentioned in the immediately preceding questions, but they are relationally new because the piece of information given by A updates the listener’s (Q’s) stored knowledge. Q did not know who would come, but upon hearing A’s reply he or she knows that it is Bill that is coming. It needs to be noted again that the focus does not have to be a subject or an NP, but any part or the whole of a sentence that provides information about an (explicit or implicit) wh-phrase. (32) Q: 제인과

Jane-kwa Jane-and

빌중

Bill-cwung

누가

nwu-ka

Bill-i Bill-Nom

o-pni-kka? (K)6

Bill-among who-Nom come-Pol-Q

‘Who of Jane and Bill is coming?’

A: 빌이

옵니까?

옵니다.

o-pni-ta. (K) come-Pol-Pln

‘Bill is (coming).’

92  topic and focus (33) Q: ジェーンと

ビルの

Jane-to

Bill-no

Jane-and

うち uti,

どっちが dotti-ga

来ますか。

ki-masu-ka. (J)

Bill-Gen among which-Nom come-Pol/NPst-Q

‘Who of Jane and Bill is coming?’

A: ビルが Bill-ga

Bill-Nom

来ます。

ki-masu. (J) come-Pol/NPst

‘Bill is (coming).’

5.3.2  Nominative subjects as narrow focus or a part of all focus Despite the fact that any part or all of a sentence can appear as focus, we will here focus on subjects. The interpretation of nominative NPs functioning as subjects in Korean and Japanese can be predicted with regard to their status as focus from the type of predicate they occur with. (i) A nominative subject NP is interpreted as (narrow) focus when it occurs with a so-called individual-level predicate, and (ii) such a subject (with an individual-level predicate) cannot be interpreted as a part of all focus (i.e., where the entire (or most of a) sentence is presented as focus ) in Korean and Japanese (Jun 2009, 2015, Heycock 2008). The sentences in (34) and (35) have individual-level predicates, ‘being a s­ tudent’ or ‘being mammals’. The nominative marked subjects Chelswu-ka and kuzira-ga in (34b) and (35b) are presented as narrow focus as shown in their English translations (Jun 2015, Heycock 2008, Diesing 1988).

(34) Subject with an individual-level predicate (Jun 2009: 234 (22)) (K) a. 철수는

Chelswu-nun Chelswu-Top

학생이다

haksayng-i-ta. student-Cop-Pln

‘Chelswu is a student.’

b. 철수가

Chelswu-ka Chelswu-Nom

학생이다

haksayng-i-ta. student-Cop-Pln

‘It is Chelswu that is a student.’     6 

Jun (2015: 180) gives sentences similar to (32). The passage given here is based on Jun’s discussions on his examples (2015).



5.3 Focus  93

(35) Subject with an individual-level predicate (J) a. クジラは

哺乳類です。

honyūrui-desu. (Kuno 1973: 44 (17a))

Kuzira-wa whale-Top

mammal-Cop.Pol.Npst

‘Speaking of whales, they are mammals. A whale is a mammal.’

b. クジラが

哺乳類です。

Kuzira-ga

honyūrui-desu.

whale-Nom

mammal-Cop.Pol.Npst

‘It is whales that are mammals.’ Such nominative-marked subjects are contrasted with those with stage-level predicates. If a nominative-marked subject occurs with a stage-level predicate, the whole sentence can be presented as focus, or as all focus (Jun 2015, Heycock 2008), as shown in (36b) and (37b). All focus is uttered when the speaker finds out about some situation and presents it as new information. Crucially, a topic marker cannot appear within such ‘all focus’. (36a) and (37a) with a topic marker cannot constitute all focus. (36) Subject with a stage-level predicate (Jun 2009: 235 (23)) (K) a. 영수는

운동장에

있다

Yengswu-nun

wuntongcang-ey iss-ta.

Yengswu-Top

athletic-field-on be-Pln

‘Yengswu is on the athletic field.’

b. 영수가

운동장에

Yengswu-ka

있다

wuntongcang-ey iss-ta.

Yengswu-Nom

athletic-field-on be-Pln

‘Yengswu is on the athletic field.’ (37) Subject with a stage-level predicate (J) a. 空は

Sora-wa sky-Top

青い。 aoi.

blue

‘The sky is blue.’

b. 空が

Sora-ga sky-Nom

赤い。 akai. red

‘Look! The sky is red.’ (Kuno 1973: 50 (27a))

94  topic and focus Individual-level predicates and stage-level predicates are defined by Carlson (1977) as follows. Individual-level predicates predicate ‘generic statements about individuals’ (Carlson 1977: 441) as their ‘tendencies, dispositions, characteristics, and the like’ (p. 444). They attribute ‘more or less timeless characteristics’ or ‘permanent sorts of ’ properties of individuals (p. 446) or their habitual actions. Stage-level predicates refer to some temporary states that individuals happen to be in or nonhabitual acts of individuals. Such stage-level states or events cannot be taken to characterize individuals inherently (Carlson 1977). Individuals refers to individual persons, animals, or things and their kinds, e.g., a species of whales (Carlson 1977). Chelswu in (34), a particular individual, is predicated of as being a student, a property that can be attributed to a person as one of his characteristics, and whales in general in (35), a particular kind of animal, are predicated of as mammals as one of their characterizing properties. In both (34b) and (35b), when the subject appears with a nominative marker, i.e., when not topicalized, it is interpreted as narrow focus, answering an explicit or implicit question Who is a student? or Which creatures can be classified as mammals among several species such as whales, sharks, and tunas? (34a) and (35a), on the other hand, state what Chelswu is and what whales in general can be characterized as. Yengswu in (36), a particular individual, is described as being on the athletic field, which is only a temporary state for him. He may just happen to be on the athletic field to see his friend. (36a) can be interpreted as describing where Yengswu is at the moment of utterance, with Yengswu as a topic. (36b), on the other hand, can be interpreted as something that the speaker has found and is presenting as news to mean something like Look, Yengswu is on the athletic field! The whole sentence is presented as all focus. A subject in the nominative with a stage-level predicate can be interpreted as a part of such all focus with the entire sentence as its focal scope, whereas a subject in the nominative with an individual-level predicate cannot be. Sora ‘sky’ in (37) can be interpreted as referring to the sky in general or a particular sky in some region at a particular moment in time. Sora followed by a topic marker is interpreted as the sky in general and it is described as blue as a generic statement. In contrast, sora in the nominative in (37b) refers to a particular sky in a particular region at a particular moment and it is described as red, a temporary state, for example, because of the sunset. It is reported as news and again means something like Hey look, the sky is red! Kuno (1973: 49–50), describing the use of a nominative marker in Japanese, wrote ‘. . . only the subject of action verbs, existential verbs, and adjectives/nominal adjectives that represent changing states can be followed by the descriptive ga . . . , ’ referring to the nominative marker that appears as a part of all focus. The types of predicates that he listed are stage-level predicates. Note, however, that nominative-marked NPs with both individual-level and stage-level predicates can appear as narrow focus if they answer a preceding wh-question word or phrase.



5.3 Focus  95

The crucial difference is that nominative subjects with individual-level predicates are forced to be interpreted as narrow focus and cannot appear as part of all focus. In contrast, nominative subjects with stage-level predicates can appear as a part of all focus. They are not forced to be interpreted as narrow focus but are construed as such when they answer a preceding wh-question. The use of subject and topic markers in Korean and Japanese presented so far is basically the same, but there are some cases in which the subject and topic markers are used differently in the two languages, which we will turn to in the following.

5.3.3  ‘Topic’-like nominative-marked subjects in Korean This last subsection on focus throws light on some nominative subjects in Korean that appear to behave more like ‘topic’ than focus. We will first introduce Jun’s (2009, 2015) arguments against treating them as topics; second, give relevant examples to elucidate the difference between Korean and Japanese topic and nominative markers, particularly referring to one pointed out by Haig (1982, 1983); and lastly present a solution that Lee and Shimojo (2016) proposed to make sense of such a puzzling situation. Jun (2009, 2015) examined proposals that treated some of the nominative-marked elements in Korean as ‘topic’ and pointed out theoretical problems with them. Here we will look at two types of examples that Jun (2009) discussed, shown in (38) and (39). The examples in (38) have an individual-level predicate and those in (39) have a stage-level predicate. Japanese behaves the same with respect to the former type in (38) and differently with respect to the latter in (39). (38) Subject with an individual-level predicate (Jun 2009: 233 (20)) (K) a. 저

Ce that

사람은

man-Top who-Cop

‘Who’s that man?’

b. 저

누구야?

salam-un nwukwu-ya?

사람이

이번 대회

Ce

salam-i

that

man-Nom this

ipen

tayhoy

우승자야

wusungca-ya.

tournament winner-Cop

‘That man is the winner of this tournament.’

c. 저

Ce that

사람은

이번 대회

우승자야

salam-un ipen

tayhoy

wusungca-ya.

man-Top this

tournament winner-Cop

‘That man is the winner of this tournament.’

96  topic and focus (39) Subject with a stage-level predicate (Jun 2009: 235 (21)) (K) a. 지금

Cikum now

철수가

Chelswu-ka

뭐

해?

mwe hay?

Chelswu-Nom what do

‘What is Chelswu doing now?’

b. 지금

Cikum now

철수가

Chelswu-ka

운동해요

wuntonghay-yo.

Chelswu-Nom exercise-Pol

‘Now Chelswu is exercising.’

c. 지금

Cikum now

철수는

운동해요

Chelswu-nun wuntonghay-yo. Chelswu-Top exercise-Pol

‘Now Chelswu is exercising.’ The predicate wusungca-ya ‘is the winner’ in (38) is an individual-level predicate, the sentence in (38a) is a wh-question asking what that person is, and both (38b) and (38c) are possible answers to it. It is normally answered as in (38c), where the subject is marked with a topic marker and is followed by the focus answering what (he/she) is. When it is answered with a nominative-marked subject as in (38b), Jun (2009) argued that a change in presupposition took place. The change in presupposition in this case is that (i) ce salam ‘that person’ presented as topic in (38a) was presented as narrow focus in (38b), and (ii) the nominal predicate in (38b), which answers what (he/she) is, is presented as given or topic. The answer in (38b) was presented as ‘It is that person who won the tournament’, with focus on the subject. The same thing can happen in Japanese, as shown in (40). The wh-question in (40a) can be answered by (40c) with the subject as topic and the nominal predicate as focus, or it can be answered by (40b) with the subject as narrow focus and the nominal predicate as topic. In the latter case, a change in presupposition took place. (40) Subject with an individual-level predicate (Japanese) a. あの Ano that

人

hito

だれ?

dare?

man who

‘Who’s that man?’

b. あの Ano that

人が

hito-ga

優勝者だよ。

yūsyōsya-da-yo.

man-Nom winner-Cop/NPst-SFP

‘It is that man who is the winner.’



5.3 Focus  97 c. あの Ano that

人は

hito-wa

優勝者だよ。

yūsyōsya-da-yo.

man-Top winner-Cop/NPst-SFP

‘That man is the winner.’ Now let us look at the subject of a stage-level predicate in (39). (39a) is a wh-question and both (39b) and (39c) can be an answer to it in Korean. Jun (2009) argues that the nominative-marked subject in (39b) is not a topic but it is a part of all focus. That is, the whole sentence in (39b) can constitute focus, whence the interpretation of the nominative-marked subject in (39b) differs from that of the topicalized subject in (39c). In (39c) the subject was treated as given or topic and the predicate was treated as focus answering what (he) is doing. In contrast to the Korean sentences in (39), the nominative-marked subject is simply impossible in Japanese, as shown in (41). In Japanese, it is unusual to ask (41a) with a nominative-marked subject and it is not allowed to answer it with all focus, as in (41b). (41a) is normally asked with a topic-marked subject and must be answered with a topic-marked subject because the predicate is asking and answering a wh-question. Haig (1983) pointed out a similar difference in the use of nominative markers between Korean and Japanese.7 (41) Subject with a stage-level predicate (Japanese) a. メリー??が/は

何

Mary-??ga/wa

してる?

nani siteru?

Mary-??Nom/Top

what is-doing

‘What’s Mary doing?’

b. メリー*が Mary-*ga

Mary-*Nom

運動してる。 undō-siteru.

is-exercising

‘Mary is exercising.’

c. メリーは

Mary-wa Mary-Top

運動してる。 undō-siteru.

is-exercising

‘Mary is exercising.’     7 

Haig’s (1983) examples include sentences with individual-level predicates cooccurring with a wh-question and a nominative-marked subject. Further examination is needed to examine whether nominative-marked subjects of individual-level predicates cannot appear as a part of ‘all-focus’ as in (39b). Choi (1997) argued that the nominative-marked subject of an individual-level predicate can be construed as a topic as well as focus.

98  topic and focus Haig (1982) pointed out a difference between Korean and Japanese in the use of topic and nominative markers, as shown in (42). To ask where the restroom is in a building, a topic marker is used and a nominative marker is not allowed in Japanese, whereas the opposite holds true in Korean. The NP hwacangsil ‘restroom’ is marked with a nominative marker, but not with the topic marker -un because marking it with -un makes it sound contrastive.8 (42) a. トイレは/*が

Toire-wa/*ga restroom-Top/*Nom ‘Where is the restroom (Top)?’

b. 화장실*은/이

Hwacangsil-*un/i restroom-*Top/Nom

どこに

doko-ni

ありますか。

arimasu-ka. (J)

where-at be-Pol/NPst-Q 어디에 eti-ey

있어요?

iss-e-yo? (K)

where-at be-IE-Pol

‘Where is the restroom (Nom)?’ To further illustrate this point, let us look at the Korean and Japanese expressions used in information gap games. In an information gap game, A and B are given different pictures, as shown in Figure 5.3. (a)

(b)

Figure 5.3  Information gap game sheet 1

When asked by A if there is anything in this room, B answers, as in (43) and (44), i.e., no topic marker is used to mention what exists in the room. B never uses a topic marker for NPs that are introduced for the first time because the addressee has no idea that there is a watch or cat in this room prior to B’s utterances and would be unable to understand which watch or cat B is talking about. There is no difference between Korean and Japanese in this regard.     8 

Haig’s (1982) example in (42) and the description of the difference in Korean and Japanese given here are based on Lee and Shimojo’s discussion of (2) (2016: 85).



5.3 Focus  99

(43) Conversation between persons A and B for Figure 5.3 (Korean) a. 탁자

Thakca table

위에

wi-ey

뭐가/*는

있어? iss-e?

mwe-ka/*nun

top-on what-Nom/*Top be-IE

‘What’s on the table?’ b. (탁자 (Thakca table

위에)

wi-ey)

시계가/*는

sikyey-ka/*nun

있어 iss-e.

top-on watch-Nom/*Top be-IE

‘(There)’s a watch on the table.’ (44) Conversation between persons A and B for Figure 5.3 (Japanese) a. テーブルの 上に

何が/*は

ある?

Tēburu-no

ue-ni

table-Gen

top-on what-Nom/Top is

‘What’s on the table?’ b. (テーブルの (Tēburu-no table-Gen

上に)

ue-ni)

nani-ga/*wa 時計が/*は

tokei-ga/*wa

aru?

ある。 aru.

top-on watch-Nom/*Top is

‘(There)’s a watch on the table.’ If A and B are given an information gap game sheet as in Figure 5.4, in which it is mentioned on A’s sheet what is in this room and he or she only does not know where those things are, a very different strategy is taken in the two languages. (a)

Figure 5.4  Information gap game sheet 2

(b)

100  topic and focus The conversation between A and B will be like that in (45) and (46) below. In ­Korean, A can use either a nominative marker or topic marker to refer to the watch in the circle and ask where it is, and B can answer the question by using either particle, a nominative or topic maker, as shown in (45). In contrast, it is not grammatical in Japanese to ask or answer with a nominative marker when referring to each of the referents in the circle or in the room; a topic marker has to be used, as in (46). Because what is in the room is known and identifiable from the context by both the questioner and answerer, the ‘definite’ particle is required in both cases in Japanese. If Jun’s (2009) analysis of (39) is on the right track, wh-questions cannot be interpreted as all focus in Japanese, whereas it is possible in Korean. (45) Conversation between Persons A and B for Figure 5.4 (Korean) a. 꽃이/은

Kkoch-i/un flower-Nom/Top

어디에 eti-ey

있어? iss-e?

where-at be-IE

‘Where is the flower?’

b. 꽃이/은

Kkoch-i/un flower-Nom/Top

창문

아래에 있어

window

below

changmwun alay-ey iss-e.

be-IE

‘The flower is under the window.’ (46) Conversation between Persons A and B for Figure 5.4 (Japanese) a. 花*が/は

Hana-*ga/wa flower-*Nom/Top

どこに

doko-ni

あるの? aru-no?

where-at is-Q

‘Where is the flower?’ b. (花*が/は) (Hana-*ga/wa) flower-*Nom/Top

窓の

mado-no

下に

sita-ni

ある。 aru.

window-Gen below-at is

‘The flower/it is below the window.’ A question arises here as to why the two languages behave differently. It is not very clear what is responsible for the difference as shown above in the use of topic and nominative markers in Korean and Japanese. One reason may be attributed to differences in the way the two languages treat the elements that can constitute referentially old information. Lee and Shimojo (2016) pointed out a difference in the types of ‘definiteness’ in Korean and Japanese based on their studies of the use of topic and nominative markers in Korean and Japanese Bible translations and



5.3 Focus  101

the narratives produced by native speakers of the two languages about a series of pictures. They concluded as in (47). (47) Lee and Shimojo (2016: 100) ‘Overall, our picture-elicited data reveal a similar pattern to the one we observed in our Bible translation data. In Korean, topic marking requires an explicit antecedent in the previous discourse, and frequent switching occurs from topic to nominative for the re-introduction of a previously given entity when a new episode is described. In other words, the use of nun is discourse-conditioned such that the nun-marked topic is relative to oldness within both anaphoric discourse and an episode. In Japanese, on the other hand, the inherent property of wa as a marker of “absolute” oldness, in the sense of being known to the hearer/reader, allows the speakers less leeway for individual variations (via ‘re-introduction of a previously given entity’), as we observe in our picture-elicited narratives.’ Tables 5.1 and 5.2 show the markings of the relevant matrix NPs in the Korean and Japanese translations of Chapters 1‒3 of the Gospel according to Mark. Hearer-old in Table 5.1 stands for the property of an entity as defined as ‘an entity which (the speaker believes) is already known to the hearer, including familiar and identifiable entities, corresponding to “hearer-old” in Prince (1981, 1992)’ (Lee and Shimojo 2016: 82–83), and episode-new in Table 5.1 as something that is newly (re)introduced in an episode, which is a smaller part of a discourse. It is clear from Tables 5.1 and 5.2 that hearer-old, episode-new NPs are marked with a nominative marker in Korean, whereas hearer-old, discourse-new NPs are marked with a topic marker in Japanese, supporting their argument in (47). Table 5.1 Korean ka and nun in terms of hearer- and episode-new/oldness (Lee and Shimojo’s Table 7, 2016: 101) Hearer-new, episode-new Hearer-old, episode-new Hearer-old, episode-old

KA

NUN

Total

14 (0.88) 28 (0.93) 2 (0.04)

2 (0.13) 2 (0.07) 45 (0.96)

16 (1.00) 30 (1.00) 47 (1.00)

Table 5.2  Japanese ga and wa in terms of hearer- and discourse-new/oldness (Lee and Shimojo’s Table 8, 2016: 101) Hearer-new, discourse-new Hearer-old, discourse-new Hearer-old, discourse-old

GA

WA

Total

15 (0.94) 0 4 (0.06)

1 (0.06) 12 (1.00) 61 (0.94)

16 (1.00) 12 (1.00) 65 (1.00)

102  topic and focus The use of a nominative marker rather than a topic marker seen in the Korean examples (42) and (45) may be incurred by the hearer-old/episode-new status of the subjects in those examples or due to some kind of ‘change in discourse structure’ whereby a hearer-old entity was reintroduced as an episode-new entity (Lee and Shimojo 2016: 102). Presenting an answer as all focus, as alluded to by Jun (2009, 2015), may be a result of such discourse restructuring. As such restructuring of a discourse, i.e., presenting discourse-old entities as episode-new, is not allowed and hearer-old information needs to be taken as old information in Japanese, the corresponding NPs were marked with a topic marker. Lee and Shimojo (2016: 103) explain the use of a topic marker in (42a) and the lack thereof in (42b) as follows: ‘“Restroom” in the question is naturally a hearer-old entity since the existence of a restroom is normally assumed in the context where the question is asked. In Korean, “restroom” in the question would not be topic-marked since the restroom has not been mentioned in the preceding discourse.’ Similarly, Chelswu in (41) can be introduced as a hearer-old/episode-old entity by both or either of the interlocutors with the use of a topic marker, and when it is (re)introduced as a hearer-old/episode-new entity, he can be referred to with a nominative marker. The flower in (43), which is hearer-old/episode-new, can be marked with a nominative marker (as it is episode-new) or with -un/nun as a contrast marker (which will be explicated shortly). On the other hand, in the corresponding situations in Japanese, the questioners used topic-marked subjects because hearer-old information needs to be marked with a topic marker, and the answerers did so as well because no discourse restructuring is possible in Japanese.

5.4 Contrast The particle used for a topic in Korean and Japanese, i.e., -nun/un or -wa, has another discourse function, i.e., contrast. Like topic, it is not a sentence-internal function, and thus it does not have any ‘selectional’ relation with the predicate and in principle does not participate in grammatical processes, although it is also possible for an argument or adjunct to be contrasted (or topicalized). A contrasted element crucially differs from topic in definiteness or relational givenness shown above. An element with the contrastive marker can be either relationally old information or relationally new information. If an NP with relationally old information is realized as topic, it is difficult to tell whether it is used only as topic or as both topic and contrast unless the context gives enough information to disambiguate these possibilities. Naphum in (48), which was introduced in the first sentence, appears with a topic marker in the second sentence, as it is relationally old. It does not seem to be contrasted with any other person or group of people. The function of -un in this case is to mark a topic, which refers to someone who has been introduced in the discourse.



5.4 Contrast  103

(48) 옛날 Yesnal

정직하고

옛적에

슬기로운 나픔이라는

남자가

yeyscekey cengcikha-ko sulkilowun Naphum-ilanun namca-ka

long-ago old-days honest-and

prudent

있었다

나픔은

was-Pln

Naphum-Top Kamcho

iss-ess-ta.

Naphum-un

감 조 라고

Naphum-called man-Nom

불리고

있었다

iss-ess-ta. (K)

Kamco (. . .)-lako pwulliko

being-called was-Pln

‘Once upon a time there was an honest and prudent man, whose name was Naphum. Naphum was called Kamcho (. . .) by other people.’9 An old man and old woman introduced at the beginning of a story in (49) were mentioned for the second time in the second sentence. The old man went to the hills to cut grass and the old woman went to the river to wash clothes. Both NPs referring to the two characters appear with a topic marker in the second sentence because they are relationally old, referring to the characters just introduced, but simultaneously the same particle was used to contrast them: One went to the hills and the other to the river. The particle -wa is used in this case as a topic and contrast marker. (49) 昔

昔

ある

Mukasi

mukasi

long-

long-ago certain place

住んで

aru

ところに おじいさんと おばあさんが tokoro-ni ozīsan-to

old-man-and

obāsan-ga

old-woman-Nom

sunde

いました。 おじいさんは 山へ

imasita.

しばかりに

living

be-Pol/Pst old-man-Top

grass-cutting-for

おばあさんは

Ozīsan-wa

川へ

洗濯に

yama-e sibakari-ni, hill-to

行きました。

ikimasita.10 (J)

obāsan-wa

kawa-e sentaku-ni

old-woman-Top

river-to washing-for go-Pol/Pst

‘Once upon a time there lived an old man and old woman. The old man went to the hills to cut grass, and the old woman went to the river to wash clothes.’ The contrast particles in Korean and Japanese can be clearly distinguished from their topic function when they attach to an NP with relationally new information. The particles -un and -wa used in (50b1,2) are attached to the NPs that answer the wh-word posed in the previous turn of speech ((50a1) or (50a2)) and thus these NPs provide relationally new information. They are used to contrast Mary with other people.     9 

kaistcorpus_written_raw_tr_literature_juvenileAndfable_mh2-1312.txt(78)

104  topic and focus (50) a1. 어제

밤에

Ecey

a2. 昨日の

누구가 왔어?

pam-ey nwu-ka wass-e? (K)11

Kinō-no yesterday

夜

yoru

だれが

kita-no? (J)

dare-ga

night who-Nom came

‘Who came last night?’

b1. 메리는

来たの?

왔는데

다른 사람은

안왔어

Mary-nun wass-nuntey, talun salam-un an wass-e. (K)

b2. メリーは

Mary-wa

来たけど、 他の

kita-kedo,

人は

来なかった。

hoka-no hito-wa

Mary-Con

came-but

other

people-Con didn’t-come

konakatta. (J)

‘Mary came, but no other people came.’ A topic marker in these languages cannot attach to a wh-question word or phrase. This is also because it is relationally new in the sense that it is asking for relationally new information (Gundel and Fretheim 2004). A topic marker cannot be used with either of the wh-question words nwukwu and dare ‘who’, but a nominative marker can, as shown in (51). (51) A topic marker cannot attach to a wh-question a. 어제 Ecey

b. 昨日

누구가/*는

왔니?

nwukwu-ka/*nun wass-ni? (K) だれが/*は

来た?

kita? (J)

Kinō

dare-ga/*wa

yesterday

who-Nom/Top came

‘Who came yesterday?’ The contrast particles -nun/un and -wa, however, can be used after a wh-question word or phrase if it is clear from the context that they are used to indicate contrast. The contrast marker -nun can be placed after a question word nwukwu ‘who’ in (52) because it is relatively clear that the negative state referred to can be contrasted with a positive state (Kuno 1973). The Japanese contrast marker -wa in (53) can be attached to a wh-question phrase donna hito ‘what kind of people’ as this group of people can be contrasted with the preceding two groups of people referred to by the same question phrase.     10 

http://hukumusume.com/douwa/betu/jap/08/01.htm, accessed June 2, 2020. A similar example is given in (Jun 2015: 187–188), and the difference between topical contrast (TC) and focal contrast (FC) is explained in detail in Jun (2015: 190–193).     11 



5.4 Contrast  105

(52) Contrastive marker -nun/un attached to a wh-question (Korean) 누구는

Nwukwu-nun

그렇지 않느냐는

항변이지요.

kulehci-anh-nunya-nun hangpyen-i-ci-yo.

who-Con

is-not-so-Q-Top

protest-Cop-Sup-Pol

‘“Who isn’t?” is the words of a protest, isn’t it?’12 (53) Contrastive marker -wa attached to a wh-question (Japanese) 通信教育が

...

どんな

tūsin-kyōiku-ga ...

人に

donna

hito-ni

必要で

hituyō-de

correspondence-­education-Nom what-kind people-for necessary-and

どんな

人に

必要ないか、 どんな

donna

hito-ni

what-kind

people-for unnecessary-Q what-kind people-Top

要注意かを yō-tyūi-ka-o

need-be-­careful-Q-Acc

hituyō-nai-ka, 丁寧に teineini

donna

人は

解説して

hito-wa

いきます。

kaisetu-site ikimasu.

in-detail explaining

go-Pol/NPst

‘We will explain in detail what kind of people need correspondence education, what kind of people don’t need it, and what kind of people need to be cautious about it.’13 Unlike topic markers, contrast markers do not have to appear sentence-initially, the topic property in (3f )—repeated below. The requirement that a topic appear sentence-initially is not just a restriction on linear order but is also a restriction on structural position. A topic must appear in one of the most clause-peripheral positions, where other elements like mood morphemes can appear, because it is a ‘root phenomenon’ (Heycock 2008: 56). If it is clear that an element with -nun/ un or -wa appears in a non-clause-peripheral position, e.g., an object position, it is most likely that this marker is used as a contrastive marker. (3f )

 topic appears in sentence-initial position, but a subject does not have to A appear in sentence-initial position, e.g., VSO languages.

Given two occurrences of -nun or -wa, as in (54), the first is interpreted as a topic marker and the second as a contrast marker, because -nun or -wa attached to an object does not appear in the sentence-initial position. Even an object, however, can be construed as a topic if it is fronted to the beginning of a sentences as in (55).14 Maykcwu-nun and biiru-wa ‘beer-Top’ preposed over the subject in (55) can be interpreted as a topic with or without a contrastive meaning.     12  http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0000005316, accessed June 3, 2020.     13  https://sato-ayumi.com/2020/03/18/elementary-tsushin-iranai/, accessed June 3, 2020.     14  Choi (1997) argues that topicalization is a process of moving an element to the front of a sentence distinctive of nun-marking.

106  topic and focus (54) Contrastive -nun and -wa a. 나는

맥주는

마셔

b. おれは

ビールは

飲むよ。

I-Top

beer-Con

drink

Na-nun maykcwu-nun masi-e. (K)

Ore-wa

nomu-yo. (J)

bīru-wa

‘I drink beer, at least.’ (55) Topic -nun and -wa on an object a. 맥주는

내가

마셔

Maykcwu-nun

nay-ka

masy-e. (K)

Bīru-wa

ore-ga

drink-yo. (J)

beer-Top/Con

I-Nom

drink

b. ビールは

おれが 飲むよ。

‘A s for the beer, I’ll drink it.’

5.5 Conclusion We have explained the use of the topic and nominative markers in Korean and Japanese with reference to Li and Thomson’s (1976) list of topic and subject properties. Those markers are largely used in consonance with those properties. The topic markers behave as expected from the properties of topic, and the nominative markers behave as expected from the properties of subject, except for certain special cases. We have also elucidated how the use of nominative and topic markers is related to focus. Nominative marked subjects with an individual-level predicate must be interpreted as narrow focus, for example, as an answer to a wh-question in the two languages. Nominative marked subjects of stage-level predicates can appear as a part of all focus, which has the whole part of a sentence as its focal scope, in both languages. These two languages differ, particularly in the use of topic and nominative markers with stage-level predicates. This is because something that can be identifiable from the context or mentioned already in the discourse can be treated as ‘episode-new’ and be realized as nominative marked subjects in Korean. Japanese does not have this option but must mark the same entity (a ‘hearer-old, discourse-new’ entity) with a topic marker. Finally, we have examined the use of a contrast marker. -Nun/un and -wa, topic markers, have a function other than topic, i.e., contrast. The contrast markers can attach to relationally new entities as well as relationally old ones, unlike topic markers.

6

Word order and scrambling 6.1 Introduction This chapter focuses on the sentence structure, starting with the basic properties of verbal and adjectival predicates, and copular predicates in Korean and Japanese. In addition to these basic predicates, we also show some auxiliary verbal elements that can cooccur with them and different forms of sentence endings to encode specific moods in the two languages. Section 6.2 discusses word order and scrambling phenomena. The dominant word order of Korean and Japanese transitive sentences is SOV, but in fact the word order of these languages is very flexible except for the predicate or V, which always appears at the end. This subsection illustrates a syntactic process called scrambling, which brings about their flexible word order. Section 6.3 summarizes the chapter.

6.1.1 Korean In traditional Western grammar, every sentence can be partitioned into a subject and a predicate. Clausal predicates in Korean are headed by inflecting stems: verbs, adjectives, or the copula accompanying a nominal predicate. This is a major difference between Korean and English: in Korean, both verbs and adjectives are inflecting stems, and thus function as stand-alone predicates without the copula.

6.1.1.1  Verbal predicates As in other languages, verbal predicates in Korean can be classified by the number of arguments they require. One-place predicates can be further divided into agent (1a) and theme (1b) subject predicates. (1)

One-place verbs a. One-place (intransitive) verbs with agent subjects 앉다 anc-ta

뛰다 ttwi-ta

‘to sit’

(잠)자다 (cam)ca-ta ‘to sleep’

‘to run’ 웃다 wus-ta

‘to laugh’

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0006

108  word order and scrambling b. One-place (intransitive) verbs with theme subjects 오다 o-ta

‘to come’ 남다 nam-ta ‘to remain’

나다 na-ta

‘to come out’

죽다 cwuk-ta ‘to die’

없다 eps-ta

‘to not exist’

The sentences in (2) exemplify intransitives of both types: (2) One-place predicates a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

책상위에

앉는다

desk-above-Loc

sit-Pres-Pln

chayksang-wuy-ey anc-nun-ta.

‘Mary sits on the desk.’

b. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

학교에

hakkyo-ey

온다

o-n-ta.

school-dir go-Pres-Pln

‘Mary comes to school.’ The predicates o-, ssawu-, anc- require only one argument, which is realized as the subject, Chelswu, in these sentences. Adjuncts such as postpositional phrases may be selected but are not required by these verbs. However, theme subject verbs like o- ‘come’ in (2a) show properties often associated with unaccusative verbs across languages. (See Chapter 12 for the difference between the two types of verbs in (1) in regard to their imperfective and perfective forms and meanings.) Transitive, or two-place, predicates require both a subject and an object. Underived transitives are shown as in (3a). Lexical causatives, discussed in 7.3.1, provide a rich source of transitive verbs derived from intransitives (3b). (3)

Two-place predicates (transitive verbs) a. Underived transitives 먹다 mek-ta

‘to eat’

비교하다 pikyo-hata

‘to put down’

깍다 kkak-ta

제공하다 ceykong-hata

‘to discount’ ‘to put in’

b. Derived transitives (Causatives) 앉히다 anc-hi-ta

재우다 caywu-ta

‘to make someone sit down’ ‘to put someone to bed’



6.1 Introduction  109 남기다 nam-ki-ta

‘to leave something behind’

죽이다 cwuk-i-ta

‘to kill’

웃기다 wus-ki-ta

‘to make someone laugh’

(4) gives examples of an underived transitive and a derived transitive. (4)

Two-place predicates (transitive verbs) a. Underived transitive 메리가

Mary-ka

가격을

깎았다

kakyeyk-ul kkakk-ass-ta.

Mary-Nom price-Acc

discount-Pst-Pln

‘Mary discounted the price.’ b. Derived transitive (causative) 메리가

영희를

Mary-Nom

Yenghuy-Acc table-Loc

Mary-ka

Yenghuy-lul

테이블에

앉히었다

theyipul-ey anc-hi-ess-ta. sit.down-caus-Pst-Pln

‘Mary made Yenghuy sit down on the table.’ Ditransitives require three arguments: a subject, a direct object, and an indirect object. These are called ‘ditransitive’ verbs, as shown in (5). (5)

Three-place predicates (ditransitive verbs) a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

영희에게

책을

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc give-Pres-Pln

Yenghuy-eykey chayk-ul

‘Mary gives a book to Yenghuy.’

b. 메리가

준다

선생님께

cwu-n-ta. 책을

Mary-ka

sensayng-nim-kkey

Mary-Nom

teacher-Hon-Dat (Hon) book-Acc give (Hon)-Pres-Pln

‘Mary gives a book to a teacher.’

c. 메리가

chayk-ul

드린다

tuli-n-ta.

Mary-ka

chinkwu-eykey phyenci-lul ponay-n-ta.

친구에게

편지를

보낸다

Mary-Nom

friend-Dat

letter-Acc

send-Pres-Pln

‘Mary sends a letter to a friend.’ A minority of Korean verbs have the same form for the transitive and intransitive, as in (6). Linguistic typologists call these ‘labile’ verbs.

110  word order and scrambling (6) Labile (neutral) verbs a. 메리가

차를

Mary-ka

움직인다

cha-lul

Mary-Nom

wumciki-n-ta.

car-Acc move-Pres-Pln

‘Mary moves the car.’

b. 차가

Cha-ka Car-Nom

잘

움직인다

cal

wumciki-n-ta.

well move-Pres-Pln

‘The car moves well.’

c. 태민이

차를

Thayemin-i

cha-lul

Taemin-Nom

Cha-ka Car-Nom

memchwu-n-ta.

car-Acc stop-Pres-Pln

‘Taemin stops the car’

d. 차가

멈춘다

쉽게

멈춘다

easily

stop-Pres-Pln

swipkay memchwu-n-ta.

‘A car stops easily.’ The same verbs wumciki- ‘move’, memchwu- ‘stop’ are used in both transitive and intransitive sentences. Historically, both seem to be cases where the transitive (causative) form of the verb became neutral. Earlier Korean has wumcuk- ‘move’ (intransitive) and wumcuki- ‘move it’ (transitive), as well as mec- ‘stop’ (intransitive) and mechwu- ‘stop it’ (transitive). The original intransitive verbs have been lost and the transitive (causative) verbs extended to both uses.

6.1.1.2  Adjectival predicates The second major predicate type is adjectives. Adjectives also have adnominals and adverbial derived forms, but here we focus on their predicative use. (7)

Functions of adjectives a. Predicate 메리가

많이

기쁘다

Mary-Nom

a lot

happy-Pln

Mary-ka

manhi kippu-ta

‘Mary is very happy.’



6.1 Introduction  111 b. Adnominal 많이

기쁜

a lot

happy-Adn John

manhi

존

kippu-n

John

‘John who is very happy.’ c. Adverbial 메리가

많이

기쁘게

Mary-Nom

a lot

happy-adv study-Pres-Pln

Mary-ka

manhi kippu-key

공부한다

kongpwuha-n-ta.

‘Mary studies very happily.’ Adjectives can be divided into experiencer and theme subject types. Experiencer adjectives can be divided into several subtypes, as in (8). (8) Experiencer adjectives a. Sensory

달다 tal-ta

차다 cha-ta

to be sweet to be cold (to the touch)

b. Psychological 좋다 coh-ta

to like

무섭다 mwusep-ta

to fear

싫다 silh-ta

to dislike

Coh- ‘to be good, to like’ and silh- ‘to be hateful, to dislike’ in (8b) are labile, i.e., optionally transitive adjectives, subject to the constraint that the experiencer subject must be a discourse participant. In this transitive pattern both the experiencer subject and the theme object are marked nominative. Korean adjectives behave differently from verbs, as summarized in (9). Adjectives when used predicatively do not inflect for the nonpast tense, as can be seen from a contrast between the verbal predicates with the nonpast tense marker -n- or -nun- in (5)‒(6), on the one hand, and the adjectival predicate in (7a), on the other. They do not appear in the progressive form -ko iss-, either, whereas verbs can. (9)

Verbs and adjectives contrasted    Present

Verb

Adjective

Y(es)

N(o)

   Progressive

Y

N

   Adnominal (Past)

Y

N

112  word order and scrambling    Propositive S

Y

N

   Imperative S

Y

N

   Adverbials

Y (N-degree) Y (degree)

   NP-eyse

Y

N

Another difference between verbs and adjectives is that verbs allow both propositives and imperatives, but adjectives tend to disallow both, although acceptability improves if the adjective can be construed as controllable. (10) Propositives a. Verb

오늘은

피자를

Today-Top

pizza-Acc eat-Prop

Onul-un

phica-lul

먹자

mek-ca.

‘Let’s eat pizza today.’ b. Adjective ?오늘은 ?Onul-un Today-Top

행복하자

hayngpokha-ca. happy-Prop

‘Let’s be happy today.’ (11) Imperatives a. Verb

오늘은

피자를

먹어라

Today-Top

pizza-Acc

eat-Imp

Onul-un

phica-lul

mek-ela.

‘Please eat pizza today.’ b. Adjective ?오늘은 ?Onul-un Today-Top

행복해라

hayngpok-hayla. happy-Imp

‘Please be happy today.’ Verbs disallow degree adverbials such as maywu ‘very’ (12). The dynamic locative marker -eyse is allowed only with verbs, not adjectives (13).



6.1 Introduction  113

(12) Degree adverbs a. Verb

메리가

피자를

Mary-Nom

pizza-Acc well/very

Mary-ka

phica-lul

잘/*매우

먹는다

cal/*maywu mek-nun-ta. eat-Pres-Pln

‘Mary eats pizza well.’ b. Adjective 메리가

매우/*잘

행복하다

Mary-Nom

very/*well

happy-Pln

Mary-ka

maywu/*cal hayngpokha-ta.

‘Mary is very happy.’ (13) NP-eyse a. Verb

메리가

집에서

Mary-Nom

home-Loc pizza-Acc eat-Pres-Pln

Mary-ka

cip-eyse

피자를

phica-lul

먹는다

mek-nun-ta.

‘Mary eats pizza at home.’ *메리가

집에서

Mary-Nom

home-Loc happy-Pln

b. Adjective *Mary-ka

cip-eyse

행복하다

hayngpokha-ta.

‘Mary is happy at home.’

6.1.1.3  Nominal predicates with the copula -(I-)ta ‘to be’ allows NPs to serve as predicates in tensed clauses. The allomorphy of -(i-)ta is dependent on the shape of the word it enclitizes to: if it ends with a consonant, the predicate is -i-ta and if it ends with a vowel, it is -ta. -(I-)ta shows typical copula properties; in terms of category, it inflects like an adjective. Tensed nominal predicate clauses require -(i)-ta (14a, b), while tenseless nominal predicate clauses replace it with the instrumental particle -(u)lo (14c): (14) Allomorphy of copula -(i-)ta a. 이것이 I kes-i

This-Nom

책이다

chayk-i-ta.

book-be-Pln

‘This is a book.’

114  word order and scrambling b. 저것이

학교다

Ce kes-i

hakkyo-ta.

That-Nom

school-Pln

‘That is a school.’

c. 나는

Na-nun I-Top

이것을

책으로

i kes-ul

생각한다

chayk-ulo sayngkakha-n-ta.

this-Acc book-Ins

think-Pres-Pln

‘I think this to be a book.’ The copula i- shows the morphological properties of an adjective, specifically in that it disallows the adnominal present (15b): (15) a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

학생이다

haksayng-i-ta. student-be-Pln

‘Mary is a student.’

b. 학생인/*이는

haksayng-i-n/*i-nun student-be-Adn/*be-PresN

메리

Mary Mary

‘Mary, who is a student.’ Like copulas in other languages, -(i)-ta allows the predicate inversion pattern in (16b), although only when the set denoted by the predicate is plausibly included in the subject. (16) a. 나는

Na-nun I-Nom ‘I am a student.’

b. 학생이

Haksayng-i Student-Nom

학생이다

haksayng-i-ta. student-be-Pln 나다

na-ta. I-Pln

‘(The) student is me.’

c. 기린이 Kilin-i

Giraffe-Nom

동물이다

tongmwul-i-ta. animal-be-Pln

‘A giraffe is an animal.’



6.1 Introduction  115 기린이다

d. #동물이 #Tongmwul-i

kilin-i-ta.

Animal-Nom

giraffe-be-Pln

‘An animal is a giraffe.’ -(I-)ta also appears in noun predicate idioms: (17) Noun predicate idioms a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

기린이다 kilin-i-ta.

giraffe-be-Pln

‘Mary is a giraffe (figuratively tall).’

b. 침묵은

Chimpwuk-un Silence-Top

금이다

kum-i-ta. gold-be-Pln

‘Silence is golden.’ The range of possible NP predicates in Korean is quite broad, as shown by the examples in (18), some of which lack English counterparts. The interpretation of the (a), (c), and (e) sentences is something like the (b), (d), and (f ) sentences respectively. (18) Broadly interpreted NP predications a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

거짓말이다

kecismal-i-ta. lie-be-Pln

‘Mary is a liar.’ (lit. ‘Mary is a lie’)

b. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

거짓말을

한다

lying-Acc

do-Pres-Pln

kecismal-ul ha-n-ta.

‘Mary tells a lie.’

c. 메리는

Mary-nun Mary-Top

영문과다

yengmwunkwa-ta. English Department-Pln

‘Mary is an English major.’ (lit. ‘Mary is the English Department.’ )

116  word order and scrambling d. 메리는

Mary-nun Mary-Top

영문과에

yengmwunkwa-ey

다닌다

tani-n-ta.

English Department-dir go-Pres-Pln

‘Mary goes (to university in) the English Department.’

e. 미국이

Mikwuk-i America-Nom

서쪽이다

seccok-i-ta. west-be-Pln

‘America is in the west.’ (Lit. ‘America is the west.’ )

f. 미국이

Mikwuk-i America-Nom

서쪽에

있다

seccok-ey iss-ta. west-Loc be-Pln

‘America is in the west.’

6.1.1.4  Light verbs, control complements, and auxiliaries As we have seen, lexical predicates include verbs, adjectives, and NP predicates combined with the copula. Korean also has a rich variety of verbs and adjectives which combine with other inflecting words. Typically, the first in a sequence of verbs bears the lexical meaning and selects arguments, while the last verb in the sequence is marked for tense, aspect, and mood. We distinguish three types of inflecting stems in the latter slot: auxiliaries, complementation verbs, and light verbs. (19) is an example of a light verb, peli- ‘throw away, discard’. (19) Light verb pelia. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

학교에

hakkyo-ey

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

ka-ss-ta.

school-dir go-Pst-Pln

‘Mary went to school.’

b. 메리가

갔다

학교에

hakkyo-ey

가 버렸다

ka peli-ess-ta.

school-dir go discard-Pst-Pln

‘Mary went and went to school.’ The term ‘light verb’ originates with Jespersen (1965) and was originally used to designate verbs like take in John took a nap. In this kind of pattern there is no literal ‘taking’; instead take fulfills a largely grammatical function. Similarly, in (19b)



6.1 Introduction  117

there is no actual ‘disposal’, instead the light verb peli- contributes the sense that Mary completed the action, perhaps rashly or in a fashion that can’t be undone. Verbs such as ‘throw (away), discard’ function as light verbs in many languages of South and Southeast Asia, as in the following example from Hindi. ciṭhi-ṭa

(20) Ruma Ruma.Nom

likh-e

phello.

letter-Classifier write-perfpart throw.3.Pst

‘Ruma wrote the letter completely.’ (Butt and Ramchand 2005: 145) We define auxiliaries as nonlexical verbs whose semantic function is to indicate tense, aspect, mood, or negation. Light verbs add information more directly related to the lexical verb meaning, such as telicity in the case of Korean peli- in (19) or Hindi phello ‘throw’ in (20). Complementation verbs typically add an argument, such as the subject argument added by ‘want’ or the beneficiary argument added by ‘do for the benefit of ’. Many of these verbs are traditionally treated as control predicates (e.g. ‘want’) or raising predicates (e.g. ‘become’). Nonlexical verb structures consist of a main verb (V1), an inflectional suffix -X, and the nonlexical verb (V2), as schematized in (21), where the shape of -X is selected by V2 and morphophonologically conditioned by V1. (21) V1 (lexical)

-X

V2 (nonlexical)

Infinitive -a/-e/hay Gerund -ko Suspective -ci Infinitive -a/-e/hay is the most common inflectional suffix selected by all three types of V2, as shown in (22). (22) Shapes of V1 selected by V2 a. Inflectional suffix -X on V1 is infinitive -a/-e/hay V2 is a light verb pelita

‘discard’ nohta ‘put’

twuta ‘put’ ota

‘come’

kata

‘go’

nata

‘go out’

V2 is a control/raising predicate cwuta ‘give’ pota

tulita

‘see, try’ cita

‘give (deferential)’ ‘become’

118  word order and scrambling b. Inflectional suffix -X on V1 is gerundive -ko V2 is a light verb nata

‘go out’ kacita ‘bring’

V2 is a control/raising predicate malta ‘end up’ The allomorphs of the infinitive are the one remnant of vowel harmony in Korean, together with the historically related past tense. The infinitive is -a for V1 stems ending in /a/ or /o/; otherwise it is -e. Ha- ‘do’ exceptionally has the infinitive hay. The three allomorphs of the infinitive are shown in (23). (23) X is the infinitive a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

학교에

hakkyo-ey

가

ka-(a)

po-ass-ta.

school-dir go-Inf

‘Mary tried going to school.’

b. 메리가

보았다

피자를

먹어

보았다

Mary-ka

phica-lul

Mary-Nom

pizza-Acc eat-Inf see-Pst-Pln

‘Mary tried eating pizza.’

c. 수가

언어학을

mek-e

see-Pst-Pln

po-ass-ta.

공부해

보았다

Sue-ka

enehak-ul

kongpwu-hay po-ass-ta.

Sue-Nom

linguistics-Acc study-do.Inf

see-Pst-Pln

‘Sue tried studying linguistics.’ As we see in (22a), complementation predicates, light verbs, and the perfective auxiliary iss- ‘be’ all select the infinitive. The justification for distinguishing control predicates from light verbs is that the former add an additional participant to the sentence. For example, in (24), John is not only the goer, but also the trier. This is usually expressed by representing the relation between the subject of ‘try’ and the subject of ‘go’ as a relationship of control: the subject of ‘try’ is coindexed with the silent category PRO as the subject of ‘go’: (24) 존이

Johni-i

학교에

[PROi hakkyo-ey

John-Nom

가

ka-(a)] po-ass-ta.

school-dir go-Inf

‘John tried going to school.’

보았다

see-Pst-Pln



6.1 Introduction  119

The use of the pattern ‘see V’ as a control structure meaning ‘try to V’ is common in the world’s languages. The same pattern is found in Burmese: (25) ‘See V’ as the control structure ‘try to V’ Kyaung-ko

thwa kyi. teh. (Burmese)

school-dir

go

look-Dec

‘(I) tried going to school.’ In contrast, the light verb pattern V1-e/-a peli- in (19) does not add an extra participant to the basic meaning of V1. Instead, it contributes a telic, or completive interpretation of the clause. We can also find semantic and structural differences between V1-infinitive light verb and V1-infinitive control predicate patterns. For example, in the -e/-a po- ‘try to’ V1 pattern, it is possible for negation to scope only over V1, as in (26): (26) 나는

Na-nun I-Top

오늘은

매일

아침에

mayil

achim-ey

커피를

마시는데

khephi-lul masi-nuntey,

everyday morning-in coffee-Acc drink-but

onul-un today-Top

안 마셔

an-masy-e

보았다

po-ass-ta.

Neg-drink-Inf see-Pst-Pln

‘I drink coffee every morning, but today I tried not drinking it.’ In contrast, negation must scope over both V1 and the light verb in the V1-e/-a peli- construction. This suggests that the constituent containing V1 in the control construction has the status of a clause, which may be negated independently from V2. Among the complementation predicates selecting the infinitive is the raising predicate, ci- ‘become’. Ci- derives passives with a transitive verbal V1, and inchoatives with an adjectival or intransitive unaccusative V1, as shown in (27): (27) a. 존의

얼굴이

그려졌다

John-uy

elkwul-i

John-Gen

face-Nom draw-Inf-become-Pst-Pln

‘John’s face was drawn.’

b. 메리의

Mary-uy Mary-Gen

눈이

nwun-i

kuli-e-ci-ess-ta. 커졌다

kh-e-ci-ess-ta.

eye-Nom big-Inf-become-Pst-Pln

‘Mary’s eyes got big.’

120  word order and scrambling c. 탐의

Tom-uy Tom-Gen

돈이

없어졌다

ton-i

eps-e-ci-ess-ta.

money-Nom not.exist-Inf-become-Pst-Pln

‘Tom’s money disappeared.’ With raising predicates, an argument that originates in a lower position raises to subject position. This is exactly what happens in passives. It is thus no accident that many languages use the lexical verb ‘become’ to function as a raising predicate in passive constructions. Examples include, in addition to Korean ci- and toy-, ‘become’, German werden and Dutch worden ‘to become’. The final complementation V2 pattern selecting infinitive V1 involves the benefactive verbs cwu- ‘give’ and tuli- ‘give’ (deferential). These verbs add a benefactee argument: (28) 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

어머니의 emeni-uy

집에

가

cip-ey

주었다

ka-(a) cwu-ess-ta.

mother-Gen house-dir go-Inf give-Pst-Pln

‘Mary did someone the favor of going to her mother’s house.’ While the intransitive verb ka- ‘go’ in (28) has just the single core argument ‘John’, the benefactive verb cwu- adds a beneficiary argument. The gerundive suffix -ko may also be selected by a light verb, a complementation predicate, or an auxiliary. (29) gives examples with the progressive auxiliary (Vko) iss-, and the control predicate siph- ‘want’. (29) V1-ko (Gerundive) a. 메리가

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

학교에

hakkyo-ey

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

피자를

phica-lul

Mary-ka Mary-Nom

iss-ta.

먹고

싶다

mek-ko siph-ta.

pizza-Acc eat-Ger want-Pln

‘Mary wants to eat pizza.’

c. 메리가

ka-ko

있다

school-dir go-Ger be-Pln

‘Mary is going to school.’

b. 메리가

가고

행복하고

싶다

happy-Ger

want-Pln

hayngpokha-ko siph-ta.

‘Mary wants to be happy.’



6.1 Introduction  121

6.1.1.5  Basic clause structure Traditional analyses of clause structure recognize as the immediate constituents of S a subject noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP). In Korean, as we have seen, the predicate occupies the final position in the sentence. Typologists refer to this word order as S(ubject) O(bject) V(erb). We have already seen examples of the basic order of intransitive (30a), transitive (30b), and ditransitive sentences (30c). In the latter, the order of IO (Indirect Object) and DO (Direct Object) are interchangeable. (30) Basic word order a. Intransitive (SV ) 나는

행복하다

I-Top

happy-Pln

Na-nun

hayngpokha-ta.

‘I am happy.’ 존은

학교에서

논다

John-Top

school-Loc

play-Pres-Pln

John-un

hakkyo-eyse no-n-ta.

‘John plays at school.’ b. Transitive (SOV ) 메리는

강남에서

Mary-Top

Gangnam-Loc pizza-Acc eat-Pres-Pln

Mary-nun

피자를

Kangnam-eyse phica-lul

먹는다

mek-nun-ta.

‘Mary eats pizza at Gangnam.’ c. Di-transitive (S IO DO V ) 메리는

영희에게

책을

Mary-Nom

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc give-Pres-Pln

Mary-i

Yenghuy-eykey chayk-ul

준다

cwu-n-ta.

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’ In SOV languages like Korean, it is tricky to prove the existence of a constituent VP excluding the subject NP but including the verb and its arguments. One way to do this is through the process of VP fronting, shown in (31). (31) VP fronting 피자를

먹기는

Pizza-Acc

eat-Nmn-Top Yenghuy-Nom do-Pst-Pln

Phica-lul

mek-ki-nun

‘Eat pizza, Yenghuy did.’

영희가

Yenghuy-ka

했다

hay-ss-ta.

122  word order and scrambling As we have seen, in Korean tense, aspect and modality are usually realized on the rightmost verb, but if this is somehow blocked, TAM can be realized on the dummy verb ha- ‘do’. Now, the fronted constituent can be made up of the verb and its object, excluding the subject, as in (32), but it cannot be made up of the verb and the subject, excluding the object: (32) *영희가

먹기는

*Yenghuy-ka

mek-ki-nun

Yenghuy-Nom

피자를

phica-lul

했다

hay-ss-ta.

eat-Nmn-Top pizza-Acc do-Pst-Pln

Based on this evidence we conclude that Korean sentences contain a VP excluding the subject but containing the verb and its arguments. Korean morphologically distinguishes four major clause types: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and propositive (also called hortative). Kwon (2011: 86‒90) distinguishes these four sentence types in terms of two pragmatic variables: (i) [± speaker request to hearer], and (ii) [± action required]. From this standpoint, the [+ speaker request] sentence types are interrogatives, imperatives, or propositives, and the [‒speaker request] type is declarative. Interrogatives are [+ speaker request], [‒action required]. Imperatives are [+ speaker request], [+ action required]. Propositives are also [+ speaker request], [+ action required], but the target of [+ action required] is both the speaker and the hearer. This is schematized in (33). (33) The four clause types of Korean (Kwon 2011: 86‒90) Speaker’s request from a hearer Action to be followed ‒

‒

+

Declarative

Interrogative

+

Imperative (hearer) Propositive (hearer & speaker)

Below we reintroduce the four clause types in two speech styles Plain and Deferential in (34). (34) The combinations of clause type and speech style (Cho and Whitman 2020: 122) Declarative Interrogative Propositive Suspective Imperative Plain

ㄴ/는다 Tense-ta

Deferential ㅂ/습니다 -(su)pnita

니 Tense-ni

ㅂ/습니까 -(su)pnikka

자 -ca

ㅂ/읍시다 (-u)p-sita

지 -ci

시지요 -(u)siciyo

라/어라 -la-/ela

ㅂ/으시오 -p/usio



6.1 Introduction  123

As we have seen, Korean is a predicate-final and verb-final language, and it is also a suffixing language. Thus, the morphology expressing clause type and speech style is realized at the end of the clause. (35) Clause types (plain speech style) a. Declarative 메리는

도서관에서

책을

Mary-Top

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Pres-Pln

Mary-nun

tosekwan-eyse chayk-ul

읽는다

ilk-nun-ta.

‘Mary reads a book in the library.’ b. Interrogative 메리는

도서관에서

책을

Mary-Top

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Q

Mary-nun

tosekwan-eyse chayk-ul

읽니?

ilk-ni?

‘Does Mary read a book in the library?’ c. Propositive

도서관에서

책을

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Prop

Tosekwan-eyse

chayk-ul

읽자

ilk-ca.

‘Let’s read a book in the library.’ d. Suspective

도서관에서

책을

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Susp

Tosekwan-eyse

chayk-ul

읽지

ilk-ci.

‘Read a book in the library.’ e. Imperative

도서관에서

책을

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Imp

Tosekwan-eyse

chayk-ul

읽어라 ilk-ela.

‘Read a book in the library.’ (36) Clause types (deferential speech style) a. Declarative 메리는

도서관에서

책을

Mary-Top

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Def

Mary-nun

tosekwan-eyse chayk-ul

‘Mary reads a book in the library.’

읽습니다

ilk-supnita.

124  word order and scrambling b. Interrogative 메리는

도서관에서

책을

Mary-Top

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Def-Q

Mary-nun

tosekwan-eyse chayk-ul

읽습니까?

ilk-supni-kka?

‘Does Mary read a book in the library?’ c. Propositive

도서관에서

책을

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Def.Prop

Tosekwan-eyse

chayk-ul

읽읍시다

ilk-upsita.

‘Let’s read a book in the library.’ d. Suspective

도서관에서

책을

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Def.Susp

Tosekwan-eyse

chayk-ul

읽으십시요 ilke-sipciyo.

‘Read a book in the library.’ e. Imperative

도서관에서

책을

library-Loc

book-Acc read-Def.Imp

Tosekwan-eyse

chayk-ul

읽읍시오 ilk-upsio.

‘Read a book in the library.’ Interrogative clauses can be differentiated into yes‒no (polar) questions, wh- (content) questions, and tag questions. In yes‒no questions, the sentence ends with an interrogative suffix in the plain and deferential speech styles. In contrast to English wh-questions, where a phrase containing a wh-phrase must be displaced to the front of the sentence, Korean interrogative pronouns stay in their base position in the sentence. Korean is thus what is called a wh-in-situ language. The wh-pronoun mwues ‘what’ stays in the object position in (37b) and eti ‘where’ stays in the position for locative adjuncts in (37d). (37) Wh-questions in Korean a. 메리는

Mary-nun Mary-Top

피자를

phica-lul

원해

wen-hay.

pizza-Acc want-Pln

‘Mary wants pizza.’



6.1 Introduction  125 b. 메리는

Mary-nun Mary-Top

무엇을

원하니?

mwues-ul wenha-ni? what-Acc want-Q

‘What does Chelswu want?

c. 수는

Sue-nun Sue-Top

도서관에서

공부해

library-Loc

study-Pln

tosekwan-eyse kongpwuha-y.

‘Sue studies in the library.’

d. 탐은

Tom-un Tom-Top

어디에서

공부하니?

eti-eyse

kongpwuha-ni?

where-Loc study-Q

‘Where does Tom study?’ In modern standard Korean, the interrogative suffixes are the same for yes‒no and wh-questions. But in Middle Korean and in modern dialects such as North Kyŏngsang, the two types of question are morphologically distinguished. Wh-questions are marked with the interrogative suffix -ko (MK -(k)wo) or -no, while yes‒no questions are marked with -ka or -na. (38) Wh-questions in Kyŏngsang a. 니

Ni you.Nom

학교

가나?

school

go-qyn

hakkyo ka-na?

Did you go to school?

b. 니

어데

가노?

Ni

et-ey

you.Nom

where-dir go-qwh

ka-no?

‘Where did you go?

6.1.2 Japanese The major types of Japanese sentences are usually classified into three groups: sentences with (i) verbal predicates, (ii) adjectival predicates, and (iii) nominal predicates with a copula, just like Korean. Japanese adjectives, however, behave more like nouns than verbs compared to Korean adjectives and thus are similar to Altaic languages in this respect (Kazama 2014). This is one of the differences between the two languages.

126  word order and scrambling

6.1.2.1  Verbal predicates The Japanese verbal predicates classified in terms of the number of arguments, semantic roles, and transitivity are shown below. One-place verbal predicates divide into two with respect to the type of semantic role that the subject bears, i.e., an agent or theme. (39) One-place (intransitive) verbs with agent subjects. 走る hasir-u

働く hatarak-ku

‘to run’

泳ぐ oyog-u

‘to swim’

‘to work’ 笑う waraw-u ‘to laugh’

(40) One-place (intransitive) verbs with theme subjects 死ぬ sin-u

咲く sak-u

‘to die’

‘to bloom’

生まれる umare-ru ‘to be born’ 枯れる kare-ru ‘to wither’ The sentences in (41) exemplify intransitive verbs of both types. Hanako-wa ‘Hanako-Top’ in (41a) is a topicalized subject bearing an agent role. Kodomo-ga ‘child-Nom’ in (41b) is a theme subject. (41) One-place predicates (unaccusative and unergative) a. 花子は

Hanako-wa Hanako-Top

銀行で

働く。

bank-at

work-NPst

ginkō-de hatarak-u.

‘Hanako works at a bank.’

b. 子供が

Kodomo-ga child-Nom

生まれた。 umare-ta.

be.born-NPst

‘A child was born.’ Examples of transitive verbs cooccurring with two arguments are shown in (42). The majority of Japanese transitive verbs have an agentive subject, as in (42a). However, there are some transitive verbs with a nonagentive subject, as shown in (42b). (42) Two-place predicates (transitive verbs) a. 兵士が

農民を

殺した。

Heisi-ga

nōmin-o

korosi-ta.

soldier-Nom

peasant-Acc kill-Pst

‘The soldiers killed the peasants.’



6.1 Introduction  127 b. 香奈が

宿題を

Kana-ga

忘れた。

sykudai-o

Kana-Nom

wasure-ta.

homework-Acc forget-Pst

‘Kana forgot the homework.’ Japanese ditransitive verbs appear with a direct object marked with the accusative case -o and an indirect object marked with the dative case -ni. Examples are shown in (43). (43) Three-pace predicates (ditransitive verbs) a. 香奈が

花子に

Kana-ga

Hanako-ni

Kana-Nom

本を

hon-o

あげた。 age-ta.

Hanako-Dat book-Acc give-Pst

‘Kana gave a book to Hanako.’

b. 花子が

美香に

Hanako-ga

Mika-ni

Hanako-Nom

小包を

kozutumi-o

送った。 okutta.

Mika-Dat package-Acc sent

‘Hanako sent Mika a package.’ There are few labile verbs in Japanese, for which examples are given in (44). Most other verbs (of change) are morphologically marked for their transitivity (Jacobsen 1992). (44) Labile verbs a. 戸が

開いた。 b. 香奈が

戸を

to-o

開いた。

To-ga

hirai-ta.

Kana-ga

hirai-ta.

door-Nom

open-Pst

Kana-Nom door-Acc open-Pst

‘The door opened.’

‘Kana opened the door.’

To-ga

tozi-ta.

Kana-ga

close-Pst

Kana-Nom door-Acc close-Pst

c. 戸が

door-Nom

閉じた。 d. 香奈が

‘The door closed.’

戸を to-o

閉じた。 tozi-ta.

‘Kana closed the door.’

6.1.2.2  Adjectival predicates Japanese has two distinct types of adjectives, i.e., (canonical) adjectives (also called i-adjectives) and nominal adjectives (also called adjectival nouns or na-adjectives). Pustet (2003: 71) calls Japanese a split-A(djective) type because one group of adjectives can be used predicatively without a copula and the other group are

128  word order and scrambling used as such with a copula. The i-adjectives are of the former type and can appear without a copula, just like Korean adjectives, although the inflectional paradigm of i-adjectives without the verb ar(u) ‘to be’ is confined to limited categories. The na-adjectives are of the latter type, behaving similarly to nominal predicates in requiring a copula when used predicatively. Backhouse (1984) grouped the na-adjectives and i-adjectives in the same group of adjectives because (i) morphologically, both types of adjectives ‘are marked for a parallel set of categories’ (in which imperative and volitional are not included) (p. 176), and (ii) syntactically, they both ‘occur with the characteristic functions of predication, adnominal modification, and adverbial modification’ (p. 176) and they do not occur in subject position except for a handful of na-adjectives (p. 174). The examples in (45a) show an i-adjective ōki-i ‘big’ and a na-adjective kirei ‘pretty’ used predicatively; the former inflected for present and past tense, and the latter followed by a copula. The examples in (45b) are the same adjectives used in adnominal modification, and they are used in adverbial modification in (45c). (45)

I-adjectives: 大きい ōki-i ‘big’, 高い NA-adjectives: 新鮮 sinsen ‘fresh’,

taka-i ‘high’

a. Predicative この 犬は

大きい/大きかった

Kono inu-wa ōki-i/ōki-katta.

この街は

きれいだ/だった

Kono mati-wa kirei-da/-datta.

this   dog-Top big-NPst/big-Pst

this   town-Top pretty-is/was

‘This dog is/was big.’

‘This town is/was pretty.’

b. Adnominal 大きい 犬 ōki-i

inu

big

dog

‘a big dog’ c. Adverbial

きれい kirei ‘pretty’

字を

zi-o

きれいな 絵

大きく 書いた

ōki-ku kaita

letter-Acc big ‘(I) write letters big’

wrote

kirei-na

e

pretty

picture

‘a pretty picture’

字を zi-o

きれいに kirei-ni

書いた kaita.

letter-Acc beautifully wrote ‘(I) wrote letters beautifully’

Both types of Japanese adjectives can take an experiencer subject and/or a theme subject. Some of them are always transitive in requiring both an experiencer subject and a theme object (both marked nominatively), some are always intransitive in just requiring a theme subject, and still others are labile. Labile adjectives occur with both an experiencer subject and a theme object or only with a theme subject.



6.1 Introduction  129

(46) Transitive adjectives a. 私は

車が

ほしい。 b. 香奈は

car-Nom

want-NPst

リンゴが

好きだ。

Watasi-wa kuruma-ga hosi-i.

Kana-wa ringo-ga

I-Top

Kana-Top apple-Nom like-Cop.NPst

‘I want a car.’ (47) Intransitive adjectives a. この

Kono this

本は

hon-wa

‘Kana likes apples.’ 高い。

b. これは

taka-i.

book-Top expensive-NPst

(48) Labile adjectives Hon-wa

おもしろい。

omosiro-i.

新鮮だ。

Kore-wa sinsen-da.

‘This book is expensive.’ a. 本は

suki-da.

this-Top fresh-Cop.NPst ‘This is fresh.’

b. 私は

この 本が

Watasi-wa kono hon-ga

おもしろい。

omosiro-i.

book-Top interesting-NPst

I-Top

this book-Nom interesting-NPst

‘Books are interesting.’

‘To me, this book is interesting.’

Just like Korean adjectives, the Japanese adjectives of both types behave differently from verbs in some of the properties shown above, although not exactly in the same way as the Korean adjectives. Japanese does not have the kind of morphological contrast in present tense between verbs and adjectives as seen between Korean verbs and adjectives above. However, there is a morphological difference, for example, in past tense between these syntactic categories. That is, the past tense of (affirmative) adjectival predicates appears with a verb of existence aru ‘be’ in the past tense, i.e., atta. The past tense of verbs ends with either -ta or -da, e.g., tabeta ‘ate’ and nonda ‘drank’. The past tense of i- and na-adjectives (as well as nominal predicates) is followed by atta, not just -ta (or -da), as shown in (49c, d) and (49e). Atta is either fused with or separated from i-adjectives, as shown in (49c, d), and it appears as part of the copula with na-adjectives, as in (49e). In polite style, however, na-adjectives are followed by the past tense of the polite copula desu, i.e., desita, as in (49f ); whereas i-adjectives retain atta and are followed by desu (a politeness marker), as in (49c). In any case, both i- and na-adjectives need a copular verbal element to which a past tense morpheme can attach; neither can host it alone.1 The progressive form is possible with (unergative and transitive) verbs, but never with i- and na-adjectives, as shown in (50a) as opposed to (50b, c). (50c) with an animate subject is possible, whereas it turns ungrammatical with an inanimate     1 

The negative forms of i- and na-adjectives also differ from verbs. The Japanese predicative i-adjectives without the verb of existence (aru) are in fact more accurately considered to be a case of zero copula as seen in Russian (Comrie 1984). See Chapter 10 for more discussion on this topic.

130  word order and scrambling (49) Past tense of verbs, i-adjectives, and na-adjectives Verb

a. パンを

I-adjective

Na-adjective

食べた c. 大きかった (です) e. きれいで あった/だった Ōki-katta

(desu).

Kirei-d(e) atta/datta.

bread-Acc eat-Pst

big-Pst

Pol

clean

‘(I) ate bread.’

‘(It) was big.’

Ki-ga

Ōki-ku-mo atta.

Kirei-desita.

tree-Nom be-Pst

big-also

clean-was

‘There was a tree.’

‘(It) was also big.’

Pan-o

b. 木が

tabe-ta.

あった d. 大きくも at-ta.

be-Pst

‘(It) was clean.’

あった f. きれいでした be-Pst

‘This was clean.’

subject. This shows that iru in (50c) is not the auxiliary iru used in the progressive form, which can be used with both animate and inanimate subjects, but a verb of existence for an animate subject. At any rate, (50c) with an animate subject does not have a progressive meaning. (50) Progressive form b. *やさしくて いる

Verb

I-adjective

a. 走って いる running be-NPst

*Yasasi-ku-te i-ru.

‘(He) is running.’

‘(He) is being kind.’

Hasitte i-ru.

kind-Ku

Na-adjective c. (*)新鮮で

be-NPst

いる

(*)sinsen-de i-ru fresh-De

こと koto

be-Pst thing

‘to be/stay fresh’

Both i- and na-adjectives need a verbal element aru ‘to be’ in deontic expressions, such as those for proposition, command, and obligation. In all these cases, a verbal element appears with an appropriate mood or tense suffix, as shown in (51), (52), and (53). (51)

Propositive Verb

I-adjective

Na-adjective

Yasasi-ku arō.

Sinsetu-d(e) arō.

go-Pro

kind-KU be-Pro

kind-Ger

‘Let’s go.’

‘Let’s be kind.’

‘Let’s be kind.’

a. 行こう Ik-ō.

b. やさしく あろう c. 親切で

あろう be-Pro



6.1 Introduction  131

(52) Imperative a. 行け Ik-e.

b. やさしく あれ

c. 親切で

Yasasi-ku are.

Sinsetu-de are.

go-Imp

kind-KU be-Imp

kind-Ger

‘Go.’

‘Be kind.’

‘Be kind.’

(53) Obligation a. 行く

べきだ

Iku

beki-da

go

should

b. 気高く

‘You ought to go.’

c. 親切で

あれ

ある

be-Imp

べきだ

Kedaka-ku aru

beki-da.

noble

should

be

‘You must be high-minded.’

ある べきだ

Sinsetu-de aru

beki-da.

kind

should

be

‘You must be kind.’ In the propositive expressions in (51b) and (51c), i- and na-adjectives need to be followed by arō (the verb of existence ar- suffixed with the propositive morpheme -(y)ō). The commands in (52b, c) with i- and na-adjectives followed by are (the imperative form of aru) can only be used as written style. The expressions of obligation with i- and na-adjectives in (53) are possible only with a separately occurring verb of existence aru. There are some degree adverbs that are used with either verbs or adjectives exclusively, and there are some that can be used with both groups. The adverb yoku ‘well’ can be used with verbs as in (54a) but not with adjectives as in (54b, c). The adverb totemo ‘very’, however, can be used with verbs, as in (54d), as well as adjectives, as in (54e, f ).

Yoku

知られて いる b. *よく sirarete

iru.

名高い

well

known

is

famous-is

(54) Degree adverbs a. よく

‘He is well known’

d. とても

*Yoku well

nadaka-i.

‘He is very famous.’

知られて いる e. とても

名高い

known

famous-is

Totemo sirarete

iru.

Totemo nadaka-i.

very

is

Well

‘He is well known’

‘He is very famous.’

c. *よく

*Yoku well

有名だ

yūmei-da. famous-is

‘He is very famous.’

f. とても 有名だ

Totemo yūmei-da. well

famous-is

‘He is very famous.’

132  word order and scrambling The same locative postposition -de ‘in/at’, which marks the location where an event or state takes place, is used with verbs and adjectives, as shown in (55). (55) Locative postposition a. 東京で

Tōkyō-de Tokyo-in

働く

hatarak-u. work

‘(I’ll) work in Tokyo.’

c. 東京で

Tōkyō-de Tokyo-in

b. 東京で

Tōkyō-de

itiban ōki-i.

一番

大きい

Tokyo-in

most

big

‘(It’s) biggest in Tokyo.’

一番

有名だ

most

famous-is

itiban

yūmei-da.

‘It’s most famous in Tokyo.’ The differences discussed above are summarized in (56). (56) Verbs and adjectives contrasted Past Progressive Propositive Imperative Obligation Adverbial Locative

Verb

I/NA-Adjective alone

Y Y Y Y Y yoku, totemo -de

N N N N N *yoku, totemo -de

6.1.2.3  Nominal predicates with the copula In Old Japanese, the verb of existence ar(-u) ‘to be’ was used after adjectives suffixed with -ku or nominal followed by -ni, forming various inflected and fused forms of copula to be used predicatively, although there were other adjectival predicative forms, e.g., canonical adjectives ending with -si without any verbal element.2 Their inflectional paradigms changed over time. The complex copula -ni ar- after a nominal or adjective nominal finally changed to -de ar- (or a contracted from -da) in Modern Japanese (Frellesvig 2010, Naraha 2002). Naraha (2002: 134) gives a schematic process of change from -ni ar- to -de ar-, as in (57). (57) From

ni ar- to de arni ar- → ni te ar- → de ar- (Naraha 2002: 134 (3))

    2 

Nominal adjectives ‘were regarded as having appeared as a separate word class in EMJ [Early Middle Japanese]’ and were followed by ‘forms of the regular copula’, e.g., -nar- (Frellesvig 2010: 235).



6.1 Introduction  133

In addition to -ni ar-, its fused form -nar- was also used in Old Japanese as well as in later varieties. In Early Middle Japanese -nite ar- (-nite the gerund form of the infinitive -ni3) became -de ar-, which is still used in Japanese mainly in written style and is contracted as -da in spoken style (Frellesvig 2010: 235), as shown in (58a). -Da is an eastern variety and came to be used in Tokyo (or Edo) during the Tokugawa period (Frellesvig 2010: 394‒395). (58) Nominal predicate a. これは

本だ/である。

Kore-wa

hana-da/-de aru.

this-Top

flower-Cop/NPst

‘This is a flower.’

b. 私は

Watasi-wa

I-Top

これを kore-o

花(だ)と

思う。

hana-(da)-to

omou.

this-Acc flower-(Cop/NPst)-Quo think

‘I consider this to be a flower.’ (58b) is a Japanese equivalent of (14c) with the Korean tenseless copula -(u)lo. -To in (58b), however, cannot be regarded as forming a tenseless nominal predicate because the copua -da (in the nonpast tense) in the parentheses can appear between the nominal and -to. The example (58b) with hana in the accusative without -da can be considered an example of stylistically induced -da elision. -To in (58b) is regarded as a complementizer, which may be etymologically related to a copula -(u)lo in Korean (Frellesvig 2010: 134).4 The Japanese nominal predicates with a copula essentially show morphological properties of adjectives. They differ from i-adjectives in cooccurring with the nonpast tense allomorph -u attached to ar- ‘to be’ in the affirmative nonpast, as shown in (59). The same nonpast tense allomorph attaches to a consonant verb, as in (60). In contrast, the nonpast tense allomorph for a canonical adjective is -i, as shown in (61). (See Chapter 10 for nominal predicates and i- and na-adjectival predicates behave basically in the same way, i.e., followed by a negative form of the verb of existence ar(u).) (59) Nominal predicate 花で

ある ar-u

hasir-u

flower-De

be-NPst

run-NPst

hana-de

    3 

(60) Verb

走る

(61) (I-)Adjective 賢い

kasiko-i clever-NPst

See Naraha (2002: 121‒122) for a brief summary and discussions on the etymological origin of -ni. Frellesvig (2001) presented an argument that Japanese -to and Korean -(u)lo as well as other copular elements are etymologically related. -To was used as a defective copula in Old Japanese, sometimes followed by the verb of existence ar-, which was later fused as -tar- in Early Middle Japanese (Frellesvig 2010).     4 

134  word order and scrambling The semantic relationship between a Japanese nominal predicate and its subject is not limited to identification or membership and allows a wider range of context-dependent interpretation than English, just like Korean. It is dependent on the context of utterance and the semantics of nominal predicates. The Japanese sentences with nominal predicates for which the relationship between subject and predicate cannot be construed as identification or class inclusion are called unagi bun ‘eel sentences’ after Okutsu (1978). The sentence in (62a) uttered when asked what to order at a restaurant means that the patron wants to order an unadon (an eel bowl). The sentences in (62b) and (62c) are not meant to identify Hanako as ‘a cold’ or America, but they mean the readings given in English. (62) Eel sentences a. ぼくは

Boku-wa

うなぎだ。 unagi-da.

I-Top

eel-Cop/NPst

‘I am an eel.’ or ‘I (will have a bowl of rice with grilled) eel.’

b. 花子は

Hanako-wa Hanako-Top

風邪だ。 kaze-da.

cold-Cop/NPst

‘Hanako has a cold.’

c. 花子は

Hanako-wa Hanako-Top

アメリカだ。 Amerika-da.

America-Cop/NPst

‘Hanako is in America.’

6.1.2.4  Gerund-auxiliary expressions The Japanese expressions corresponding to the three different types of Korean inflecting verbs following lexical verbs (i.e., auxiliaries, complementation verbs, and light verbs) shown above roughly correspond to the auxiliaries shown in (64), which all take the gerund form of a lexical verb, as shown in (63). (63) V1 (lexical)

-X

V2 (nonlexical)

Gerund -te

helping verb

(64) Japanese gerund-auxiliary expressions a. V-te oku

‘do V and put aside/in advance/for the future use or benefit’

b. V-te simau

‘finish V-ing’, ‘end up by V-ing’

c. V-te miru

‘do V and see’, ‘try V-ing’



6.1 Introduction  135 d. V-te iku

‘go by V-ing’, ‘do V and go’

e. V-te kuru

‘come by V-ing’, ‘do V and come’

f. V-te kureru/ageru

‘do V for me/someone’

g. V-te morau

‘have someone do V for me/someone else’

h. V-te iru

‘be V-ing’, ‘be in a resultative state after V-ing’

i. V-te aru

‘be V-en’, ‘have V-en’

Such auxiliaries add an additional meaning pertaining to how the event denoted by a lexical verb is carried out, for example, in regard to purposive, aspectual, telic, deictic, or benefactive meaning. Some of them also change the grammatical functions of arguments associated with lexical verbs, resulting in passive or causative constructions. Those in (65) refer to the events in which an agent carries them out for some purpose, e.g., put yeast in the dough before baking it, try tasting a cake to see how it tastes, and put beer in the fridge to cool it down before drinking. (65) Purposive

a. 美香は

Mika-wa Mika-Top

パン生地に イースト菌を pankizi-ni

īsutokin-o

入れて おいた。

dough-in

yeast-Acc

putting leave-Pst

irete

oita.

‘Mika put yeast in the dough in advance.’

b. 美香は

Mika-wa Mika-Top

その ケーキを 少し sono

kēki-o

食べて みた。

sukosi tabete

mita.

that

cake-Acc

little

eating

saw

‘Mika tried tasting a bit of the cake (to see how it tastes).’

c. ビールが Bīru-ga

beer-Nom

冷蔵庫に 入れて ある。 reizōko-ni ire-te fridge-in

aru.

put-Ger is

‘The beer has been put in the refrigerator (e.g. in order to cool it before drinking).’ Those in (66) refer to events at specific aspectual phases: (66a) refers to a phase when doing one’s homework is finished, (66b) to an ongoing process, and (66c) to a phase immediately after the event of a handkerchief ’s dropping is completed. The meaning of gerund-auxiliary expressions is not confined to one type. (65c) also refers to a phase after the completion of irete ‘putting in’. Note also that the example with aru in (65c) is a passive sentence with a theme subject and a transitive verb in the gerund.

136  word order and scrambling (66)

Aspectual

a. 美香は

Mika-wa Mika-Top

宿題を

して

syukudai-o

site

しまった。 simatta.

homework-Acc doing finished

‘Mika finished doing his homework.’

b. 美香が

Mika-ga

Mika-Nom

プールで 泳いで

いる。

pūru-de

oyoide

pool-in

swimming is

‘Mika is swimming in the pool.’

c. ハンカチが

道に

Hankati-ga

落ちて

miti-ni

handkerchief-Nom

iru.

oti-te

いる。

iru.

street-on drop-Ger is

‘A handkerchief dropped (and is) on the street.’ The event of coming in (67a) was described as a movement toward the speaker, and the event of going in (67b) was described as a movement away from the speaker. In addition to describing spatial movement toward or away from the deictic center, kuru ‘come’ and iku ‘go’ can also describe temporal change relative to the deictic center. The event in (67c) with kita ‘came’ means that the temperature has begun to rise up to the moment of speaking (deictic center), and the same event with itta ‘went’ is uttered to mean that at a certain specific point in time in the past (deictic center, e.g., when the speaker checked the temperature) the temperature started rising. (67) Deictic

a. 車が

Kuruma-ga car-Nom

走って hasitte

Hito-ga man-Nom

kita.

running came

‘A car ran toward me.’

b. 人が

きた。

歩いて aruite

いった。

itta.

walking went

‘A man walked by.’

c. 気温が

Kion-ga temperature-Nom

上がって きた/いった。 agatte

kita/itta.

rising

came/went

‘The temperature went up.’



6.1 Introduction  137

The example in (68a) is a benefactive sentence. The event of Mika’s teaching English in (68a) with kureta ‘gave me’ is construed as done for the sake of the speaker or someone in his or her ingroup, whence otōto ‘younger brother’ is most likely interpreted as his or her younger brother. The same example with ageta ‘gave someone’ is construed as done for the sake of someone who is not the speaker or his or her ingroup member. The example in (68b) is another benefactive expression in which the referent of the subject is the benefitted from the embedded event. It is similar to a causative construction because this can denote a causative event in which the subject got a student to close the window, e.g., by asking. (68) Benefactive a. 美香が

Mika-ga Mika-Nom

弟に

otōto-ni

英語を eigo-o

教えて osiete

くれた/あげた。 kureta/ageta.

brother-to English-Acc teaching gave.me/gave

‘Mika taught English to her/my younger brother (for me/him).’

b. 私は

Watasi-wa I-Top

学生に

gakusei-ni

窓を

mado-o

閉めて もらった。 simete

moratta.

student-by window-Acc closing received

‘I had the window closed by a student.’ Some of the auxiliaries allow nonagentive subjects, e.g., (65c), (66c), and (67c). V-te simau in (64b) and V-te kureru in (64f ) can also take a nonagentive subject in addition to cooccurring with an agentive subject, as in (66a) and (68a). (69a) refers to a regrettable event, and (69b) refers to a beneficial or favorable event. (69) a. 皿が

割れて

しまった。

Sara-ga

warete

simatta.

place-Nom

breaking ended-up

‘Unfortunately, the plate broke.’

b. 経済が

Keizai-ga

economy-Nom

回復して

くれた。

recovering

gave.me

kaihuku-site kureta.

‘Fortunately, the economy recovered.’ Gerund-auxiliary expressions have wide scope of negation when auxiliaries are in the negative. Some of them, e.g. (64a) and (64g), appear with gerunds in the negative, whereby the scope of negation is confined to the embedded clause.

138  word order and scrambling (70) a. 美香は

Mika-wa Mika-Top

ドアの

doa-no

かぎを

Mika-wa

sime-naide

oita.

door-Gen lock-Acc close-Neg

‘Mika left the door unlocked.’

b. 美香は

閉めないで おいた。

kagi-o

ドアの

doa-no

カギを kagi-o

left

閉めないで

もらった。

sime-naide

moratta.

Mika-Top door-Gen lock-Acc close-Neg.Ger got ‘Mika had the door (left) unlocked.’

6.1.2.5  Basic clause structure Japanese, just like Korean, also has SOV as its basic word order, and if a sentence has both indirect and direct objects, usually the former precedes the latter, although their positions are interchangeable.5 (71) Basic word order a. Intransitive (SV ):

美香が

Mika-ga

銀行で

働く。

ginkō-de hatarak-u.

Mika-Nom bank-at

work-NPst

‘Mika works at a bank.’ b. Transitive (SOV ):

美香が

Mika-ga

推理小説を

読む。

suiri-syōsetu-o

yom-u.

Mika-Nom detective-novel-Acc read-NPst ‘Mika reads detective stories.’ c. Ditransitive (S IO DO V ):

美香が Mika-ga

花子に Hanako-ni

本を hon-o

あげた。 age-ta.

Mika-Nom Hanako-Dat book-Acc give-Pst ‘Mika gave a book to Hanako.’

A Japanese VP can be fronted with the verb and its object leaving a subject behind, as shown in (72a), but the verb and the subject cannot be fronted leaving the object behind, as shown in (72b), just as in Korean. This supports a position that a verb and its object form a VP exclusive of a subject. Suru (or its past tense sita) is a light verb (Sakai, Ivana, and Zhang 2004) in this construction.     5 

For arguments and evidence for SOV word order see Saito (1985), and for S IO DO V see Hoji (1985, 1987). For a different analysis of S DO IO V see Miyagawa (1997).



6.2 Word order and scrambling phenomena  139

(72) VP-fronting a. その

Sono that

小説を

syosetu-o

読みは

yomi-wa

美香が

Mika-ga

した(が) . . . sita (ga, . . .)

novel-Acc read-Top Mika-Nom did (but . . .)

b. *美香が

‘A lthough Mika read the novel, . . .’

*Mika-ga

Mika-Nom

読みは

推理小説を

yomi-wa

suiri-syosetu-o

した(が) . . . sita (ga, . . .)

read-Top detective-novel-Acc did (but)

Propositive and imperative moods are overtly marked in Japanese, just like Korean, but indicative mood is not overtly marked, unlike Korean. In this respect, morphological marking for mood is limited in Japanese in comparison to Korean. Horie and Narrog (2014: 120) state that mood ‘is not a prominent grammatical feature in Japanese’ and that conclusive (sentence-final) verb forms are marked for nonpast or past tense but ‘do not overtly encode “indicative mood”’. Statements can be changed to questions by adding a rising intonation or an interrogative particle like -ka.6 (73) Mood Statement

Question

Propositive mood Imperative mood

学校へ

行く 学校へ

行く?

学校へ

school-to

go

go

school-to go-Pro school-to go-Imp

gakkō-e

iku. gakkō-e

iku?

school-to

gakkō-e

行こう 学校へ ik-ō

gakkō-e

行け

ik-e

‘(I) go to school’ ‘Do you go to school?’ ‘Let’s go to school.’ ‘Go to school.’

6.2  Word order and scrambling phenomena 6.2.1 Korean Crosslinguistically, the three most common word orders in descending order of frequency are SOV as represented by Korean and Japanese, SVO as represented by English and Chinese, and VSO as represented by Austronesian languages such as Tagalog and Celtic languages such as Welsh. All three of these word order patterns place the subject before the direct object; languages where the object precedes the subject, such as Malagasy, are much rarer. Since Greenberg (1966), it has been     6 

Furthermore, Horie and Narrog (2014: 121) point out that Korean has an adnominal verbal ending (-(u)l) that encodes ‘irrealis’, which Japanese doesn’t. In fact, Japanese does not have any adnominal endings distinct from conclusive forms. Japanese and Korean have similar periphrastic epistemic, evidential, and deontic modal expressions (see Horie and Narrog 2014).

140  word order and scrambling known that languages with SVO word order will more likely have prepositions rather than postpositions. If a language has SOV word order, it is significantly more likely to have postpositions than prepositions. Languages with SOV order more commonly place genitives before the noun they modify. (74) Crosslinguistic word order patterns (Greenberg 1966) Phrase type

SVO

SOV

VP

verb-object

object-verb

NP

noun-genitive

genitive-noun

PP

preposition-NP

NP-postposition

Korean has relatively free word order in that virtually any order of subject, object, and other NPs and PPs is acceptable as long as the predicate is in final position in the sentence. Dislocation of NPs and PPs from their canonical position is known as scrambling, as in (75). (75) Scrambling word order a. 메리가

Mary-ka

영희에게

책을

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc give-Pres-Pln

Yenghuy-eykey chayk-ul

Mary-Nom

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’

b. 메리가

책을

Mary-ka

chayk-ul

Mary-Nom

영희에게

book-Acc Yenghuy-Dat

Yenghuy-eykey Yenghuy-Dat

메리가

Mary-ka

준다

책을

chayk-ul

give-Pres-Pln 준다

cwu-n-ta.

Mary-Nom book-Acc give-Pres-Pln

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’

d. 영희에게

cwu-n-ta.

Yenghuy-eykey cwu-n-ta.

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’

c. 영희에게

준다

책을

메리가

Mary-ka

준다

Yenghuy-eykey

chayk-ul

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc Mary-Nom give-Pres-Pln

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’

e. 책을

Chayk-ul Book-Acc

메리가

Mary-ka

영희에게

cwu-n-ta. 준다

Yenghuy-eykey cwu-n-ta.

Mary-Nom Yenghuy-Dat

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’

give-Pres-Pln



6.2 Word order and scrambling phenomena  141 f. 책을

Chayk-ul Book-Acc

영희에게

메리가

Yenghuy-Dat

Mary-Nom give-Pres-Pln

Yenghuy-eykey Mary-ka

준다

cwu-n-ta.

‘Mary gives Yenghuy a book.’ (75) exemplifies two subtypes of scrambling. (75c‒f ) involve scrambling the indirect object (c, d) or direct object (e, f ) to the immediate left of the subject. This is called intermediate scrambling. Examples (b and f ) involve scrambling the direct object over the indirect object. This is called short scrambling. Examples (d and f ) involve scrambling both the direct and indirect object over the subject. This is called multiple scrambling. The existence of scrambling is sometimes correlated with the presence of rich case-marking morphology. Languages with rich case marking like Korean, such as Russian and Japanese, also allow scrambling. It is reasonable to ask, why are the orders other than subject–indirect object– direct object called scrambling at all? What is the evidence that these orders are derived by dislocation from a fixed underlying order? Some evidence is provided by the phenomenon of quantifier float. In certain circumstances, numeral quantifiers in Korean may be separated from the NPs they quantify. (76)

Scrambling and quantifier float

a. 학생이

Haksayng-i

영희에게

책을

Yenghuy-eykey chayk-ul

Student-Nom

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc two-cl

‘The student gives Yenghuy two books.’

b. 책을

Chayk-ul Book-Acc

철수가

Chelswu-ka

영희에게

주었다

twu-kwen cwu-ess-ta. give-Pst-Pln

두권

주었다

two-cl

give-Pst-Pln

Yenghuy-eykey twu-kwen cwu-ess-ta.

Chelswu-Nom Yenghuy-Dat

‘Books, the student gave Yenghuy two.’

c. 학새이

두권

Haksayng-i

twu-myeng Yenghuy-eykey chayk-ul

두명

영희에게

책을

Student-Nom

two-cl

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc give-Pst-Pln

d. *학생이

‘Two students give Yenghuy the book.’

*Haksayng-i

Student-Nom

영희에게

책을

Yenghuy-Dat

book-Acc two-cl

Yenghuy-eykey chayk-ul

두명

주었다

cwu-ess-ta. 주었다

twu-myeng cwu-ess-ta. give-Pst-Pln

142  word order and scrambling (76b) shows us an example of quantifier stranding. The quantifier twu-kwen ‘2-cl (for books)’ may be left behind when the direct object chayk-ul ‘book-acc’ is scrambled to the front of the sentence. In (d), however, the quantifier twu-myeng ‘2-cl (for human beings)’ may not be separated from the subject haksayng-i ‘student(s)-nom’. The reason is that the subject is not generated in the position to the right of the direct object. The location of the stranded quantifier shows us the underlying position of the NP, before scrambling. The underlying position of the direct object is to the immediate left of the verb, but the underlying position of the subject is at the beginning of the sentence. The third type of scrambling is long-distance scrambling. NPs can be scrambled out of the causal complement of ‘bridge’ verbs such as sayngkakha- ‘think’ or malha- ‘say’: (77) Long-distance scrambling a. 메리는

[태민이

피자를

Mary-nun [Thaymin-i

먹었다고]

phica-lul mek-ess-ta-ko]

생각했다

sayngkakhay-ss-ta.

Mary-Top Taemin-Nom pizza-Acc eat-Pst-Pln-Comp think-Pst-Pln ‘Mary thought that Thaemin ate pizza.’

b. 피자를

메리는

[태민이

Phica-lul Mary-nun [Thaymin-i

먹었다고]

mek-ess-ta-ko]

생각했다

sayngkakha-ss-ta.

Pizza-Acc Mary-Top Taemin-Nom eat-Pst-Pln-Comp think-Pst-Pln ‘Pizza, Mary thought Taymin ate.’ However, there are restrictions on long-distance scrambling. Scrambling obeys well-known constraints on movement. For example, scrambling is possible within a relative clause, as in (78b), but it is impossible to scramble out of a relative clause, as shown in (78c). Thus, scrambling obeys the Complex NP Constraint of Ross (1967). (78) Constraints on scrambling a. 강남에서

Kangnam-eyse Gangnam-Loc

나는

[길거리에서

I-Top

street corner-Loc pizza-Acc

na-nun [kil keli-eyse

먹는

메리를]

eat-PresN

Mary-Acc meet-Pst-Pln

mek-nun

피자를

phica-ul

만났다

Mary-lul] manna-ss-ta.

‘In Gangnam I met Mary, who was eating pizza on a street corner.’



6.2 Word order and scrambling phenomena  143 b. 강남에서

나는

[피자를

Kangnam-eyse

na-nun [phica-ul

Gangnam-Loc

I-Top

pizza-Acc street corner-Loc

먹는

메리를]

eat-PresN

Mary-Acc meet-Pst-Pln

mek-nun

길거리에서

kil keli-eyse

만났다

Mary-lul] manna-ss-ta.

c. *피자를

‘In Gangnam I met Mary, who was eating pizza on a street corner.’ 강남에서

나는

pizza-Acc

*Phica-ul

Gangnam-Loc I-Top

mek-nun

Mary-lul] manna-ss-ta.

[길거리에서

Kangnam-eyse na-nun [kil keli-eyse

먹는

메리를

eat-PresN

street corner-Loc

만났다

Mary-Acc meet-Pst-Pln

‘Pizza, in Gangnam I met Mary, who was eating on a street corner.’ Scrambling is also generally unable to reorder two NPs with the same case marking. This extends to multiple nominative (79b), multiple accusative (d), and nested locative patterns (f ). (79) Scrambling blocked across NPs with the same case marking (Yoon 2015: 85) a. 철수가

키가

Chelswu-ka Chelswu-Nom

b. *키가

‘Chelswu is tall.’ *Khi-ka

height-Nom big-Pln 철수가

I-Top d. *나는

크다

khu-ta.

Chelswu-Nom become-Pres-Pln

‘Height, Chelswu is tall.’ Na-nun

khu-ta.

Chelswu-ka

Student-Nom c. 나는

크다

khi-ka

철수를

Chelswu-lul

손을

son-ul

I-Top

cap-ass-ta.

Chelswu-Acc hand-Acc catch-Pst-Pln

‘I caught Chelswu’s hand.’ *Na-nun

잡았다

손을

son-ul

철수를

Chelswu-lul

잡았다

cap-ass-ta.

hand-Acc Chelswu-Acc catch-Pst-Pln

‘I caught Chelswu’s hand.’

144  word order and scrambling e. 나는

Na-nun I-Nom

학교에서

도서관에서

너를

school-Loc

library-Loc

you-Acc wait-Pst-Pln

hakkyo-eyse tosekwan-eyse ne-lul

f. *나는

‘I waited for you at the school library.’ *Na-nun

I-Nom

기다렸다

kitalye-ess-ta.

도서관에서

학교에서

너를

library-Loc

school-Loc

you-Acc wait-Pst-Pln

tosekwan-eyse hakkyo-eyse ne-lul

기다렸다

kitalye-ess-ta.

‘I waited for you at the school library.’ Both processing-related and syntactic accounts have been proposed for the facts in (79). On the first approach, it could be claimed that since case marking or postpositions give no clue as to the relation between the arguments, speakers appeal to word order as a default strategy. This view might get some support from the fact that (79b) is acceptable on the interpretation ‘The student became Chelswu.’ The second approach appeals to a principle such as Relativized Minimality (Rizzi 1986), which disallows movement of one NP over another NP in the same kind of position (e.g., of an argument over another argument). This view receives some support from the observation of Yoon (2015: 85) that examples like (79b) improve in a context such as (80), where khi ‘height’ has topic status. When fronted as a topic, rather than simply scrambled, ‘height’ acquires a different status from the nominative marked NP it has been moved over. (80) (그 팀에서는)

(Ku thim-eyse-nun) (that team-Loc-Top

키가

khi-ka

누가

nwu-ka

제일 크니?

ceyil

khu-ni?

height-Nom who-Nom most tall-Q

‘(On that team), speaking of height, who is the tallest?’ (cf. Yoon 2015: 85)

6.2.2 Japanese Japanese has SOV as the dominant word order and postpositions, just like Korean, in agreement with Greenberg’s (1966) generalization. Japanese sentences exhibit flexible word order except that the predicate must come at the end. Such flexible word order is assumed to be realized by the syntactic operation of scrambling from the basic structure (Saito 1985). In the examples other than the one in (81a), scrambling is applied to the direct and indirect objects (it is assumed that scrambling does not apply to the subject, Saito 1985, see Yoshimura 2017 for arguments supporting and opposing this position). The example in (81b) is derived by short-scrambling (Tada 1993, Nemoto 1999), which preposes the direct object hon-o over the indirect object Hanako-ni,



6.2 Word order and scrambling phenomena  145

(81) Scrambling a. 美香が

花子に

本を

hon-o

あげた。

Mika-ga

Hanako-ni

Mika-Nom

Hanako-Dat book-Acc give-Pst

‘Mika gives Hanako a book.’

b. 美香が

本を

花子に

ageta.

あげた。

(S IO DO V )

hon-o Hanako-ni ageta.

(S DO IO V )

Hanako-ni

Mika-ga hon-o ageta.

(IO S DO V )

Hanako-ni

hon-o Mika-ga ageta.

(IO DO S V )

Hon-o

Mika-ga Hanako-ni ageta.

(DO S IO V )

Hon-o

Hanako-ni Mika-ga ageta.

(DO IO S V )

Mika-ga

c. 花子に

美香が

d. 花子に e. 本を f. 本を

本を

美香が

本を

あげた。

美香が

あげた。

花子に

花子に

あげた。

美香が

あげた。

e.g., by adjoining it to VP. The examples in (81c‒f ) are all derived by fronting either the direct object, as in (81e), or the indirect object, as in (81c), or both multiply (in different orders), as in (81d) and (81f ), to sentence-initial position. The piece of evidence in favor of a movement analysis that corresponds to Korean in (76) is shown in (82). As observed by Haig (1980), a numeral quantifier to be associated with the subject cannot be separated from it by an intervening object, as shown in (82d). Granted that the subject cannot be scrambled, the only possible position for the numeral quantifier in question is within VP, where it cannot possibly be associated with the VP-external subject.

(82) Scrambling and quantifier float a. 学生が

花子に

本を

hon-o

二冊

Hanako-ni

student-Nom

Hanako-Dat book-Acc 2-cl

‘A student gave Hanako two books.’

b. 本を

Hon-o book-Acc

学生が

gakusei-ga

花子に

Hanako-ni

あげた。

2-satu age-ta.

Gakusei-ga

二冊

give-Pst あげた。

2-satu ageta.

student-Nom Hanako-Dat 2-cl

gave

146  word order and scrambling c. 学生が

Gakusei-ga

2-mei Hanako-ni

二名

花子に

本を

student-Nom

2-cl

Hanako-Dat book-Acc gave

hon-o

‘Two students gave Hanako a book.’ 花子に

d. *学生が

*Gakusei-ga

Hanako-ni

student-Nom

本を

hon-o

二名

あげた。 ageta.

あげた。

2-mei ageta.7

Hanako-Dat book-Acc 2-cl

gave

Japanese also has long-distance scrambling, as shown in (83). The object of the complement clause piza-o ‘pizza-Acc’ in (83a) can be scrambled out to the front of the matrix clause, as shown in (83b), resulting in the same meaning. Different types of scrambling, i.e. short-scrambling and other clause-internal scrambling (middle-scrambling), as shown in (81), and long-distance scrambling, as shown in (83b), behave differently (see Nemoto 1999 for different effects resulting from the above three types of scrambling). (83) Long-distance scrambling a. 美香は

Mika-wa Mika-Top

花子が

[Hanako-ga

ピザを piza-o

Piza-o

pizza-Acc

tabeta-to] omotta.

Hanako-Nom pizza-Acc ate-Quo

‘Mika thought that Hanako ate the pizza.’

b. ピザを

食べたと 思った。

美香は

Mika-wa

花子が

[Hanako-ga

thought

食べたと 思った。 tabeta-to] omotta.

Mika-Top Hanako-Nom ate-Quo

thought

As in the case of Korean, scrambling out of a complex NP results in deviant sentences in Japanese (see Chapter 9), and scrambling NPs with the same morphological case or postposition results in ungrammaticality. Japanese is less tolerant of having two consecutive NPs with the same case or postposition, but a double nominative construction, at least, is allowed, as shown in (84). If you scramble the subject hana-ga ‘nose-Nom’ over the major subject zō-ga ‘elephant-Nom’, as in (84b), it turns uninterpretable.

    7 

See Miyagawa and Arikawa (2007) for counterexamples and counterarguments to the judgment of sentences like (82d) and their argument that there is indeed a locality constraint at work.



6.3 Conclusion  147

(84) Scrambling blocked across NPs with the same case marking a. 象は

鼻が

Zō-ga

hana-ga

elephant-Nom b. *鼻が

nose-Nom

naga-i.

nose-Nom long-NPst

‘Elephants have a long trunk.’ *Hana-ga

長い。

象が

zō-ga

長い。 naga-i.

elephant-Nom long-NPst

6.3 Conclusion In this chapter, we have discussed three different types of predicates, i.e., verbal, adjectival, and nominal predicates in basic sentences. Among verbal predicates, we distinguished intransitive, transitive, and ditransitive verbs. Adjectival predicates include both experiencer subject (psych) and theme or location subject types. We discussed major differences between verbs and adjectives in both Japanese and Korean. Japanese differs from Korean in that there are some adjectives that are followed by a copula and thus behave more like nominals. Even those adjectives that inflect by themselves require a copular element to host suffixes for most of the inflectional categories. With copular predicates, Japanese and Korean exhibit similar basic patterns pertaining to the relation between the surface subject and the nominal predicate. We also discussed auxiliary and light verb constructions. In our discussion of matrix clause phenomena, we discussed the marking of basic clause types: Korean has four distinct moods, i.e., declarative, interrogative, imperative, and propositive, while Japanese has limited distinction in mood. We discussed the patterns for yes‒no questions and wh-questions, for which older or regional Korean varieties have distinct interrogative particles. Finally, we briefly introduced the basic properties of scrambling in Korean and Japanese.

7

Passives and causatives 7.1  Introduction Passives and causatives are one of the major topics in the syntax‒semantics interface area for Korean and Japanese. They involve changes in valency: causatives add an argument, while passives may remove one. In this chapter, we describe the basics, types, and major characteristics of the two constructions and show how they are interrelated to each other. Section 7.2 examines types and major characteristics of passives. Korean has three passive patterns: lexical, morphological, and syntactic. Lexical passives involve passive light verbs and verbal nouns, which contrast with their active counterparts with active light verbs and the same verbal nouns. Morphological passives are derived with passive suffixes that attach to verb stems. This process, however, is not completely productive and there are some transitives to which no such passive suffixes attach. Syntactic passives are formed by the suffix -ci-, which attaches to the infinitive form of the verb. There are some syntactic differences between morphological and syntactic passives, e.g., the syntactic passives with -ci- does not license assignment of accusative case, whereas accusative case assignment is allowed in morphological passives. In Japanese, the passive morpheme -(r)are- has been used since Old Japanese down to contemporary Japanese. This suffix appears in two different types of passives, i.e., direct and indirect passives, and different hypotheses were proposed to account for their syntactic behaviors. Some phenomena concerning the use of agentive phrase markers and ‘possessive passives’ in both Japanese and Korean are also discussed in the subsection. Section 7.3 discusses types and major characteristics of causatives. As with passives, Korean has three types of causative construction: lexical, morphological, and syntactic causative. Morphological causatives are derived with the same allomorphs as morphological passives and some other causative suffixes that are not used in passives. The case arrays of arguments that appear in morphological causatives and their semantic difference are discussed. Syntactic causatives involve a biclausal structure in which the embedded clause ending with -key or -tolok appears as a complement of the matrix verb ha- ‘do’ or mantul- ‘make’. The semantic and syntactic behaviors of morphological and syntactic causatives are compared in regard to such phenomena as manner of causation, case marking on the causee, etc. Japanese syntactic causatives are formed with the bound morpheme -(s)ase-. Two types of causatives, i.e., make causatives and let causatives, are examined and schematic biclausal structures for these types are presented. The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0007



7.2 Passives  149

The case arrays on arguments of those causatives and their semantic difference are illustrated. Japanese -(s)ase- causatives are compared with Korean morphological and syntactic causatives. Section 7.4 turns to outstanding issues of passive and causative constructions. It deals with two issues concerning Korean causatives and passives: the interaction of passive and causative, and the debate over the supposed synonymity of morphological and syntactic causatives. This section also introduces issues concerning Japanese passives: a proposal to account for the conflicting passive phenomena of different types and a radical uniform hypothesis on Japanese passives. Section 7.5 summarizes the chapter.

7.2 Passives 7.2.1 Korean In classical transformational grammar, active and passive sentences are understood to be related by a rule that derives passives such as Pizza was eaten by Youngmee in Gangnam from the corresponding active sentence Youngmee ate pizza in Gangnam. This operation is schematized by the rule in (1): (1)

NP V

NP

1

2

3

3

be 2-en by 1



Few linguists would posit such a simple formulation today, but there is consensus that crosslinguistically passives are characterized by nonassignment of the external theta role to the highest argument position in the clause, and typically, a failure to assign object (accusative) case. Korean passives show some or both of these properties, but Korean is first and foremost distinguished by its variety of morphological devices for passivization. Korean distinguishes three passive patterns: lexical, morphological, and syntactic. We begin with the first of these. (2)

Lexical passive 그

Ku

일이

결정

il-i

되었다

kyelceng toy-ess-ta.

that thing-Nom decide become -Pst-Pln ‘That matter was decided.’

선생님께

많은

꾸중을

맞았다/들었다

teacher-hon-Nom

a lot

scolding-Acc

receive/hear-Pst-Pln

Sensayng-nim-kkey manhun kkwucwung-ul mac/tul-a/ess-ta. ‘A teacher received/heard a lot of scolding.’

150 passives and causatives The justification for considering examples like (2) passives is that they have corresponding actives formed from the same verbal noun (e.g. kyelceng ‘decide/ decision’, kkwucwung ‘scold/scolding’) plus the light verb ha- ‘do’. Verbs that can alternate with active ha- in this include toy- ‘become’ and mac- ‘receive, be met with’. These verbs may be analyzed as light passive verbs: in examples like (2) the main verbal meaning is contributed by the verbal noun, while the light verb contributes a passive-like valency by not assigning an agentive role to subject position. This pattern is lexical in the sense that the identity of the passive light verb is not completely predictable: toy- ‘become’ is widespread with Sino-Korean verbal nouns, but mac- ‘receive, be met with’ is common with native Korean verbal nouns. Morphological passives involve a suffix which attaches to the verb stem. Its allomorphs, -i-, -hi-, -ki-, -li-, also occur in the morphological causative, and are conditioned by the shape of the stem final. (3) Allomorphs of the morphological passive a. 이 -i

(following a vowel, /h-/, or /kk-/)

보이다 poita ‘to be seen’

쓰이다

섞이다 sekkita ‘to be mixed’

높이다 nophita ‘to be raised’

ssuita ‘to be used’

놓이다

nohita ‘to be put’

b. 히 -hi (following an oral stop or affricate) 잡히다 caphita ‘to be caught’ 밟히다 묻히다 mwuthita ‘to be dug’ 얹히다 enchita ‘to be put’

업히다

palphita ‘to be trampled’ ephita ‘to be carried’

c. 리 -li (following /l-/ or /lu-/; in the latter case /u/ drops) 물리다 mwullita ‘to be bitten’ 풀리다

들리다 tullita ‘to be heard’

pwullita ‘to be fed’

밀리다

millita ‘to be pushed’

d. 기 -ki (following a nasal, /nh-/, or /t-/) 안기다 ankita ‘to be hugged’

끊기다

감기다 kamkita ‘to be washed’ 벗기다

kkunhkita ‘to be cut’ petkita ‘to be removed’

(4) Examples of morphological active/passive pairs a. 이 -i

나는

책상위에

책을

I-Top

table-top-Loc

book-Acc put-Pres-Pln

Na-nun chayksang-wi-ey chayk-ul ‘I put a book on the table.’

놓는다

noh-nun-ta.



7.2 Passives  151 책이

책상위에

Chayk-i

놓인다

chayksang-wi-ey noh-i-n-ta.

book-Nom table-top-Loc

put-pass-Pres-Pln

‘A book is put on the table.’

b. 히 -hi 나는

동생을

업는다

I-Top

brother-Acc

carry-Pres-Pln

Na-nun tongsayng-ul ep-nun-ta. ‘I carry my brother on my back.’ 동생이

Tongsayng-i

나에게

업힌다

na-eykey ep-hi-n-ta.

brother-Nom I-Dat

put-pass-Pres-Pln

‘My brother is carried by me on my back.’

c. 리 -li 개가

Kay-ka

고양이를

문다

koyangi-lul mwu-n-ta.

dog-Nom cat-Acc

bite-Pres-Pln

‘The dog bites the cat.’ 고양이가

개한테

물린다

cat-Nom

dog-Dat

bite-pass-Pres-Pln

Koyangi-ka kay-hanthey mwul-li-n-ta. ‘The cat is bitten by the dog.’

d. 기 -ki

메리는

아기를

Meyli-nun aki-lul

안는다

an-nun-ta.

Mary-Top baby-Acc hug-Pres-Pln ‘Mary hugs her baby.’ 아기가 Aki-ka

메리에 의해서

안긴다

Meyli-ey uyhayse an-ki-n-ta.

baby-Nom Mary-by ‘The baby is hugged by Mary.’

hug-pass-Pres-Pln

152 passives and causatives As we see in the examples above, animate agents if realized are marked by dative 에게 -eykey or by the complex postposition 에 의해서 -ey uy hayse. If the agent (or instrument) is an inanimate noun, it is marked by directional 에 -ey (5d). (5) Inanimate by-phrases in passive/active pairs a. 내가

새를

Nay-ka say-lul I-Nom

Say-ka

cap-ass-ta.

bird-Acc catch-Pst-Pln

‘I caught a bird.’

b. 새가

잡았다

나에게

잡히었다

na-eykey cap-hi-ess-ta

bird-Nom I-Dat

catch-pass-Pst-Pln

‘A bird was caught by me.’

c. 새가

Say-ka

나에 의해서

잡히었다

na-ey uy hayse cap-hi-ess-ta

bird-Nom I-by

catch-pass-Pst-Pln

‘A bird was caught by me.’

d. 새가

Say-ka

그물에

잡히었다

kumul-ey cap-hi-ess-ta

bird-Nom net-by

catch-pass-Pst-Pln

‘A bird was caught by/with a net.’ Morphological passive formation is not a completely productive process. (6) is a partial list of transitive verbs that have no corresponding morphological passive. (6)  Transitive verbs with no passive counterpart 주다 cwuta

‘to give’

잃다 ilhta

‘to lose’

받다 patta 돕다 topta

드리다 tulita ‘to give

‘to receive’ 얻다 etta ‘to help’

찾다 chacta

닮다 talmta

‘to gain’ ‘to seek’ ‘to resemble’

The Korean syntactic passive is formed by attaching the suffix -ci- to the infinitive form of the verb. -Ci- has been grammaticalized from an originally independent verb meaning ‘become’, and it retains this meaning in inchoatives derived from stative stems, such as eps-e-ci- ‘become non-existent’, from eps- ‘not exist’, or coh-aci ‘get better’ from coh- ‘good’.



7.2 Passives  153

(7) Syntactic passives a. 메리의

얼굴이

Mary-uy

철수에 의해서

elkwul-i

그려졌다

Chelswu-ey uy hayse kuli-e-ci-ess-ta.

Mary-Gen face-Nom Chelswu-by

draw-Inf-pass-Pst-Pln

‘Mary’s face was drawn by Chelswu.’

b. 야채가

Yachay-ka

다 먹어졌다 ta

mek-e-ci-ess-ta.

Vegetable-Nom all eat-Inf-pass-Pst-Pln ‘The vegetables were all eaten.’ We discuss some of the semantic differences between morphological and syntactic passives. The major syntactic difference between them is that syntactic passives in -ci- block assignment of accusative case. This means that while an ‘indirect’ passive such as (8a) is possible with a morphological passive, retaining accusative case on the direct object, such a pattern is not possible with a syntactic passive. (8) a. 메리가

도둑에게

Mary-ka

지갑을

빼앗겼다

totwuk-eykey cikap-ul

Mary-Nom thief-by

ppayas-ki-ess-ta.

wallet-Acc steal-pass-Pst-Pln

‘Mary had her wallet stolen by a thief.’

b. *메리가

*Mary-ka

얼굴을

철수에게

그려졌다

Chelswu-by

draw-Inf-pass-Pst-Pln

elkwul-ul Chelswu-eykey kuli-e-ci-ess-ta.

Mary-Nom face-Acc

‘Mary had her face drawn by Chelswu.’ The syntactic -ci- passive is also used in a construction with an interpretation similar to an English middle. As with -ci- passives in general, accusative case cannot be assigned in this pattern. Like the English middle, the -ci- middle expresses a stable property of the theme argument, but unlike English middles, the agent argument can be expressed as a subject, as in (9a). (9) Syntactic -ci- passives as middles a. 내가

글씨가/*를

Nay-ka kulssi-ka/*-lul I-Nom

잘

cal

써진다

ss-e-ci-n-ta.

writing-Nom/*-Acc well write-Inf-pass-Pres-Pln

‘The writing is well written by me.’

154 passives and causatives b. 책이

잘

Chayk-i

cal

읽어진다

ilk-e-ci-n-ta.

book-Nom well read-Inf-pass-Pres-Pln ‘The book reads well.’

7.2.2 Japanese 7.2.2.1  Direct and indirect passive sentences The Japanese passive morpheme is realized as -rare- (suffixed to a vowel verb, e.g., tabe-ru ‘eat’ > tabe-rare-ru ‘be eaten’) and -are- (suffixed to a consonant verb, e.g., yom-u ‘read’ > yom-are-ru ‘be read’), which will be represented hereafter as -(r) are-. In Old Japanese (700‒800) two passives -(a)ye- and -(r)are- were used, with the former more frequently used than the latter (Frellesvig 2010: 63). -(A)ye- gave way to -(r)are- and survived only in lexicalized forms in Early Middle Japanese (800‒1200) (Frellesvig 2010: 63). The passive morpheme -(r)are- acquired other semantic features, such as spontaneous, potential, and subject honorific meanings, and changed its conjugational paradigm over time, and it is still used as the passive morpheme in contemporary Japanese. Traditionally it is considered that Japanese has two different types of passives, i.e., direct and indirect passives. We first start with a set of passive sentences rather than giving the definitions of these two types of passives because the kind of passives regarded as belonging to one type rather than the other has been changing over time. The passive examples in (10) and (11) appear in a Japanese textbook for beginning learners. This textbook (Netsu et al. 1996) presents six types of passive exemplars, (10a, c, e, g) and (11a, c). The (ii)-sentences under Cue (Active) are given as cues to students for them to change to passive forms in the (i)-sentences under Passive in (10) and (11). (10) Japanese for College Students, Basic Volume 3 (Netsu et al. 1996: 132)1 a.

(i) Passive

カレンが

先生に

Karen-Nom

teacher-by praise-pass-Pst

Karen-ga

sensei-ni

ほめられた

home-rare-ta.

‘Karen was praised by the teacher.’

c.

美香が

Mika-ga

    1 

人に

道を

hito-ni miti-o

聞かれた

kik-are-ta.

b. 先生が

Sensei-ga

(ii) Cue (active) カレンを Karen-o

ほめた

home-ta.

teacher-Nom Karen-Acc praise-Pst ‘The teacher praised Karen.’

d. 人が

Hito-ga

美香に

Mika-ni

道を

miti-o

聞いた kii-ta.

Mika-Nom man-by way-Acc ask-pass-Pst

man-Nom Mika-Dat way-Acc ask-Pst

‘Mika was asked the way by a man.’

‘A man asked Mika the way.’

The examples are slightly changed, e.g., the topic marker -wa was changed to the nominative marker -ga, the polite forms were changed to plain forms, and some vocabulary items were also changed to shorten them.

た

t

e.

7.2 Passives  155 この

小説が

this

comic-Nom young.people-by

Kono

若者に

syōsetu-ga wakamono-ni

読まれて いる

yom-are-te iru. reading

is

‘This novel is read by young people.’ g.

小説が

彼によって 書かれた

Syōsetu-ga kare-ni yotte kak-are-ta. novel-Nom he-by

write-pass-Pst

‘A novel was written by him.’

f. 若者が

この

小説を

young.people-Nom

this

novel-Acc

yonde

iru.

reading

is

Wakamono-ga

kono syōsetu-o

読んで

いる

‘Young people read this novel.’

h. 彼が

Kare-ga

小説を

書いた

syōsetu-o

kai-ta.

he-Nom novel-Acc write-Pst ‘He wrote a novel.’

(Ni-yotte Passive) (11) Japanese for College Students, Basic Volume 3 (Netsu et al. 1996: 132‒133) a.

美香が

Mika-ga

(i) Passive

ジョンに 菓子を John-ni

tabe-rare-ta.

John-ga

美香の

菓子を 食べた

Mika-no kasi-o

tabeta.

Mika-Nom John-by cake-Acc eat- pass-Pst

John-Nom Mika-Gen cake-Acc ate

‘Mika’s sweets were eaten by John.’

‘John ate Mika’s sweets.’

(Possessive passive) c.

kasi-o

(ii) Cue (active)

食べられた b. ジョンが

私が

雨に

降られた

I-Nom

rain-by fall-pass-Pst

Watasi-ga ame-ni hur-are-ta. ‘I was rained on.’

d. 雨が

Ame-ga rain-Nom

降った hut-ta.

fall-Pst

‘It rained.’

The above six passive sentences are divided into two groups in this textbook: direct passives in (10) and indirect passives in (11). Netsu et al. (1996: 138) define direct passive sentences as follows: ‘In some passive sentences . . . the object of an active verb becomes the subject of a passive verb. This type of passive sentence is called the direct passive, and it is limited to transitive verbs.’ The object of an active verb referred to in the above includes both a direct object marked with the accusative case marker -o and an indirect object marked with the dative case marker -ni. The passive sentences in (10) are all of the object-turned-subject type. The direct objects marked with -o in the (ii)-(active) sentences in (10b), (10f ), and (10h) appear as the subjects marked with -ga in the corresponding (i)-(passive)

156 passives and causatives sentences. The indirect object marked with -ni in (10d) appears as the subject marked with -ga in (10c). The passive sentences in (10e, g) are presented as exemplars distinct from (10a) because the former have inanimate subjects (while (10a) and (10c) have animate subjects). The direct passive sentences with inanimate subjects need to be treated with caution (particularly for learners of Japanese) because many of them require their agentive phrase (or by-phrase) to be marked with a complex postposition -ni yotte, like (10g) (which is called the ni-yotte passive), instead of -ni. The passive sentences in (11) are treated as indirect passives in this textbook. They are classified as such because the passive subjects in those sentences cannot be associated with a corresponding object in the cue sentences in (11); i.e., they are not of the aforementioned object-turned-subject type. The difference between these two indirect passives is that the subject of the passive sentence Mika in (11a) is the possessor of the object noun kasi ‘sweets’ in the active sentence (11b) (this type of passive is called the possessive passive), whereas the subject of the passive sentence in (11c) does not have such a possessor-possessee relationship. This textbook also notes that the indirect passive sentences of the type in (11c) may be also derived with transitive verbs (Netsu et al. 1996: 139). Indirect passives are distinguished from direct passives by a difference in connotation and the origin of a passive subject. The indirect passive sentences are often associated with a negative connotation that someone is adversely affected by an event. The referent of the subject in (11c), for example, was adversely affected by getting soaked with rain. In contrast, the direct passive sentences are not necessarily associated with a negative connotation. For example, the direct passive in (10a) refers to a positive event of Karen’s being praised by her teacher. In terms of the origin of a subject, as already stated above, the subject of direct passives is associated with the object position in corresponding active sentences, whereas the subject of indirect passives cannot be related to such a position. The correlation between connotation and the origin of a passive subject, however, is not always consistent. Kazenin (2001) presents a typological generalization of passives as shown in (12). Japanese permits all the elements in (12) to be passivized, direct object as in (10a, e, g), indirect object (10b), and adjunct (or genitive) as in (11a). In addition, as Kazenin (2001) notes some languages allow intransitive verbs to be passivized, e.g., Dutch, and so does Japanese as in (11c). (12) Accessibility to promotion in passivization (Kazenin 2001: 903, (11)) DIRECT OBJECT > INDIRECT OBJECT > ADJUNCT

Grouping of Japanese passives into direct and indirect passives and their characteristics, as shown above, are commonly found in Japanese language textbooks, reference grammar books, and linguistic writings. There are, however, some data



7.2 Passives  157

that advocate analyses and groupings different from the above, to which we will turn below.

7.2.2.2  The uniform hypothesis and the nonuniform hypothesis There have been two approaches to analyzing the two types of Japanese passives in literature of Japanese linguistics since the latter half of the 20th century (see Hoshi 1999, Ishizuka 2017). The debates mainly focused on whether these two types of passives involve the same mechanism of derivation (the uniform hypothesis, e.g., Howard and Niyekawa-Howard 1976) or different mechanisms of derivation (the nonuniform hypothesis, e.g., Inoue 1976). These two approaches differ in that the uniform hypothesis assigns an identical biclausal structure to both direct and indirect passives, whereas the nonuniform hypothesis assigns two different structures to them. In the uniform hypothesis, the passive morpheme -(r)are- takes two arguments, the subject and a complement clause; the subject refers to an entity affected by the event denoted by the complement clause. The structures of the direct passive sentence in (10a) and the indirect passive sentence in (11c) are schematically represented in (13). (13) Passive structure in the uniform hypothesis a. 私が

雨に

降られた。

rain-by

fall-pass-Pst

[watasi-ga [ame-ni hur-]are-ta] (11c)

I-Nom

‘I was rained on’

b. カレンが

[Kareni-ga

先生に

[sensei-ni

Karen-Nom teacher-by

ほめられた。

proi home-]rare-ta] (10a) praise-pass-Pst

‘Karen was praised by the teacher.’ (or ‘Karen was affected by her teacher’s praising her.’ ) The subject watasi-ga ‘I-Nom’ in (13a) was affected by raining, and the subject Karen-ga ‘Karen-Nom’ in (13b) was affected by the teacher’s praising her. The direct passive sentences like (13b) differ from the indirect passive type in that it contains a phonologically null pronoun (pro) coreferent with their matrix clause subject. The nonuniform hypothesis postulates the same biclausal structure for indirect passives as the uniform hypothesis, as shown in (14a). However, this approach assigns a monoclausal structure to direct passives, as shown in (14b).

158 passives and causatives (14) Passive structure in the nonuniform hypothesis a. 私が

雨に

降られた。

rain-by

fall-pass-Pst

[watasi-ga [ame-ni hur-]are-ta] (11c)

I-Nom

‘I was rained on’

b. カレンが

[Kareni-ga

先生に

sensei-ni

Karen-Nom teacher-by

ほめられた。

ti home-rare-ta] (10a) praise-pass-Pst

‘Karen was praised by the teacher.’

The direct passive morpheme -(r)are- in (14b) prevents the verb from assigning accusative case to its object and a semantic role to its subject, which induces the object to move from object to subject position. The direct passive sentence in (14b) does not have a null pronoun but a trace instead, which is left behind by Karen now moved to subject position. The two competing approaches have been around over the years because there are contradictory pieces of evidence that support both. We will look at some of the evidence below. One piece of evidence that supports the nonuniform hypothesis involves the syntactic phenomenon of reflexive-binding. It favors an approach assigning two distinct structures to direct and indirect passives as given in (14). The Japanese reflexive pronoun zibun ‘self ’ is anteceded by the subject of a sentence (not necessarily the subject of the same clause it appears in) (Kuno 1973). The reflexive zibun in (15), hence, can have the subject John as its antecedent, but not the indirect object Bill. (15) ジョンが John-ga

ビルに Bill-ni

自分の

ことを

zibun-no koto-o

John-Nom Bill-Dat self-Gen

話した。 hanasita.

matter-Acc talked

‘John talked to Bill about (lit.) self ’s matter.’ (Kuno 1973: 292 (6a))

The difference in coreference between the two passive sentences can be accounted for if the direct passive sentence in (16a) has a monoclausal structure in which Mary is the only subject, while the agentive phrase John(-ni) ‘by John’ is an adjunct.2 In contrast, the indirect passive sentence in (16b) has a biclausal structure, where John is the matrix clause subject and Mary(-ni) is the embedded clause subject, and both can antecede zibun.

(16)

7.2 Passives  159 a. メリーが

Mary-wa

Mary-Top

ジョンに John-ni

自分の

zibun-no

うちで

殺された。

John-by

self-Gen

house-in

kill-pass-Pst

uti-de

koros-are-ta.

‘Mary was killed by John in (lit.) self ’s house.’ (Kuno 1973: 299 (21a))

b. ジョンは John-wa

メリーに

[Mary-ni

John-Top Mary-by

自分の

家族の

self-Gen

family-Gen talk-only

zibun-no kazoku-no

話ばかり

された。

hanasi-bakari s]-are-ta.

do-pass-Pst

‘John was affected by Mary’s talking only about (lit.) self ’s family.’ (Kuno 1973: 303 (31a))

If the direct passive has biclausal structure, as in (13b), as under the uniform hypothesis, it wrongly predicts that John(-ni) in (16a) could antecede zibun because it is the subject of the embedded clause. The uniform hypothesis fails to explain the contrast between (16a, b), whereas the nonuniform hypothesis can. However, there are some pieces of evidence that support the uniform hypothesis. Here we will look at one piece of evidence pertaining to an animacy restriction on the subject of passive sentences whose agentive phrase is marked with -ni (such passives are called ni passives, which include both direct and indirect passives). There is a restriction on the subject of ni passives that in principle their subject must refer to a sentient entity (e.g., humans or other animals) that can recognize that it is affected by the event denoted by the verb. Inanimate passive subjects can appear in ni-yotte passive sentences like (10g). It needs to be mentioned here that proponents of the uniform hypothesis postulate an identical structure to both ni (direct and indirect) passives sentences only when their subjects are animate, and they assign a different (monoclausal) structure to ni-yotte (direct) passives whose subjects are inanimate.3 The evidence shown below supports such an approach. Hoshi (1999: 197) pointed out a contrast between (17a) and (17b), drawing on Kuroda’s (1979) observation. Fermat’s theorem, a nonsentient entity, cannot appear as the subject of a ni (direct) passive, as shown in (17a), whereas it can appear as the subject of a ni-yotte passive, as shown in (17b).4

    2 

The agentive phrase is here used more broadly than usual to encompass ni phrases like ame-ni ‘rain’ in (13a)/(14a) as well as sensei-ni ‘by the teacher’ in (14b) and ni-yotte phrases like John-ni ‘by John’ in (17b). It may bear an agentive role or some other semantic role, e.g., causer.

160 passives and causatives (17) a. *フェルマーの 定理が *Fermat-no

Fermat-Gen

teiri-ga

ジョンに 証明された。 John-ni

syōmeis-are-ta.

theorem-Nom John-by

prove-pass-Pst

‘Fermat’s theoremi was affected by John’s proving iti.’

b. フェルマーの 定理が

ジョンによって 証明された。

Fermat-no

teiri-ga

John-ni yotte

Fermat-Gen

theorem-Nom John-by

syōmeis-are-ta. prove-pass-Pst

‘Fermat’s theorem was proved by John.’ (Kuroda 1979: 330‒331)

The uniform hypothesis can account for the unnaturalness of (17a) because under this hypothesis, the passive morpheme -(r)are- takes a subject and a complement clause as its arguments in both direct and indirect passives. Because the subject of a passive sentence is an argument, -(r)are- can impose a selectional relation on it. The passive morpheme requires its subject to be a sentient entity. (17a) is out under the uniform hypothesis because Fermat’s theorem cannot play the sentient role expected of a ni passive sentence subject. The nonuniform theory, on the other hand, assumes that the subject of a direct passive like those in (17) is derived from an object position. Semantic relation obtains only between the verb and its object (position), but there can be no semantic relation between the (direct) passive morpheme and the subject position. It thus fails to account for the ungrammaticality of (17a). So far, we have shown that there is some evidence that favors the nonuniform hypothesis and other evidence that favors the uniform hypothesis. We have also noted in passing that the ni-yotte passive differs from the ni (direct and indirect) passives in that it clearly involves a movement operation to derive a passive subject. In this last subsection, we refer to possessive passives like (11a), which had been regarded as a subtype of indirect passives. Arguments contrary to this position were presented (Terada 1990, Kubo 1992). The possessive passive was found to behave like bona fide direct passives in regard to the type of connotation and reflexive-binding. Washio (1993: 51–52) noted that the passive sentence in (18a) can be interpreted as carrying either a neutral or adversative connotation, depending on the interpretation of whose child is referred to. If the child is interpreted as John’s, the passive sentence (a possessive passive in this interpretation) allows a neutral (or positive) reading, whereas if the child is interpreted as somebody else’s, the passive sentence (which is not a possessive passive) only allows an adversative connotation. Similarly,     3 

The uniform hypothesis assumes that ni-yotte passives like (10g) have a monoclausal structure where a subject is moved from object position, as in (14b), and are distinct from ni passives.     4  The structural differences between ni and ni-yotte passives will be discussed in 7.4.3 ‘Issues concerning Japanese passives’.



7.2 Passives  161

the reflexive pronoun zibun in (18b) behaves like direct passives in that it can only have John as its antecedent, but not Mary, on the reading that it was John’s portrait that Mary drew. This would be unexpected if the sentence were an indirect passive.

(18) Possessive passive a. ジョンが John-ga

メリーに Mary-ni

John-Nom Mary-by

子供を

ほめられた。

child-Acc

praise-pass-Pst

kodomo-o home-rare-ta.

‘John was affected by his child’s being praised by Mary.’ (Washio 1993: 51 (18))

b. ジョンが John-ga

メリーに 自分の Mary-ni

John-Nom Mary-by

うちで

zibun-no uti-de self-Gen

肖像画を syōzōga-o

書かれた。 kak-are-ta.

home-at portrait-Acc draw-pass-Pst

‘John was affected by Mary’s drawing (his) portrait at (lit.) self ’s home.’

Terada (1990) and Kubo (1992) proposed that the subject of the possessive passives John was moved from the possessor position of the object noun in (18a, b), leaving a trace of movement in the object NP. They have structure similar to (14b) in that there is a trace of movement from which the subject has been moved; one difference is that the trace of an ordinary passive like (14b) occupies the object position in the active, whereas the trace in possessive passives occupies the position for the possessor within an object NP. We have discussed the differences among the Japanese passive sentences shown in (10) and (11), particularly in regard to (i) whether there is an adversative connotation, (ii) the animacy of the passive subject, (iii) whether the passive subject is moved from some position in the corresponding active sentence, (iv) whether both the passive subject and the agentive phrase can antecede the reflexive pronoun zibun, and (v) what form the agentive phrase appears in (i.e., -ni or -ni yotte). Excluding the first point, which is concerned with semantics (and thus not easy to pin down), the passive sentences in (10) and (11) behave in regard to points (ii) ‒ (v), as shown in (19). Because the agentive phrase can also be often followed by -ni yotte as well as -ni in other types of passives (unless the meaning of verbs disallows it), it is added in the following with parentheses. As stated already, neither the uniform nor nonuniform hypotheses can account for all the phenomena listed above. Hoshi’s (1999) solution to account for the above will be introduced in 7.4.3. Before concluding this subsection, we turn to two issues in connection with Korean passives in the following subsection: namely, the

162 passives and causatives agentive phrase marker in passive sentences with an inanimate subject and possessive passives. (19) Japanese passive sentences subject ­animacy

movement from

antecedent of zibun

agentive phrase marker

(10a)

animate

(direct) object

NP-ga

ni, (ni yotte)

(10c)

animate

(indirect) object

NP-ga

ni, (ni yotte)

(10e)

inanimate

(direct) object

NP-ga

ni, (ni yotte)

(10g)

inanimate

(direct) object

NP-ga

ni yotte

(11a)

animate

possessor of direct NP-ga object

(11c)

animate

no movement

ni, (ni yotte)

NP-ga, NP-ni ni

7.2.3  Japanese passives in comparison with Korean passives This subsection shows two kinds of similar phenomena observed in both Japanese and Korean. The first is concerned with the relation between the animacy of passive subjects and agentive phrase markers, and the second has to do with possessive passives. First, it has been shown above that the agentive phrase of Korean passives can be realized as -eykey, -ey, or -ey uyhayse (Yeon 2015), as shown in (20). Interestingly, Japanese behaves in a similar way in requiring the complex postposition -ni yotte in the case of (20b). (20)

Passive subject

Agentive phrase

Agentive phrase marker

a. animate

animate

-eykey (K)

-ni (J)

b. inanimate

animate

-ey (K)

-ni (J)

c. inanimate/animate inanimate

-ey uyhayse (K) *-ni, -ni yotte (J)

Kinsui (1991: 9, 10) noted the use of Japanese agentive phrase markers as shown in (20) and stated that it was only through translating Dutch passives into Japanese in the 19th century that Japanese acquired the use of the complex agentive marker -ni yotte (or -ni yorite) (Kinsui 1991, 1997), whereby inanimate passive subjects can cooccur with a ni-yotte-marked animate agentive adjunct. As for ‘exceptional’ ni passives with an inanimate subject like (10e), Amano (2001) proposed that inanimate passive subjects with a ni-marked agentive NP can



7.2 Passives  163

be used when it is not difficult to postulate a sentient affectee (jueisha), which is not the referent of the subject (because it is inanimate), but someone (e.g., its possessor) who is affected by the event. The direct passive with an inanimate subject given earlier in (10e) is such a case. The agentive phrase can be followed by -ni because it is easy to postulate a sentient affectee, e.g., its author and/or its publisher. Secondly, Washio (1993) alluded to Korean passive sentences that look very similar to Japanese possessive passives like (11a). The Japanese possessive passives in (21) look very similar to the Korean sentences in (22).

(21) Possessive passives in Japanese a. 学生が

Gakusei-ga

先生に

手を

sensei-ni

つかまれた。

tukam-are-ta. (Washio 1993: 47 (5))

te-o

student-Nom teacher-by hand-Acc catch-pass-Pst ‘The student was caught by the hand by the teacher.’

b. ジョンが John-ga

メリーに 髪を Mary-ni

John-Nom Mary-by

kami-o

切られた。

kir-are-ta. (Washio 1993: 53 (11b))

hair-Acc cut-pass-Pst

‘John had his hair cut by Mary.’ (22) Possesive passive-like passives in Korean a. 학생이

Haksayng-i

선생님에게

손을

sensayngnim-eykey son-ul

student-Nom teacher-by 잡혔다.

hand-Acc

cap-hi-ess-ta. (Washio 1993: 47 (7a)) catch-pass-Pst-Pln ‘The student was caught by the hand by the teacher.’

b. 존이

John-i

메리에게

머리털을

깎였다.

hair-Acc

cut-pass-Pst-Pln

Mary-eykey melithel-ul kkakk-i-ess-ta. (Washio 1993: 53 (11a))

John-Nom Mary-by

‘John had his hair cut by Mary.’

164 passives and causatives The Korean passive examples in (22) can be considered to be derived from the active sentences with the double accusative construction in (23). (23) a. 선생님이

학생을

손을

잡았다.

Sensayngnim-i haksayng-ul son-ul teacher -Nom

cap-ass-ta.

student-Acc hand-Acc catch-Pst-Pln

‘The teacher caught the student by the hand.’

b. 메리가

Mary-ka

존을

John-ul

머리털을

깎았다.

melithel-ul kkakk-ass-ta.

Mary-Nom John-Acc hair-Acc

cut-pass-Pln

‘Mary cut John’s hair.’ Japanese, however, cannot have the construction in (23) due to the Double-o Constraint; the only way possible is to derive the subjects in (21) from the possessor position. What is intriguing about the above coincidence is that whose hair it is in both (21b) and (22b) crucially affects their grammatical status. If the hair is not John’s, but Bill’s, for example, the Korean passive sentence in (22b) turns ungrammatical, and the Japanese passive sentence in (21b) can only carry a negative or adversative connotation. That is, it cannot be considered as a possessive passive (because there is no possessor‒possessee relationship) but of the type of indirect passives like (11c). The same applies to (21a) and (22a), i.e., the hand must be the student’s, if not the passive turns ungrammatical in Korean, and it can only be classified as a genuine indirect passive (of a non-possessive type) in Japanese.

7.3 Causatives 7.3.1 Korean Crosslinguistically, causative constructions introduce a new ‘causer’ argument, with consequences for the expression of the external or subject argument of the base predicate (the ‘cause’), and in the case of transitives, for the direct object. Korean causatives are particularly interesting because unlike many languages, Korean allows multiple accusative patterns. Causatives are a construction where we see multiple accusative marking come into play. As with passives, Korean has three types of causative construction: lexical, morphological, and syntactic causative. We begin with lexical causatives in (24):



7.3 Causatives  165

(24) Lexical causatives a. 나는

철수에게

공부시킨다

Chelswu-Dat

study-caus-Pres-Pln

Na-nun Chelswu-eykey kongpwu-sikhi-n-ta. I-Top

‘I make Chelswu study.’

b. 민수가

Minswui-ka

철수를

Chelswuj-lul

자기

집으로

cakii, j cip-ulo

Minsu-Nom Chelswu-Acc self

Minswui-ka

철수를

Chelswuj-lul

ponay-ss-ta.

home-dir send-Pst-Pln

‘Minsui sent Chelswuj to selfi, j’s home.’

c. 민수가

보냈다

자기의

지도교수에게

소개했다

adviser-Dat

introduce-Pst-Pln

cakii, j -uy cido kyoswu-eykey sokayhay-ss-ta.

Minsu-Nom Chelswu-Acc self-Gen

‘Minsui introduced Chelswuj to selfi, *j’s adviser.’ The lexical causative in (24a), like the lexical passive, is formed from a transitive verbal noun plus the morphological causative of light ha- ‘do’. Just as toy- ‘become’ behaves as a passive light verb corresponding to active ha-, sikhi- ‘cause, make do’ fulfills the role of a causative light verb. The relationship of sikhi- to ha- is suppletive (there is no longer a phonologically regular morphological causative of ha-). The example of ponay- ‘send’ in (24b) is different: ponay- is a causative verb from the standpoint of lexical composition. Its meaning can be decomposed into ‘cause to send’. The syntactic status of lexical decomposition is controversial, but verbs like ponay- in Korean give some evidence for a more complex structure at some level of representation. Reflexive caki ‘self ’ can usually only be anteceded by subjects, as shown in (24c). But with ponay- ‘send’ the direct object can exceptionally antecede caki, as in (24b). This arguably justifies treating the direct object as a subject at some level of representation, as it would be in a causative structure. Morphological causatives involve the same allomorphs as the morphological passive: -i, -hi, -li, and -ki, as well as the distinct causative suffixes -wu, -kwu, and -chwu. (25) Morphological causative allomorphs a. 이 -i

Base stem Meaning 높- noph- ‘high’ 녹- nok-

‘meltintrans’

속- sok-

‘be tricked’

죽- cwuk- ‘die’ 줄- cwul-

‘decreaseintrans’

Causative 높이-

Meaning

녹이-

noph-i-

‘heighten’

nok-i-

‘melttrans’

속이-

cwuk-i-

‘kill’

soki-

‘deceive’

cwuli-

‘decreasetrans’

죽이-

줄이-

166 passives and causatives b. 히- hi

좁- cop-

‘narrow’

넓- nelp-

‘wide’

밝- palk읽- ilk-

잡- cap-

앉- anc-

c. 리- li

‘light, bright’ ‘read’ ‘catch’ ‘sit down’

좁히-

cophi-

‘narrow trans’

넓히-

palkhi-

‘lighten’

nelphi-

‘widen’

ilkhi-

‘make read’

caphi-

‘make grab’

anchi-

‘seat’

밝히-

읽히-

잡히-

앉히-

물- mwul- ‘bite’

물리-

mwulli-

‘make bite’

날- nal-

날리-

wulli-

‘make cry’

nalli-

‘make fly’

울- wul-

‘cry’

열- yel-

‘openintrans’

열리-

yelli-

‘opentrans’

벗- pes-

‘remove’

벗기-

peski-

‘make remove, strip off ’

웃- wus-

‘laugh’

d. 기- ki

‘fly’

울리-

숨- swum- ‘hideintrans’

숨기-

swumki- ‘hidetrans’

남- nam-

남기-

wuski-

‘make laugh’

namki-

‘leave behind’

e. 우- wu

‘remain’

웃기-

지- ci-

‘fall, disappear’ 지우-

ciwu-

‘erase’

비- pi-

‘empty’

비우-

piwu-

‘empty trans’

caywu-

‘make sleep’

깨- kkay- ‘awake’

깨우다 kkaywu- ‘awaken’

자- ca-

‘sleep’

재우-

솟- sos-

‘rise, sprout up’ 솟구-  soskwu-

낮- nac-

‘low’

f. 구 -kwu g. 추 -chwu 늦- nuc-

‘late’

낮추-

늦추-

‘raise’

nacchwu- ‘lower’ nucchwu- ‘make late’

As (25) shows, the allomorphy of the morphological causative is less regular than the morphological passive. For example, an /s-/ final stem is followed by -ki- in peski- ‘make remove, strip off ’ (25d), but by -kwu- in sos-kwu- ‘raise’. The irregularities reflect the fact that the morphological causative is the result of an older layer of derivation than the morphological passive; most scholars believe that the morphological passive is derived from the causative, following crosslinguistic trends. The



7.3 Causatives  167

relative regularity of the morphological passive can be seen in cases where the passive and causative approach homonymity: e.g., passive mek-hi- ‘be eaten’ follows the regular rule, while causative mek-i ‘feed, cause to eat’ follows the idiosyncratic pattern for stem-final /k-/ in causatives only. As many of the examples in (25) show, the morphological causative derives transitives from intransitives, including adjectival stems. In terms of case marking, the causee argument of a causativized intransitive is marked accusative (26a), while the causee of a causativized transitive may be marked dative, or, for most speakers in many contexts, accusative. (26) a. Morphological causative of intransitive i. 아이가 Ai-ka

운다

wu-n-ta.

Baby-Nom cry-Pres-Pln ‘The baby cries.’

ii. 메리가

Mary-ka

아이를/*에게

ai-lul/*-eykey

울린다

wul-li-n-ta.

Mary-Nom baby-Acc/*-Dat cry-caus-Pres-Pln ‘Mary makes the baby cry.’ b. Morphological causative of transitive i. 메리가

Mary-ka

피자를

phica-lul

먹는다

mek-nun-ta.

Mary-Nom pizza-Acc eat-Pres-Pln ‘Mary eats pizza.’

ii. 나는

존에게/을

피자를

먹인다

Na-nun

John-eykey/-ul phica-lul

I-Top

John-Dat/-Acc pizza-Acc eat-caus-Pres-Pln

mek-i-n-ta.

‘I make John eat pizza.’ As Song (2015: 111) points out, there is a semantic difference between dative and accusative marking on the causee in causatives of transitives such as mek-i- in (26b. ii). Accusative case marking is consistent with a situation where the causee has relatively little control, while dative case marking indicates a higher degree of control or volitionality on the part of the causee. The syntactic causative involves the adverbative suffix -key or the projective suffix -tolok followed by the higher verbs ha- ‘do’ or mantul- ‘make’ in (27).

168 passives and causatives (27) Syntactic causatives a. 나는

존을

가게했다

Na-nun John-lul I-Top

ka-key ha-yess-ta.

John-Acc go-adv do-Pst-Pln

‘I made John go.’

b. 나는

메리를

가게 만들었다

Na-nun Mary-lul

I-Top

ka-key mantul-ess-ta.

Mary-Acc go-adv make-Pst-Pln

‘I made Mary go.’ c. 나는

수를

Na-nun Sue-lul

I-Top

가도록

ka-tolok ha-yess-ta.

Sue-Acc go-Proj

‘I made Sue go.’

d. 나는

탐을

Na-nun Tom-ul I-Top

했다

do-Pst-Pln

가도록

만들었다

ka-tolok mantul-ess-ta.

Tom-Acc go-Proj

make-Pst-Pln

‘I made Tom go.’ The case-marking possibilities in syntactic causatives are freer than in morphological causatives. Thus, the causee in syntactic causatives can be marked dative, nominative, or accusative, regardless of the transitivity of the base predicate. (28) Case marking in syntactic causatives a. 존이

John-i

운다

wu-n-ta.

John-Nom cry-Pres-Pln ‘John cries.’

b. 메리가

May-ka

존을/에게/이

John-ul/-eykey/-i

울린다

wul-key ha-n-ta.

Mary-Nom John-Acc/-Dat/-Nom cry-adv do-Pres-Pln ‘Mary makes John cry.’

c. 존이

John-i

피자를

phica-lul

먹는다

mek-nun-ta.

John-Nom pizza-Acc eat-Pres-Pln ‘John eats pizza.’



7.3 Causatives  169 d. 메리가

Mary-ka

존에게/을/이

John-eykey/-ul/-ka

피자를

phica-lul

먹게

한다

mek-key ha-n-ta.

Mary-Nom John-Dat/-Acc/-Nom pizza-Acc eat-adv

do-Pres-Pln

‘Mary makes John eat pizza.’ However, evidence from adverb interpretation indicates that the structural position of nominative-marked causee and the dative/accusative-marked causee is different: (29) a. 내가

스스로

Nay-ka [susulo I-Nom 가게

존이

John-i

집에

cip-ey

by himself John-Nom house-dir 했다

ka-key] hay-ss-ta. go-adv do-Pst-Pln ‘I made John go back home by himself/myself.’

b. 내가

스스로

Nay-ka susulo I-Nom 가게

존에게

by himself John-Dat 했다

집에

John-eykey [cip-ey house-dir

ka-key] hay-ss-ta. go-adv do-Pst-Pln ‘I made John go back home by myself.’ In (29a), with nominative marking on the causee, the adverb may be interpreted in the main clause or associated with the embedded predicate (the bracketing indicated). In (29b) when the adverb occurs to the left of the dative-marked causee, it can only be construed with the higher predicate ha- ‘do, cause’, suggesting that the dative-marked cause is in the higher clause. In final part of this section, we describe the differences between morphological and syntactic causative patterns, summarizing results found by previous researchers as well as the data presented here.

170 passives and causatives (30) Differences between morphological and syntactic causatives Morphological Syntactic Manner of causation

Direct

Indirect

Nominative case possible

No

Yes

Negation scope

Wide

Wide/Narrow

Adverbial modifiers

Wide

Narrow

Honorifics

One location

Two locations

Auxiliary verb

One location

Two locations

As pointed out by previous researchers (e.g., Song 2015: 104 and references cited there), morphological causative tends to imply direct causation, while the syntactic causative is consistent with indirect causation. As we discuss, this contrast is not always clear, but the contrasting translations in (31a‒b) are indicative of the contrast. (31) Causation: direct vs indirect a. Morphological: direct 나는

존에게

피자를

I-Top

John-Dat

pizza-Acc eat-caus-Pst-Pln

Na-nun John-eykey phica-lul

먹인다

mek-i-ess-ta.

‘I fed John pizza.’ b. Syntactic: indirect 나는

존에게

피자를

I-Top

John-Dat

pizza-Acc eat-adv do-Pst-Pln

Na-nun John-eykey phica-lul

먹게하였 다

mek-key ha-yess-ta.

‘I made John eat pizza.’ We saw in (31) that syntactic causatives allow nominative marking of the causee, and related this pattern in (32) to a structure where there is a clause boundary between the causer and causee. The nominative causee pattern is impossible with morphological causatives: (32) a. 나는

철수에게/*가

책을

읽히었다

Na-nun Chelswu-eykey/*-ka

chayk-ul

I-Top

book-Acc read-caus-Pst-Pln

Chelswu-Dat/*-Nom

‘I made Chelswu read a book.’

b. 나는

철수에게/가

Na-nun Chelswu-eykey/-ka I-Top

책을

chayk-lul

Chelswu-Dat/-Nom book-Acc

‘I made Chelswu read a book.’

ilk-hi-ess-ta.

읽게했다

ilk-key hay-ss-ta. read-adv do-Pst-Pln



7.3 Causatives  171

The biclausal nature of syntactic causatives is confirmed by the ability of negation to appear either on the matrix causative predicate (33b.ii) or on the embedded predicate (33b.i); in contrast, morphological causatives allow only one position for negation, and it cannot take embedded scope (33a). (33) a. 나는

메리에게

책을

Mary-Dat

book-Acc read-caus-Susp Neg-Pst-Pln

Na-nun Mary-eykey chayk-ul

I-Top

읽히지

ilk-hi-ci

‘I didn’t make Mary read the book.’

b. i. 나는

책을

읽게하지

Mary-Dat

book-Acc read-adv do-Susp Neg-Pst-Pln 읽지

anh-ass-ta.

메리에게

책을

Mary-Dat

book-Acc read-Susp Neg-adv do-Pst-Pln

Na-nun Mary-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

않았다

ilk-key ha-ci

‘I didn’t make Mary read the book.’

ii. 나는

anh-ass-ta.

메리에게

Na-nun Mary-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

않았다

않게

ilk-ci

anh-key

했다

ha-yess-ta.

‘I made Mary not read the book.’ We saw in (29) that adverbs may receive either a matrix or an embedded interpretation in syntactic causatives, depending on their placement and the case marking of the causee (34b), but in morphological causatives, the same adverb is construed only as modifiers of ‘cause’ (34a). (34) a. 나는

메리에게

책을

Mary-Dat

book-Acc a lot

Na-nun Mary-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

‘I often made Mary read books.’

b. 나는

읽히었다

manhi ilk-hi-ess-ta.

메리에게

책을

Mary-Dat

book-Acc a lot

Na-nun Mary-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

많이

많이

read-caus-Pst-Pln 읽게

manhi ilk-key

하였다

ha-yess-ta.

read-adv do-Pst-Pln

‘I made Mary often read books.’ Further evidence for the biclausal nature of syntactic causatives comes from the placement of elements such as honorifics, auxiliaries, and light verbs. All of these may take matrix or embedded positions or both in syntactic causatives (35b‒c), but they may not be embedded under the causative suffix in morphological causatives (35a).

172 passives and causatives (35) Honorifics

a. 어머니께서

형님께

Emeni-kkeyse

hyeng-nim-kkey

책을

chayk-ul

mother-Nom (Hon) brother-Hon-Dat book-Acc

읽히신다

ilk-hi-si-n-ta. read-caus-Hon-Pres-Pln ‘Mother makes my brother read a book.’

b. 어머니께서

형님께

Emeni-kkeyse

hyeng-nim-kkey

책을

chayk-ul

mother-Nom (Hon) brother-Hon-Dat book-Acc

읽게

하신다

ilk-key

ha-si-n-ta.

read-adv do-Hon-Pres-Pln ‘Mother makes my brother read a book.’

c. 어머니께서

형님께

Emeni-kkeyse

hyng-nim-kkey

책을

chayk-ul

mother-Nom (Hon) brother-Hon-Dat book-Acc

읽으시게

ilk-usi-key

하신다

ha-si-n-ta.

read-Hon-adv do-Hon-Pres-Pln ‘Mother makes my brother read a book.’ (36) Light verbs a. 나는

존에게

책을

John-Dat

book-Acc read-caus-Inf give-Pst-Pln

Na-nun John-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

읽혀

주었다

ilk-hi-e

cwu-ess-ta.

‘I did John the favor of making him read a book.’

b. 나는

메리에게

책을

Mary-Dat

book-Acc read-Inf give-adv do-Pst-Pln

Na-nun Mary-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

읽어 ilk-e

주게

cwu-key

하였다

hay-ess-ta.

‘I made Mary do (someone) the favor of reading a book.’

c. 나는

탐에게

책을

Tom-Dat

book-Acc read-adv do.Inf give-Pst-Pln

Na-nun Tom-eykey chayk-ul I-Top

읽게

ilk-key

해

hay

‘I did Tom the favor of making him read a book.’

주었다

cwu-ess-ta



7.3 Causatives  173

These diagnostics show that syntactic casuatives have biclausal structure. The size of the clause embedded under -key or -tolok must be large enough to contain negation, honorifics, light verbs, and auxiliaries as well as to host manner and temporal adverbs. On the other hand, it cannot host tense; once again we see in Korean that nominative case is licensed in a context where overt tense is not. An appropriate analysis of the embedded clause in syntactic causatives might be as a type of irrealis clauses, similar to subjunctives in other languages. We examine the syntactic constituent associated with the root verb in morphological causatives in the next section.

7.3.2 Japanese Japanese has syntactic causatives, which are formed with a causative bound morpheme. The syntactic causatives are formed with a causative bound morpheme, which is clearly distinct from the passive morpheme in Japanese―unlike Korean, which has very similar sets of allomorphs for both morphological causatives and passives, a phenomenon widely seen in Altaic languages (Kazenin 2001) and Chinese. It is realized as -sase- when suffixed to a vowel verb, as in (37b), and -asewhen suffixed to consonant verb, as in (37a) (hereafter represented as -(s)ase-). The example in (37a) is a causative sentence with an intransitive verb ik- ‘go’, where the causee can be marked with either the accusative case marker -o or the dative case marker -ni.5 The example in (37b) is a causative sentence with a transitive verb tabe- ‘eat’, where the causee can be marked only with -ni. (37) a. メリーが Mary-ga

ジョンを/に John-o/ni

学校に

gakkō-ni

行かせた。 ik-ase-ta.

Mary-Nom John-Acc/Dat school-to go-caus-Pst ‘Mary made/let John go to school.’

b. メリーが Mary-ga

ジョンに/*を John-ni/*o

サラダを sarada-o

食べさせた。

tabe-sase-ta.

Mary-Nom John-Dat/*Acc salad-Acc read-caus-Pst ‘Mary made/let John eat the salad.’ The interpretation of a causative sentence with an intransitive verb, as shown in (37a), subtly differs depending on the case marker on the causee. It is normally the case that when the causee is marked with -o, it connotes that he or she was forced     5 

-Ni on the causee is considered as the dative case -ni only in the case of (38bi) and is considered as a postposition -ni in (38aii) and (38bii) (see Miyagawa 1999), but both will be just glossed as Dat and referred as such in this subsection for the ease of reference.

174 passives and causatives to carry out the event denotated by the embedded clause (or he or she was made to do it), whereas with -ni, it connotes that he or she was let to do it. Hence, the example in (37a) is called a make causative with -o, and it is called a let causative with -ni. With a transitive verb, as in (37b), the causee must be marked with -ni due to the Double-o Constraint (Shibatani 1973a), which prevents two NPs marked with an accusative case from appearing within the same VP or clause. Causative sentences with transitive verbs, however, can also be interpreted in two ways: as make causative and let causative readings (see Tonoike 1978 and Miyagawa 1999 and references cited there). Many different structures were proposed for Japanese causative sentences like those in (37). Here the structures discussed in Miyagawa (1999) are schematically shown in (38). In (38) there are four different structures that differ in terms of the transitivity of the embedded verb and the connotation (i.e., make or let causatives). (38) Causative constructions a. Intransitive verb: i. make causative: [s1 subject1-ga [s2 causee- o ii. let causative:

[s1 subject1-ga causeei-ni [s2

[vp

. . . verb]-(s)are . . .]]

proi

[vp . . . verb]-(s)are . . .]]

b. Transitive verb: i. make causative: [s1 subject1-ga [s2 causee-ni [vp . . . ii. let causative:

[s1 subject1-ga causeei-ni

NP-o verb]-(s)are . . .]]

[s2 proi [vp . . . NP-o verb]-(s)are . . .]]

All the structures postulated for causatives are biclausal. The let causative structures in (38a.ii) and (38b.ii) are roughly identical. The causee marked with -ni is an argument of the matrix clause and is coindexed with PRO, which is the subject of the embedded clause. The causative morpheme of the let type in (38a.ii) and (38b.ii) imposes a selectional restriction on the ni-phrase that it refer to an entity capable of carrying out the event denoted by the embedded clause on its own will (Tonoike 1978). The causative in (39) with -ni on the causee is ungrammatical because the flowers cannot bloom of their own will; it is grammatical with -o. The example in (39) with -o connotes that Mika took meticulous care and succeeded in making them bloom. The structural difference between make and let causatives in (38) crucially reflects the grammatical status of sentences like (39). (39) 美香が

Mika-ga

花を/*に

hana-o/*ni

咲かせた。 sak-ase-ta.

Mika-Nom flower-Acc/*Dat bloom-caus-Pst ‘Mika made the flowers bloom.’



7.3 Causatives  175

The make causative structures in both (38a.i) and (38b.i) have an overt causee in the subject position of the embedded clause. It is marked with -o in (38a.i), and with -ni in (38b.i) to avoid a violation of the Double-o Constraint. Although biclausal as potulated in (38), -(s)ase- is a bound morpheme, which requires it to be suffixed to an embedded verb, forming one word. Because of its affixal property, it behaves differently from Korean syntactic causatives and sometimes behaves similarly to Korean morphological causatives. The table in (40) shows how the Japanese syntactic causatives with -(s)ase- behave in regard to the criteria shown above in (30). (40)  Differences between Korean and Japanese causatives Korean (from (30))

Japanese

Morphological Syntactic

Syntactic

Direct

Indirect

Indirect

Nominative case possible No

Yes

No

Negation scope

Wide

Wide/Narrow Wide

Adverbial modifiers

Wide

Wide/Narrow Wide/Narrow

Honorifics

One location

Two locations Two locations

Auxiliary verb

One location

Two locations Two locations?

Manner of causation

The manner of causation of Japanese causatives with -(s)ase- can be considered as indirect because in principle they involve two human participants, causer and causee, and the former forces, persuades, or allows the latter to perform some action, thus the causee must be some entity that is capable of acting or bringing about a change by itself.6 A contrast in (41) illustrates this point. A lexical causative verb kise- ‘put (clothes on someone)’ can be used in (41a), which describes a rescue team member putting a shirt on an unconscious man. However, it is infelicitous to use a causative form ki-sase- ‘make/let someone wear (or put on clothes)’ instead, as in (41b), because the unconscious man is incapable of putting a shirt on by himself even if he was asked, advised, or coerced to do so. (41) a. 救急隊員が

Kyūkyū-taiin-ga

意識のない 人に

isiki-no nai

hito-ni

rescue-team.member-Nom unconscious man-on

シャツを syatu-o

着せた。 kise-ta.

shirt-Acc put-Pst

‘A rescue team member put a shirt on the unconscious man.’

    6 

The causee can be a nonhuman entity if it can spontaneously undergo some change on its own, e.g., for flowers to bloom, as in (39), or for concrete to harden (Aoki 1977).

176 passives and causatives b. #救急隊員が #Kyūkyū-taiin-ga

意識のない 人に isiki-no nai

hito-ni

シャツを syatu-o

rescue-team.member-Nom unconscious man-on-Dat shirt-Acc 着させた。 ki-sase-ta.

wear-caus-Pst ‘A rescue team member made/let the unconscious man put a shirt on.’ Marking the causee nominative is completely out, as shown in (42). The case arrays of verbs suffixed with -(s)ase- have been shown in (38). The causee can be marked accusative or dative, as illustrated above, but it can never be marked with the nominative case, which comes from the tenseless status of an embedded verb. (42) 母親が

Hahaoya-ga

子供*が/に

kodomo-*ga/ni

宿題を

shyukudai-o

させた。 s-ase-ta.

mother-Nom child-*Nom/Dat homework-Acc do-caus-Pst ‘The mother made her child do his homework.’ The scope of negation is always wide in the Japanese causatives, because a negator cannot appear within the embedded clause and must attach to the causative compound verb, i.e., V-(s)ase-. (43) a. *母親が

子供に

テレビを 見なさせた。

*Hahaoya-ga kodomo-ni terebi-o mother-Nom child-Dat

TV-Acc

mi-na-sase-ta.

watch-Neg-caus-Pst

‘The mother made the child not watch TV.’

b. 母親が

Hahaoya-ga

子供に

テレビを 見させなかった。

kodomo-ni terebi-o

mother-Nom child-Dat

TV-Acc

mi-sase-na-katta.

watch-caus-Neg-Pst

‘The mother did not let the child watch TV.’ Adverbial modifiers in Japanese causatives show patterns similar to the Korean syntactic causatives in being somehow confined to modify an element within the same clause it appears in. The adverbial phrase hitori-de ‘alone’ in (44a) can easily modify the causee Hanako’s act of working late till night, when it is placed to its right, but it is difficult to do so when it is placed to its left, as in (44b). Hitoride ‘alone’ can be easily associated with the matrix subject there. Terada (1990)



7.3 Causatives  177

observed that such association is particularly difficult, when the causee is marked with -ni (observe the judgments shown in (44b)). (44) a. 社長は

Syatyō-wa

花子を/に

一人で

Hanako-o/ni

夜

hitori-de yoru

president-Top Hanako-Acc/Dat alone

遅くまで

osoku-made hatarak-ase-ta.

night late-till

‘The president made Hanako work till late at night alone.’7

b. 社長は

Syatyō-wa

一人で

花子?を/?*に

hitori-de Hanako-?o/?*ni

president-Top alone

夜

yoru

働かせた。

work-caus-Pst

遅くまで

働かせた。

osoku-made hatarak-ase-ta.

Hanako-Acc/Dat night late-till

work-caus-Pst

‘The president made Hanako work till late at night alone.’ Subject honorifics can be marked in two ways in Japanese causatives, just as in Korean syntactic causatives, but it is done in a way different from Korean. In a Korean syntactic causative, either the embedded verb or the matrix verb ha-/ mantul- ‘make’, or both can be marked with honorifics. In a Japanese causative sentence, either the embedded verb alone or the whole causative compound verb (V-(s)ase-) can be marked with honorifics. One type of the commonly used Japanese subject honorifics is formed with a circumfix o-V-ni nar-. With the verb nomu ‘drink’, we derive its subject honorific form as shown in (45a) (the portion highlighted in bold is the subject honorific form). In (45a), the speaker’s deference is directed at the referent of the causee, i.e., the prince, and not at the nanny. It is also possible to mark the whole causative compound verb nom-ase- ‘make drink’ with this circumfix, as shown in (45b). In (45b), the speaker’s deference is directed at the matrix subject the nanny, but not at the prince. Thus, in principle, subject honorification allows either the embedded subject or the matrix subject as its target, but never both. This is because subject honorific circumfixing cannot be applied doubly, as shown in (45c). (45) a. 乳母が Uba-ga

王子に ōzi-ni

薬を

kusuri-o

お飲みになら せた。

o-nomi-ni nar -ase-ta.

nanny-Nom prince-Dat medicine-Acc SHon.drink

-caus-Pst

‘The nanny made the prince take medicine.’

    7 

The o-causative sentences in (44) are Terada’s (1990: 245, 247) examples, and she presented similar examples of ni-causatives there.

178 passives and causatives b. 乳母が Uba-ga

王子に

薬を

ōzi-ni

kusuri-o

お飲ませにな った。

o-nom-ase-ni

nat-ta.

nanny-Nom prince-Dat medicine-Acc SHon.drink-caus-Pst

c. *乳母が *Uba-ga

王子に

薬を

ōzi-ni

kusuri-o

お(お)飲みにならせになった。

o(o)-nomi-ni nar-ase-ni nat-ta.

nanny-Nom prince-Dat medicine-Acc SHon.drink-caus-Pst

d. 乳母が Uba-ga

王子に

薬を

ōzi-ni

kusuri-o

お召し上がらせになった。

o-mesiagar-ase-ni nat-ta.

nanny-Nom prince-Dat medicine-Acc SHon.drink-caus-Pst Exceptionally, however, if the embedded verb has a suppletive subject honorific form, it is possible to have both the embedded and matrix subjects as the target of subject honorification: e.g., if the suppletive subject honorific form mesiagar‘eat, drink, take (medicine)’ instead of the regular honorific form is used, as in (45d). Thanks to the suppletive form in (45d), where the causative compound verb mesiagar-ase ‘make take (medicine)’ is circumfixed with o- . . .-ni nar-, it can now show deference to both the matrix and embedded subjects. If there is no suppletive form, it is not possible to show deference to both the matrix and embedded subjects, unlike Korean syntactic causatives, in which there is no problem marking both the embedded and matrix verbs with subject honorifics. Korean syntactic caustives allow auxiliary verbs to appear in both the embedded and matrix clause, Japanese causatives in general behave in the same way, but there are some exceptions. Frequently used Japanese auxiliaries are given in (46). (46) V-te ageru

‘do something for others’ (benefactive)

V-te kureru ‘do something for me’ (benefactive) V-te miru

‘try doing something’

V-te simau

‘finish doing something, end up doing something’

V-te iru

‘be doing something’

The causative morpheme can attach to auxiliaries or causative compounds, as shown in (47). The auxiliary (-te) miru is suffixed by -(s)ase in (47a), and it attaches to the causative compound verb utaw-ase-te ‘try singing’ in (47b). (47) a. 私は

メリーに

Watasi-wa Mary-ni I-Top

歌って みさせた。 utatte

mi-sase-ta.

Mary-Dat singing try-caus-Pst

‘I made Mary try singing.’



7.3 Causatives  179 b. 私は

メリーに

Watasi-wa Mary-ni I-Top

歌わせて

utaw-ase-te

みた。 mita.

Mary-Dat sing-caus-Ger tried

‘I tried making Mary sing.’ The causative morpheme -(s)ase-, however, cannot attach to the benefactive auxiliary kureru ‘do me a favor of . . .’, and it does not usually suffix to another benefactive ageru ‘do someone a favor of . . .’, either, as shown in (48a). If there is enough contextual information to understand the use of a benefactive form, it improves, as in (48b). There is no problem for kureru and ageru to follow causative compound verbs, as shown in (48c, d). (48) a. 私は

美香に

Watasi-wa Mika-ni I-wa

本を

hon-o

呼んで *くれ/??あげさせた。 yonde

*kure/??age-sase-ta.

Mika-Dat book-Acc reading Ben-caus-Pst

‘I made Mika do (me/someone) the favor of reading a book.’ b. ?私は

目の

?Watasi-wa me-no I-Top

彼女の

手を

お婆さんの ために

warui obāsan-no

eye-Gen bad

kanozyo-no te-o her

悪い

old.lady

美香に

tame-ni Mika-ni sake-for Mika-Dat

引いて あげさせた。 hiite

age-sase-ta.

hand-Acc leading Ben-caus-Pst

‘I made Mika lead the visually impaired lady by the hand.’

c. 美香は

Mika-wa

私に

本を

watasi-ni hon-o

Mika-Top I-Dat 美香に

Watasi-wa Mika-ni

I-Top

yom-ase-te

くれた。 kure-ta.

book-Acc read-caus-Ger Ben-Pst

‘Mika let me read the book’

d. 私は

読ませて

本を

hon-o

読ませて

yom-ase-te

あげた。 age-ta.

Mika-Dat book-Acc read-caus-Ger Ben-Pst

‘I let Mika read the book.’ As shown above, the Japanese syntactic causative morpheme -(s)ase- exhibits mixed behaviors, patterning the same way as the Korean syntactic causatives in some respects and patterning the same way as the Korean morphological causatives in others. It will be shown why we call it syntactic and assign biclausal structure in the following subsection.

180 passives and causatives We will show below how Japanese causatives can indeed be considered ­syntactic and biclausal, particularly with respect to subject honorification and ­reflexive-binding. This will demonstrate that the first component (i.e., an embedded verb) of a Japanese causative compound verb can participate in a syntactic operation within its own clause. Before showing that they are syntactic, however, it will be shown below first that Japanese causative compound verbs indeed have the status of words. Japanese causative compound verbs behave as one word with regard to (i) accentuation and (ii) coordination. First, Japanese causative compound verbs never have more than one accent fall. As words in Tokyo dialect can have one accent fall at most (Vance 2008), this is a strong piece of evidence that they appear as one word. Japanese causative compound verbs appear atonic with atonic verbs and tonic with tonic verbs (unless followed by a suffix that changes their accentuation pattern regressively). The atonic verbs ik- ‘go’ and kari- ‘borrow’ derive atonic causative compound verbs with no accent fall when incorporated into -(s)ase-, as shown in (49a, b), and the tonic verbs mí- ‘see’ and nóm- ‘drink’ result in tonic causative compound verbs with only one accent fall, as shown in (49c, d). (49) Japanese syntactic causative compound verbs (accentuation patterns) With atonic verbs a. 行かせる ik-ase-ru

行かせた ik-ase-ta

With tonic verbs

c. 見させる

mi-sasé-ru

見させた

mi-sáse-ta

go-caus-NPst

go-caus-Pst

see-caus-NPst see-caus-Pst

‘make/let go’

‘made/let go’

‘make/let see’

kari-sase-ru

kari-sase-ta

b. 借りさせる

借りさせた

d. 飲ませる

‘made/let see’

nom-asé-ru

borrow-caus-NPst borrow-caus-Pst

drink-caus-NPst

‘make/let borrow’ ‘made/let borrow’

‘make/let drink’

飲ませた

nom-áse-ta drink-caus-Pst ‘made/let drink’ Secondly, -(s)ase- cannot take coordinate structure because it is separated from the first conjuct verb. The verb phrases sake-o nomi ‘drink sake’ and sakana-o tabe ‘eat fish’ in (50a) cannot be both associated with -sase-, but only the latter (‘eat fish’) can be construed as the target of causation. This is because the verb nomi ‘drink’ is separated from -(s)ase- in (50a). This sentence is ungrammatical for the intended reading. In contrast, the Korean verb phrases swul-ul masi-key ‘drink wine-Comp’ and sayngsen-ul mek-key ‘eat fish-Comp’ can both be interpreted as the target of causation in (50b).



7.3 Causatives  181

(50) Coordination8 a. *メリーが *Mary-ga

ジョンに John-ni

酒を

[sake-o

飲み

(そして) 魚を

食べさせた

and

eat-cause-Pst

nomi], (sosite)

Mary-Nom John-Dat wine-Acc drink

[sakana-o tabe]-sase-ta. (J) fish-Acc

‘Mary made John drink sake and eat fish.’

b. 메리가

Mary-ka

존에게

John-eykey [swul-ul

Mary-Nom John-Dat [생선을

[술을

먹게]

마시게]

masi-key]

(그리고) (kuliko)

wine-Acc drink-adv and 하였다

[sayngsen-ul mek-key] ha-yess-ta. (K) fish-Acc

eat-adv

do-Pst-Pln

‘Mary made John drink wine and eat fish.’ Japanese causative compound verbs exhibit characteristics of wordhood, as shown above, and yet the first member of such a causative compound verb, i.e., the verb of a caused event, can also be shown to independently have syntactic relationships with other elements in the sentence. Two pieces of evidence are presented below: (i) subject honorification and (ii) reflexive-binding. It has already been shown above that the first member of a Japanese causative compound verb can be realized in its subject honorific form, which shows that the embedded verb can indeed have a checking relationship with its subject in terms of subject honorification. The focus here is to see if it is possible to change the first member of a lexical causative verb into its subject honorific form. The lexical causative kise- ‘to put (clothes) on (someone)’ consists of the verb ki- ‘to wear’ and the lexical causative morpheme -se- in (51a). It is impossible to replace the verb ki- with its subject honorific form omesi-ni nar- ‘wear/SubHon’, as shown in (51b). (51) Lexical causative (subject honorification) a. 乳母が Uba-ga

王子に ōzi-ni

服を

huku-o

着せた。

ki-se-ta. (J)

nanny-Nom prince-Dat clothes-Acc put-on-Pst ‘The nanny put clothes on the prince.’

b. *乳母が *Uba-ga

王子に ōzi-ni

服を

huku-o

お召しになりさせた。

omesi-ni nari-se-ta. (J)

nanny-Nom prince-Dat clothes-Acc put-on-SHon-caus-Pst ‘The nanny put clothes on the prince.’ (The speaker’s respect to the prince.)     8 

See Di Sciullo and Williams (1987: 105) for similar French causative examples with coordinate structure contrasted with Japanese causatives.

182 passives and causatives Unlike syntactic causative compound verbs, the morphological forms of lexical causative verbs are unpredictable because they are derived with different lexical causative allomorphs. Each lexical causative verb must therefore be listed as an entry in the lexicon. The same reason applies to the Korean morphological causatives, in which subject honorifics can only attached to the causative morpheme but never to the verb, (ilk-hi-si- ‘read-caus-SHon’ but not *ilk-usi-hi- ‘read-SHoncaus’, as shown in (35a)). This is because the Korean morphological causatives are also lexically (rather than syntactically) derived.9 Reflexive-binding is another piece of evidence that shows that the first member of a causative compound verb is capable of having some kind of syntactic relationship with another element within its clause. The reflexive pronoun zibun in a causative sentence can have either the matrix clause subject (the causer) or the embedded subject (or the causee) as its antecedent. The sentence in (52a) is an example of syntactic causative, which allows either okāsan ‘mother’, or kodomo ‘child’ to be an antecedent of zibun. This supports the assumption that the first component (of nor-ase-) nor- ‘to ride’ has kodomo ‘child’ as its subject in the embedded clause, as in (38a.i). The lexical causative in (52b), on the other hand, allows its subject oāsan to be an antecedent of zibun but not its direct object kodomo. This is because kodomo ‘child’ can never appear as the subject of nor- ‘ride’ but only as the object of nose- ‘put in/on’, and hence it cannot antecede zibun. (52) a. Japanese syntactic causative (reflexive-binding) お母さんiが 子供を

Okāsani-ga

自分i/jの

力で

車に

のらせた。

kodomoj-o zibuni/j-no tikara-de kuruma-ni nor-ase-ta. (J)

mother-Nom child-Acc self-Gen

power-by car-in

ride-make-Pst

‘The mother made her child get in the car by herself (literally, by her own power).’ b. Japanese lexical causative お母さんiが 子供を

Okāsani-ga

自分i/*jの

力で

車に

のせた。

kodomoj-o zibuni/*j-no tikara-de kuruma-ni no-se-ta. (J)

mother-Nom child-Acc self-Gen

power-by car-in

give.ride-Pst

‘The mother put her child in the car by herself (literally, by her own power).’

    9 

‘Lexical’ causatives and compounds are illustrated here as being derived by a nonsyntactic method and contrasted with syntactically derived causatives and compounds. How to derive causatives and compounds, however, largely depends on a theoretical orientation; some theoretical approaches derive lexical causatives and compounds in a syntactic way. The purpose of this chapter is not to deny such syntactic approaches but rather to highlight the differences between Japanese and Korean causatives and compounds. See Harley (2008), for example, for an approach to derived Japanese ‘lexical’ causatives syntactically, and an analysis of Korean morphological causatives, which will be introduced later in this chapter.



7.4 Outstanding issues  183

As shown above, the Japanese causative compound verb, although it has the status of one word, allows the first member of the causative complex to participate in syntactic operations, e.g., by interacting with its subject for the checking of subject honorification features and allowing its subject to function as an antecedent of a reflexive pronoun. For the same reason, -(s)ase- causatives and the Korean syntactic causatives also behave similarly in adverb placement, as shown in (44).10

7.4  Outstanding issues In this final section, we focus on two issues concerning Korean causatives and passives: the interaction of passive and causative, and the debate over the supposed synonymity of morphological and syntactic causatives. We also introduce issues concerning Japanese passives: a proposal to account for the above-mentioned conflicting passive phenomena and a radical uniform hypothesis on Japanese passives.

7.4.1  Passive/causative interaction It is possible to form a syntactic passive of a morphological causative, but when we do, not all expected derived patterns are acceptable: (53) Morphological causative + syntactic passive a. 어머니가 Emeni-ka

아이에게/를 ai-eykey/lul

밥을

pap-ul

먹인다

mek-i-n-ta.

Mother-Nom baby-Dat/Acc meal-Acc eat-caus-Pres-Pln ‘Mother makes a baby eat a meal.’

b. 밥이

Pap-i

어머니에 의해서 아이에게 먹여진다 emeni-ey uy hayse ai-eykey

Meal-Nom mother-by

baby-Dat

‘The meal was fed to the baby by the mother.’

c. *밥이

*Pap-i

어머니에 의해서 아이를 emeni-ey uy hayse ai-lul

Meal-Nom mother-by

mek-i-e-ci-n-ta. eat-caus-Inf-pass-Pres-Pln

먹이어진다

mek-i-e-ci-n-ta.

baby-Acc eat-caus-Inf-pass-Pres-Pln

‘Meal is eaten to a baby by mother.’     10  Tsukamoto (1995, 1997), contrasting Japanese syntactic compounds such as causatives, desideratives, and potentials, which exhibit wordhood (a incorporating feature), with Korean corresponding structures made up of more than one word (a periphrastic feature), argued that Japanese has an incorporating typological feature.

184 passives and causatives d. *밥이

*Pap-i

어머니에 의해서 아이가 emeni-ey uyhayse ai-ka

Meal-Nom mother-by

Ai-ka

mek-i-e-ci-n-ta.

baby-Nom eat-caus-Inf-pass-Pres-Pln

‘Meal is eaten to a baby by mother.’

e. 아이가

먹이어진다

어머니에 의해서 밥이

먹이어진다

emeni-ey uy hayse pap-i

Baby-Nom mother-by

mek-i-e-ci-n-ta.

meal-Nom eat-caus-Inf-pass-Pres-Pln

‘Meal is eaten to a baby by mother.’ (53b) and (e) show that either the causee (e) or the underlying direct object (b) may be passivized. The ungrammaticality of (c) is explained by the fact that syntactic -cipassives disallow accusative case. The contrast between (d) and (e) however requires further explanation. One possible explanation is that the multiple nominative pattern in (e) is a ‘default’ pattern that occurs only when no other case marking is available. Since structural accusative is unavailable for the direct object pap ‘rice’ in (e), default nominative is assigned. On the other hand, the cause argument ai ‘child’ can be marked dative, as in (b); given this possibility, default nominative is disallowed in (d). However morphological passives suggest a different explanation of the same paradigm (54): (54) a. 아이가 Ai-ka

밥을

pap-ul

먹는다

mek-nun-ta.

Baby-Nom meal-Acc eat-Pres-Pln ‘A baby eats meal.’

b. 어머니가 Emeni-ka

아이에게 밥을 ai-eykey

pap-ul

먹인다

mek-i-n-ta.

Mother-Nom baby-Dat meal-Acc eat-caus-Pres-Pln ‘Mother makes a baby eat meal.’

c. 일본에서

밥이

Ilpon-eyse, pap-i

잘

cal

먹힌다

mek-hi-n-ta.

Japan-Loc meal-Nom well eat-pass-Pres-Pln ‘In Japan, meal is eaten well.’

d. 밥이

Pap-i

어머니에 의해서 아이에게 먹힌다 emeni-ey uy hayse ai-eykey

Meal-Nom mother-by

mek-hi-n-ta.

baby-Dat eat-pass-Pres-Pln

‘The meal was fed to the baby by the mother.’ (Not ‘The meal was eaten to the baby by the mother.’ )



7.4 Outstanding issues  185 e. *밥이

*Pap-i

어머니에 의해서 아이를 emeni-ey uy hayse ai-lul

Meal-Nom mother-by *Pap-i

어머니에 의해서 아이가

emeni-ey uy hayse ai-ka

Meal-Nom mother-by

Ai-ka

어머니에 의해서 밥이

emeni-ey uy hayse pap-i

Baby-Nom mother-by

먹힌다

mek-hi-n-ta.

baby-Nom eat-pass-Pres-Pln

‘The meal was fed to the baby by the mother.’

g. 아이가

mek-hi-n-ta.

baby-Dat eat-pass-Pres-Pln

‘The meal was fed to the baby by the mother.’

f. *밥이

먹힌다

먹힌다

mek-hi-n-ta.

meal-Nom eat-pass-Pres-Pln

‘The meal was fed to the baby by the mother.’ (54c) is the normal morphological passive mek-hi- ‘be eaten’ of transitive mek‘eat’. (54d) uses the same morphological passive marker -hi-, but syntactically and semantically this example is passive not of the simple transitive (54a) but of the morphological causative (54b). It is often said that the morphological passive and causative in Korean is restricted in that the two suffixes cannot combine, in contrast to languages like Japanese where both passives of causatives and causatives of passives are possible. Examples like (54d‒g) suggest that this restriction is purely morphological: a sequence such as *mek-i-(h)- ‘be caused to eat’ is morphologically ill-formed but syntactically the passive causative construal of (54d) is not only possible but obligatory. Now, in (54e‒f ) we see that passivization of the direct object pap ‘meal’ over the causee ai ‘child’ is not permitted when the causee is marked with structural case, accusative (e), or nominative (f ). We cannot account for (e) in the same way as (53c), because morphological passives allow assignment of accusative case, as we saw in (8a). Instead, the explanation for the ungrammaticality of (54e‒f ) must be Relativized Minimality, the generalization that one structurally case-marked NP may not be moved over another. Passivization of the direct object over the causee is possible only when the causee is marked with nonstructural dative case, as in (54d).

7.4.2  Direct vs indirect causation In 7.4.1 we touched on the syntactic and semantic differences between morphological and syntactic causatives. Following previous researchers, we characterized the difference between the morphological and syntactic causative in (31) in terms of directness of causation. But this distinction has been disputed by Yang (1974),

186 passives and causatives who argues that morphological causatives like (31a) may also be used in cases of indirect causation, contra Shibatani (1973b) (see the summary of this debate in Song 2015). The crux of Yang’s argument is that we find ambiguous interpretation of the adverb in examples like (55), due to Shibatani (1973b), cited here from Song (2015: 106). (55) 어머니가 Emeni-ka

아이에게 옷을 ai-eykey

os-ul

빨리

ppalli

입히었다

ip-hi-ess-ta.

Mother-Nom child-Dat clothes-Acc quickly wear-caus-Pst-Pln ‘The mother quickly dressed the child.’ OR ‘The mother made the child dress quickly. Song confirms Yang’s judgment, contra Shibatani, that ppalli ‘quickly’ may be construed either with the base verb ‘wear’ or with the entire causative predicate ‘make wear’. How are we to reconcile this ambiguity with the unambiguity of (34a), where the frequency adverb manhi ‘often’ can only be construed with the base verb ilkread? Song (2015) cites an additional example where an adverb receives only the lower reading: (56) 경찰이

살인범을

Kyengchalkwan-i salinpem-ul Policeman-Nom

어렵게

elyepkey

죽이었다

cwuk-i-ess-ta.

murderer-Acc with.difficulty die-caus-Pst-Pln

‘The policeman killed the murderer with difficulty.’ NOT ‘The policeman caused the murderer to die in a difficult manner.’ The answer to this question has to do with the nature of the adverbs involved and the syntactic structure associated with morphological causatives. Whitman and Hahn (1988) argue that morphological causatives do involve an embedded structure, the smallest syntactic category compatible with the causee and other arguments of the base predicate. In the case of morphological causatives of transitives, this is the smallest category containing a VP and its external (typically agent) argument, in modern syntactic terms, ‘small’ vP. In the case of morphological causatives of intransitives, the embedded category may be simply VP. When we examine the base predicates in example (55), we see that it is transitive; the embedded category is thus vP, which is large enough to host a manner adverb such as ppalli ‘quickly’. On the other hand, in (56) the base predicate is an unaccusative intransitive, so the embedded category is a minimal VP, too small to host even manner adverbs. Finally, in (34a), while the embedded category is again vP, frequentative



7.4 Outstanding issues  187

adverbs such as manhi ‘often’ typically occupy a position associated with aspect above vP. The upshot of this analysis is that morphological and syntactic causatives are structurally very different, but in specific cases such as (55) the syntactic domains involved may overlap enough to allow them to accommodate adverbs of the same type.

7.4.3  Issues concerning Japanese passives It has been shown above that there are two competing hypotheses on Japanese direct and indirect passives and that there is evidence for and against both hypotheses. To solve this puzzle, Hoshi (1999, 1991) presented an analysis in which he divided the Japanese passives into three groups, ni direct passive, e.g., (10a), ni indirect passive, e.g., (11c), and ni-yotte passive (10g). Hoshi (1999) postulates the structures schematically given in (57) for the three types of passives. (57) Three types of Japanese passives a. ni-indirect passive: [s1 subject1-ga

[s2 subject2-ni

[vp . . .  verb]]-rare . . .]

b. ni-direct passive: [s1 subject1i-ga [s2 proi [vp (agent-ni) . . . [vp . . .  verb]]-rare . . .] c. ni yotte-passive:

[s1 subject1i-ga

[vp (agent-ni yotte) . . . verb-rare . . .]]

Both the ni-direct and indirect passives in (57a, b) are biclausal, and the matrix morpheme -(r)are- is a two-place predicate taking a sentient (animate) subject (subject1) and a clause (s2), which accounts for why both types generally prohibit an inanimate (nonsentient) passive subject. The ni direct passive in (57b), unlike the ni indirect passive in (57a), involves movement of the null pronoun subject (pro) from the object position where t is. PRO is coindexed with the matrix subject (subject1) in (57b), which guarantees that a reflexive pronoun zibun be bound by the same referent despite appearing in a biclausal structure. Being monoclausal with only one subject, the ni-yotte passive in (57c) also ensures that a reflexive pronoun be antecedented by the subject. Hoshi’s (1999) analysis is close to the uniform hypothesis in that he postulates biclausal structure for both direct and indirect ni-passives. Recently a more radical uniform hypothesis was proposed by Ishizuka (2012, 2017), where she proposes that all cases of passives in (10) and (11) have monoclausal structure in which the subject is derived by movement. Ishizuka (2017) writes as follows.

188 passives and causatives (58) ‘Ishizuka’s (2010a, 2012) proposal differs from previous approaches in that the source of the grammatical subject is not restricted to the direct object but encompasses the genitive and various other obliques including the ablative and dative.’ (p. 411) Ishizuka’s analysis of an indirect passive like (11c) postulates a position from which the passive subject is moved. For example, the intransitive verb hur- ‘rain/ fall’ takes an adjunct postpositional phrase, as shown in (59a). She assumes that the passive subject has moved from there in (59b), and no postposition remains behind because postpositional stranding is not allowed in Japanese.11 (59) a. 恵みの

雨が

Megumi-no ame-ga blessed

その

地域の

[PP sono tiiki-no

rain-Nom that

Sono tiiki-no

that

人々は

恵みの

降った。

hitobito-ni] hutta.

region-Gen people-on

‘Blessed rain fell on the people in that area.’

b. その 地域の

人々に

fell

雨に

降られて

rain-by

fall-pass-Ger

hitobitoi-wa Megumi-no ame-ni [PP ti ] hur-are-te

area-Gen people-Top blessed

喜んで

いる。

rejoiced

are

(yorokonde iru).

‘The people rejoiced at blessed rain falling on them.’ It is an ambitious approach and probably needs to account for many questions. One of the most intriguing questions for us is: granted that all Japanese passive sentences are derived by movement of some element to subject position, why is it that Korean does not have passive sentences similar to indirect passives like (11c)? For all Japanese passive constructions that had been assumed to involve movement of some sort (i.e., direct ni passives, possessive passives, and ni-yotte passives) there are similar Korean passives, whereas there are no Korean passive sentences that correspond to Japanese passives without movement. If it is indeed the case that Japanese indirect sentences like (11c) allow the complement of a postposition to move to subject position, why are there no such Korean sentences? What mechanism prevents them from happening in Korean and licenses them in Japanese?

    11  Ishizuka’s (2017) analysis in (58) treats both the ‘indirect’ passives in (11a) and (11b) as instances of passivization of an oblique element (i.e., an adjunct).



7.5 Conclusion  189

7.5 Conclusion In this chapter, we have discussed passive and causative constructions. In Korean constructions with passives as well as those with causatives, we describe the basic principles of forming the patterns, three types of patterns (lexical, morphological, and syntactic), and the major characteristics of each pattern. In lexical passives, passive light verbs toy- ‘become’ and mac- ‘receive’ form predicates with verbal nouns. For morphological passives, there are four passive morphemes, -i, -hi, -li, and -ki, and the process is not completely productive. That is, there are transitive stems to which these passive suffixes cannot attach. Syntactic passives are formed with the suffix -ci- by attaching it to the infinitive form of the verb. Syntactic passives differ from morphological passives in that the former do not allow accusative case marking, whereas the latter do. There are also four different ‘by phrases’ in Korean that relate to the characteristics of the noun phrase of by. Japanese passives have been derived with the passive morpheme -(r)are- since the 8th century. They are classified into two types: i.e., direct and indirect passives. We illustrated their different semantic and syntactic behaviors (e.g., reflexive-binding) and agentive phrase markers (i.e., -ni vs -ni yotte) and introduced different approaches to accounting for them. We also referred to similar passive phenomena found in both Japanese and Korean, namely, (i) the animacy of a passive subject and the form of a cooccurring agentive phrase and (ii) ‘possessive passives’. In Korean causative constructions, a new subject is introduced, a subject is downgraded to an indirect object, an existing direct object stays as it is, and a causative morpheme is added into the predicate. For lexical causatives, a lexical verb shows a causative meaning by itself. For morphological causatives, seven types are introduced with different causative morphemes, i, hi, li, ki, wu, kwu, and chwu. The causee of morphological causatives with intransitive verbs is marked accusative, while the causee of morphological causatives with transitives is marked dative or accusative. It is observed by Song (2015) that dative marking on the causee of a causativized transitive indicates a higher degree of control. For syntactic causatives, four types are introduced with four syntactic patterns, -key ha, -key mantul, -tolok ha, and -tolok mantul. Finally, we showed seven major differences between morphological and syntactic causatives: causation and case change in the nominative marker, negation scope, adverbial modifiers, and cooccurrence with honorifics and auxiliary predicates. The causative morpheme in Japanese is -(s)ase-, which is a bound morpheme and thus forms one word with another verb but is considered to have biclausal structure, just like Korean syntactic causatives with -key/-tolok ha-/mantul-. The causative construction exhibits different arrays of cases depending on the transitivity of the embedded verb and the semantic role of the causee. Different structures postulated to account for them are illustrated, particularly in regard to the syntactic behavior of the dative-marked causee, i.e., such a causee with an intransitive

190 passives and causatives verb requires that it be an entity capable of bringing about the event denoted by the verb. The syntactic behaviors of Japanese (s)ase causatives are compared with the Korean syntactic and morphological causatives. It was shown that Japanese causatives mostly behave like Korean syntactic compounds but differ from them in certain respects due to the affixal property of the causative morpheme. Lastly, we turned to outstanding issues of passive and causative constructions. One of the two issues concerning Korean causatives and passives presented above focused on the interaction of passive and causative, and another examined if morphological causatives have similar semantic properties as syntactic causatives and hence allow a similar syntactic approach. We also introduced two relatively recent approaches to Japanese passives: one proposed by Hoshi (1999) and the other proposed by Ishizuka (2012, 2017).

8

Relative clauses 8.1 Introduction Comrie (1998, 2006) argued, drawing on findings from Japanese (Matsumoto 1988), that there are two types of relative clauses in the world: the Asian type and the European type. He gave Korean examples in (1)‒(3). The characteristics of the Asian type are as follows: (i) a noun modifying clause like (3) is allowed in addition to an ‘ordinary’ relative clause construction like (1) and an S-fact clause (or a noun complement) construction, like (2); (ii) Asian relative clauses do not have any gaps; and (iii) ‘there are no constraints on relativizability of noun phrases in the attributive clause construction when it has a relative clause interpretation, although there may, of course, be pragmatic constraints’ (Comrie 1998: 52).1 (1) ‘Ordinary’ relative clause construction [그 [ku

여자에게

책을

yeca-eykey chayk-ul

준]

cwu-n]

남자

namca (K)

that woman-to book-Acc give-PstN man ‘the man who gave a book to the woman’ (Comrie 1998: 52 (3)) (2) S-fact construction [그 남자가

[ku namca-ka

그

ku

여자에게

책을

yeca-eykey chayk-ul

준]

cwu-n]

사실

sasil (K)

the man-Nom that woman-to book-Acc give-PstN fact ‘the fact that the man gave a book to the woman’ (Comrie 1998: 52 (4)) (3) Noun-modifying construction (not observable in the European type) [어떤사람이 [ettensalam-i some person-Nom

문을

두드리고

mwun-ul twutuli-ko

있는]

iss-nun]

소리

soli (K)

door-Acc knock-Comp be-PresN noise

‘the noise of someone knocking at the door’ (Comrie 1998: 52 (5))

1  Square brackets are added around noun-modifying clauses and head nouns are underlined, although the original examples did not have these.

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0008

192  rel ative cl auses First, let us check how the three types in (1)‒(3) differ. The relative clause in (1), where the subject is relativized, is modifying the underlined noun that follows it, i.e., namca ‘man’, which we call a head noun. For this expression a corresponding English translation can be given as shown, i.e., the English relative clause who gave a book to the woman, in which its subject position is relativized and the relative pronoun who appears at the beginning. The whole English relative clause is modifying the head noun that precedes it, man. In the S-fact construction in (2), there is no element (argument or adjunct) that is relativized in the sentence modifying the head noun sasil ‘fact’. This corresponds to the English construction in which the sentence the man gave a book to the woman appears as an appositive clause to the preceding head noun fact, forming an S-fact construction (or fact-S in English word order). The example in (3) also contains a sentence modifying a noun, just like in (1) and (2). Nothing seems to be relativized in the modifying sentence in (3), either. Crucially, however, there is no corresponding relative clause in English. Comrie (1998) argued that Asian languages such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Ainu, etc., have ‘relative’ clauses like the type in (3). It follows that Asian languages have three kinds of noun modification constructions, of which the third type in (3) is most typical. Secondly, Comrie (1998) contended that there are no gaps in Asian relative clauses. It is not very clear what Comrie meant by a ‘gap’ when he said that there is no gap in (1), but his intention seems to exclude a (nonrelative) pronoun, particularly a phonologically null pronoun from the gaps. It is assumed in English linguistics literature that the relative clause in the English translation in (1) who gave a book to the woman does not have a (nonrelative) pronoun in its relativized subject position, although there is a relative pronoun, who. It will be easier to show that there is a gap in relative clauses in English when an object is relativized, as in (4), than when a subject is relativized, as in (1). In the English translation in (4), there is nothing in the object position of the relative clause, i.e., after the verb gave, despite the fact that it is a transitive verb, which shows that there is a gap in the object position. Instead, there is a relative pronoun at the beginning of the relative clause that corresponds to the object of the transitive verb gave. (4) [그 [ku

남자가

namca-ka

그

ku

여자에게

준]

yeca-eykey cwu-n]

책

chayk (K)

that man-Nom that woman-to give-PstN book ‘the book which the man gave to the woman’ In the Korean relative clauses in (1) and (4), there is nothing in the relativized positions, either. Namely, the subject position in (1) and the object position in (4). However, it is assumed in some of the literature on Korean and Japanese linguistics that a phonologically null pronoun may appear in such relativized positions in



8.1 Introduction  193

both Korean and Japanese, just as Comrie (1998) argued. Then, the relative clauses in (1) and (4) do have (nonrelative phonologically null) pronouns in the relativized positions, and thus there are no ‘gaps’ if we follow Comrie (1998). However, in this book, we call those relative clauses in (1) and (4) gapped relative clauses and distinguish them from gapless relative clauses like (3), regardless of whether there is a pronominal element in the relativized position. This is because relativized positions in Korean (and Japanese) cannot be occupied by an overt (resumptive) pronoun or a full noun, particularly when core arguments are relativized, as shown in (5). (5) *[그가 *[ku-ka

그

ku

여자에게

책을

yeca-eykey chayk-ul

준]

cwu-n]

남자

namca (K)

he-Nom that woman-to book-Acc give-PstN man ‘*the man who he gave a book to the woman’ Thirdly, Comrie (1998: 52) stated that ‘there are no constraints on relativizability’ except for ‘pragmatic constraints’ in Asian relative clauses. Although this is a bit of an overstatement because there are indeed some structural constraints on relativizability, it is true that there are some examples of Korean and Japanese relative clauses in which a certain syntactic position that cannot be relativized in English can be relativized, which will be discussed below. We will call the Korean and Japanese noun-modifying clauses in (1), (3), and (4) relative clauses and distinguish them from the one in (2), which we will call an appositive clause.2 Relative clauses like (1), (3), and (4) differ from appositive clauses like (2) in terms of the semantic relationship that a modifying clause has with its head noun. A relative clause modifies a noun by means of a structural or pragmatic gap. That is, the head noun can be somehow construed as an argument, adjunct, or some other entity that is somehow related to the event to which the modifying clause refers. In contrast, an appositive clause serves as an appositive element or a complement of the head noun. The relative clauses of the type in (1) and (4), where there is a structural gap, are called gapped relative clauses, and those of the type in (3), for which some kind of pragmatic ‘gap’ can be postulated, are called gapless relative clauses. The reason for referring to those different noun-modifying clauses as such will be explained in the upcoming sections. Gapped and gapless relative clauses are distinguished from appositive clauses not only because of the semantic relationship between a modifying clause and a head noun, but also because of a structural difference between them, despite the fact that Comrie (1998: 52) stated     2 

In this respect, we differ from Matsumoto, Comrie, and Sells (2017: 5), who classify gapless relative clauses and appositive clauses as belonging to the same type of noun-modifying clause constructions, distinct from gapped relative clauses. They assume a ‘single construction’ for all these types and call it the General Noun-Modifying Clause Construction (GNMCC) (p. 3).

194  rel ative cl auses that Korean relative clauses and S-fact clauses have ‘the same syntactic structure’. This will also be illustrated below. This chapter is organized as follows. Section 8.2 compares three different types of noun modification constructions in (1)‒(3), i.e., gapped relative clauses, gapless relative clauses, and appositive clauses, particularly with regard to the semantic relationship a head noun has with its preceding noun-modifying clause. Section 8.3 points out the structural difference between relative and appositive clauses. Section 8.4 shows which syntactic positions in gapped relative clauses can be relativized and which cannot. Section 8.5 presents internally headed relative clauses that are observable in these languages. Section 8.6 concludes the chapter.

8.2  The semantic relationship between a head noun and its modifying clause Korean and Japanese relative clauses are different from appositive clauses in terms of the semantic relationship that they have with their head nouns. This section sheds light on this aspect of semantic difference between relative and appositive clauses.

8.2.1  Gapped relative clauses An argument or adjunct position in a Korean or Japanese sentence can be relativized, or gapped, and the resulting clause with a gap can modify a noun, as shown in (6)‒(8). In those examples, the relativized positions are underlined, indicating a structural position. Such a structurally gapped position can be postulated on the basis of semantics, i.e., as an argument or an adjunct of the event referred to by each of the sentences, despite the fact that it is phonologically null. It is in a subject position in (6), an object position in (7), and an adjunct (locative) position in (8). Gapped relative clauses

(6) a. [[ ___ 벤치에

안고 있는]

사람]이 보인다

[[___ peynchi-ey anko iss-nun] salam]-i poi-n-ta. (K)

b. [[___ ベンチに 座って [[___ benti-ni

いる]

suwatte i-ru]

bench-on sitting

人]が

hito]-ga

見える。

mie-ru. (J)

be-Pres(N) man-Nom is-seen-(Pln)

‘(You) can see a man who ___ is (in the process of ) sitting on the bench.’ (7) a. [[내가

___ 산]

책]은

페스트이다

[[Nay-ka ___ sa-n] chayk]-un Pheysuthu-i-ta. (K)



8.2 The semantic rel ationship  195 ___ 買った]

b. [[私が

本]は

[[Watasi-ga ___ kat-ta] I-Nom

hon]-wa

ペストだ。

Pesuto-da. (J)

buy-Pst(N) book-Top Plague-is-(Pln)

‘The book that I bought ___ was The Plague.’ (8) a. [[존이

___ 태어난]

곳]은

서울이다

[[John-i ___ thayena-n] kos]-un Sewul-i-ta. (K)

b. [[ジョンが ___ 生まれた] [[John-ga

John-Nom

___ umare-ta

ところ]は

ソウルだ。

tokoro]-wa Souru-da. (J)

be-born-Pst(N) place-Top

Seoul-is-(Pln).

‘Seoul is (the place) where John was born.’ The above relative clauses can be characterized as prenominal and gapped in light of the typological features of relative clauses given in Keenan (1985).3 That is, a relative clause precedes its head noun, which is different from postnominal relative clauses in English. The gapped position in a relative clause in Korean and Japanese has a gap, which may be occupied by a phonologically null pronoun and differ from gaps in English relative clauses. However, an argument that postulates a movement operation in Korean and Japanese gapped relative clauses will be presented below. An overt pronoun or expression cannot show up in such a relativized position, particularly if it is the position for a core argument. A gapped relative clause in Korean and Japanese can modify a head noun by having a gap. The relative clause can be interpreted as modifying its head noun only when it is felicitous to interpret the latter (the head noun) as serving as the deleted (or gapped) argument or adjunct in the event denoted by the former (the relative clause). Salam or hito ‘man’ in (6) can be interpreted as the gapped agent because (a) man is sitting on the bench is a well-formed sentence, chayk or hon ‘book’ in (7) because the gapped theme as I bought a book makes sense, and kos or tokoro ‘place’ in (8) because the gapped location by virtue of John was born in (that) place is comprehensible. When a head noun is put back into its relative clause, however, a case marker, e.g., a subject or object marker, or a postposition, e.g., a locative postposition, needs to be added appropriately. The postposition -eyse ‘in’, for example, is added to kos ‘place’ for (8a) when the head noun kos is put back into the preceding relative clause to see if it fits well. A relative clause cannot modify the following head noun if it does not have a fitting gap, as shown below. It is not possible to interpret chayk or hon ‘book’ as an argument or adjunct of the event of my buying wine in (9), resulting in an     3 

They are also externally headed because their head nouns appear outside the relative clauses, as will be discussed in Section 8.5.

196  rel ative cl auses incomprehensible sentence. This is because it is not possible to think up a situation in which a book plays any role in an event of my buying wine. Even if there is a gap in a relative clause, if its head noun cannot be construed as serving as the gapped argument (or adjunct), the sentence does not make sense. Chayk or hon ‘book’ in (10) is a case in point. A book cannot be interpreted as the agent in an event of sitting because anko iss-nun or suwatte i-ru ‘is (in the process of ) sitting’ requires an animate agent (Cho and Whitman 2020). It is not possible for chayk or hon to appear as the subject of the same predicate, as shown in (11), and for the same reason it renders the examples in (10) ungrammatical. (9)

a. *[[내가

술을

산]

책]은

페스트이다

*[[Nay-ka swul-ul sa-n] chayk]-un Pheysuthu-i-ta. (K) b. *[[私が

酒を

買った

*[[Watasi-ga sake-o I-Nom

本]は

kat-ta]

ペストだ]

Pesuto-da. (J)

hon]-wa

wine-Acc buy-Pst(N) book-Top Plague-Cop-(Pln)

‘*The book that I bought wine was The Plague.’

(10) a. *[[ ___ 벤치에

안고 있는

책]이

보인다

*[[___ peynchi-ey anko iss-nun] chayk]-i poi-n-ta. (K)

b. *[[___ ベンチに 座って *[[___ benti-ni

いる]

本]が

suwatte i-ru]

bench-on sitting

hon]-ga

見える。

mie-ru. (J)

be-Pres(N) book-Nom be-seen-NPst-(Pln)

‘*(You) can see a book that ___ is (in the process of ) sitting on the bench.’ (11) a. *책이

벤치에

안고 있다

*Chayk-i peynichi-ey anko iss-ta. (K) b. *本が *Hon-ga

ベンチ+に 座って benti-ni

book-Nom bench-on

いる。

suwatte iru. (J) sitting

is(-Pln)’

‘A book is (*in the process of ) sitting on the bench.’

As shown above, an argument or adjunct of a relative clause needs to be structurally gapped, and such a gapped relative clause must be followed by an NP that can play the semantic role of the gapped argument or adjunct.



8.2 The semantic rel ationship  197

8.2.2  Gapless relative clauses In addition to gapped relative clauses, there are gapless relative clauses in Korean and Japanese, as Comrie (1998) pointed out. Examples of these are shown below, where (3) is repeated from above, with the Japanese equivalent given in (12). Gapless relative clauses (3) [[어떤 사람이 문을 두드리고 있는] 소리] [[etten salam-i

some

mwun-ul twutuli-ko

iss-nun]

soli] (K)

person-Nom door-Acc knock-Comp is-PresN noise

‘the noise of someone knocking at the door’ (Comrie 1998: 52 (5)) ドアを

(12) [[だれかが [[dareka-ga

doa-o

たたいて いる] tataite

iru]

音]

oto] (J)

someone-Nom door-Acc knocking be-Pres noise ‘the noise of someone knocking at the door.’ Although there are no structural gaps in the above relative clauses, and hence the head nouns cannot be put back into them, they can still be pragmatically associated with the situations referred to by their relative clauses. There are several semantic relationships that a head noun can have with its gapless relative clause, e.g., result, position, and time.4 The head noun soli or oto ‘noise’ in (3) or (12) has a resultative relationship with its relative clause, i.e., the head NP refers to something that comes about as a result of the event that is referred to by its relative clause. In the above examples, a sound comes out as a result of knocking. Other examples of gapless relative clauses are given in (13)‒(15). The head nouns nameci ton or oturi ‘change’, thas or tatari ‘serious consequence’, and pin cali or ana ‘open position’ are all results of the events referred to by the preceding relative clauses, i.e., change as a result of buying a book, a serious consequence of dumping his girlfriend, and an empty position as a result of that player’s retirement. Gapless relative clauses (13) a. 그는

Ku-nun

    4 

[ [pro5

책을

산]

나머지 돈으로 커피를

샀다

chayk-ul san] nameci-ton-ulo khephi-lul sass-ta. (K)

Matsumoto (1997: 147) call these nouns ‘relational nouns’. There are other types of noun modifications in both Korean and Japanese due to pragmatic plausibility as Matsumoto (1988) pointed out. They may be accounted for by assuming a gap in the ‘major subject’ position.     5  Here, pro is a phonologically null pronoun. It is in the subject position of the gapless relative clause to indicate that a subject is there. This phonologically null pronoun is not a gap whereby the relative clause modifies the head noun. Such instances of pro will not be mentioned in the example sentences below.

198  rel ative cl auses b. 彼は

本を

[

買った] おつりで

Kare-wa [pro hon-o

he-Top

katta]

oturi-de

book-Acc bought

コーヒーを kōhī-o

change-by coffee-Acc

買った。

katta. (J) bought

‘He bought coffee with the change from buying a book.’

(14) a. 그것은

[그가

여자를 차버린]

탓일지도 모른다

Ku-kes-un [ku-ka yeca-lul chapelin] thas-i-l-ci-to-molu-n-ta. (K)

b. それは

[彼が

Sore-wa

kare-ga

女を

ふった]

onna-o

hutta

祟りかも知れない。

tatari-kamo-sirenai. (J)

that-Top he-Nom woman-Acc dumped curse-may-be ‘That may be a curse from his dumping his girlfriend.’ (15) a. [그

선수가

은퇴한]

빈

자리가

b. [その 選手が

[Sono sensyu-ga that

引退した] 穴が

intai-sita

player-Nom retired

남아

있다

nama iss-ta. (K)

[Ku senswu-ka unthoy-han] pin cali-ka

残って いる。 nokotte iru. (J)

ana-ga

empty position-Nom left

is

‘The open position left from that player’s retirement remains unfilled.’ Other examples of gapless relative clauses have relative time and spatial expressions as their head nouns, as shown in (16) and (17). Twi or usiro ‘back’ is a relative spatial expression that is expressed from a certain reference point. Such a relative spatial expression cannot be put back into the preceding relative clause in (16). The same applies to the relative time expression taum nal or yokuzitu ‘next day’ in (17). They cannot be put back into the preceding relative clauses. Gapless relative clauses (16) a. [메리가

앉아 있는]

뒤에

수가

앉아 있다

[Mary-ka anca iss-nun] twi-ey Swu-ka anca iss-ta. (K)

b. [メリーが [Mary-ga

座って

いる] 後ろに スーが

suwatte iru]

Mary-Nom sitting

is

usiro-ni Sū-ga

座って

suwatte iru. (J)

back-in Sue-Nom sitting

‘Sue is sitting behind where Mary is sitting.’ (17) a. [메리가

돌아온] 다음 날에

[Mary-ka tolaon]

수가

いる。

돌아왔다

taum nal-ey Swu-ka tolawass-ta. (K)

is



8.2 The semantic rel ationship  199 b. [メリーが [Mary-ga

帰った] kaetta]

翌日に

スーが

yokuzitu-ni Sū-ga

帰ってきた。

kaettekita. (J)

Mary-Nom returned next day-on Sue-Nom came-back ‘Sue came back on the day after Mary returned.’ Let us examine the examples in (16) to see whether the above-mentioned head nouns can be put back into their gapless relative clauses. Those in (18) are examples of the head nouns in (16) put back into their relative clauses. Note that those sentences in (16) are saying that Sue is behind Mary, but that those in (18) are saying that Mary is behind someone/something. There is a shift in the reference point if a head noun denoting a relative spatial position is put back into its gapless relative clause. Since the sentences with the same head nouns in (18) mean something different from (16), it is considered that those relative clauses in (16) do not have any gapped position into which their head nouns can be put back. Such relative spatial expressions include olun ccok/migi ‘right-hand side’, oynccok/hidari ‘lefthand side’, mith/sita ‘below’, and wi/ue ‘above’. (18) a. 메리가

Mary-ka

b. メリーが Mary-ga

뒤에

앉아

있다

後ろに

座って

いる。

twi-ey

anca

usiro-ni suwatte iru. (J)

Mary-Nom back-in sitting ‘Mary is sitting in the back’

(19) a. 메리가

Mary-ka

b. メリーが Mary-ga

iss-ta. (K)

is

다음 날에

돌아왔다

翌日

帰った。

taum nal-ey tolawass-ta. (K) yokuzitu

kaetta. (J)

Mary-Nom next.day(-on) returned ‘Mary returned on the next day.’ Those in (19) above are examples of the head nouns in (17) put back into their relative clauses. The sentences in (17) and (19) again mean something different. The sentences in (17) are talking about the day after Mary returned, while those in (19) are saying that Mary returned on the day after something happened. A shift in the reference point in time takes place here, too. If Mary returned on May 1, the time referred to in (17) by taum nal or yokuzitu ‘next day’ is May 2 (one day after May 1), but the time referred to in (19) by taum nal or yokuzitu ‘next day’ is May 1

200  rel ative cl auses (the day when Mary returned). Other relative time expressions are 2-il hwu/hutuka-go ‘two days after’.6 You might wonder what kind of semantic relationship a head noun can have with its preceding gapless relative clause. The meaning of a pragmatic gap will be explained below. Those head nouns in (3) and (12) soli/oto ‘noise’, (13) nameci ton/ oturi ‘change’, (14) thas/tatari ‘serious consequence, curse’, and (15) pin cali/ana ‘open position’ all refer to something that has come about as a result of the event referred to by their preceding gapless relative clause, which can be summarized in (20a). (The list of the types of the head nouns in gapless relative clauses in (20) is not meant to be exhaustive.) (20) The semantic relationships that the head noun has with its gapless relative clause are as follows: (a) The thing referred to by a head noun comes about as a result of the event referred to its gapless relative clause.7 (b) The location referred to by a head noun is interpreted relative to the location of the event that is referred to by its gapless relative clause. (c) The time referred to by a head noun is interpreted relative to the time of the event that is referred to by its gapless relative clause. The head noun in (16) denotes a relative position and the one in (17) denotes a relative time. The semantic relationship between the head noun tui/usiro ‘back’ and its gapless relative clause in (16) is that the location of the event that is referred to by the latter (the gapless relative clause) serves as the reference point for the former (the head noun), as summarized in (20b). Just as the English translation in (16) shows, the position of back, the head noun, is interpreted relative to where Mary is sitting, which is the location of the event referred to by the gapless relative clause. Similarly, the semantic relationship between the head noun taum nal/ yokuzitu ‘next day’ and its gapless relative clause (17) is that the time of the event that is referred to by the latter (the gapless relative clause), i.e., (the day) when Mary returned, serves as the reference point for the former (the head noun), i.e., next day, as summarized in (20c). Taum nal/yokuzitu ‘next day’ is interpreted relative to the time of (the event of ) Mary’s returning home. The place or time of the event referred to by a gapless relative clause serving as the reference point for its head noun is invisible, meaning that it is only implied in the gapless relative clause; however, it can be made explicit. If made visible, such     6 

There are certain cases where there are no Korean gapless relative clauses corresponding to J­ apanese, particularly when the head nouns of gapless relatives denote prior times, e.g., cennal ‘the day before’ or yak 2-ek-nyen-cen ‘about two hundred million years before’ (Kim and Sells 2017: 79).     7  The gapless relative clauses of this type correspond to ‘NMCs [noun-modifying clauses] in which the noun instantiates the Consequence (for instance, the Product or Effect) of what is expressed in the clause’ (Matsumoto 1997: 114).



8.2 The semantic rel ationship  201

a place or time serves as the reference point for a matrix clause. Those in (21a, b) and (22a, b) are examples in which the restored place or time appears as the head noun for its gapped relative clause. The location of the event that is referred to by the gapless relative clause in (16) and the time of the event that is referred to by the gapless relative clause in (17), each of which serves as a reference point, are explicitly expressed as kos/tokoro ‘place’ in (21a, b) and as nal/hi ‘day’ in (22a, b). Where tui/usiro ‘back’ is is interpreted relative to kos/tokoro, or where Mary is sitting, in (21a, b), and when taum nal/yokuzitu ‘next day’ is is interpreted relative to nal/ hi ‘day’, or the day when Mary returned, in (22a, b). Those head nouns kos/tokoro ‘place’ in (21a, b) and nal/hi ‘day’ in (22a, b) are the noun heads of gapped relative clauses and thus can be put back into their relative clauses, as shown in (21c, d) and (22c, d). Note that those nouns refer to the same place and day as when they appear as a head noun and also when they are put back into their relative clauses. These data support that a relative spatial or time expression occurring as a head noun for a gapless relative clause can indeed be interpreted relative to the location or time of the event that is referred to by its gapless relative clause, as summarized in (20b, c). (21) Relative spatial expression a. [[메리가

앉아 있는]

곳의

뒤에

수가

앉아 잇다

[Mary-ka anca iss-nun] kos-uy twi-ey Sue-ka anca iss-ta. (K)

b. [メリーが [Mary-ga

座って

いる] ところの

suwatte iru]

Mary-Nom sitting

is

いる。

後ろに スーが

tokoro-no

usiro-ni Sue-ga

座って

suwatte

place-Gen back-in Sue-Nom sitting

iru. (J) is

‘Sue is sitting behind where Mary is sitting.’

c. 메리가

그 곳에

앉아 있다

Mary-ka ku kos-ey anca iss-ta. (K)

d. メリーが Mary-ga

その ところに 座って sono

Mary-Nom that

いる。

tokoro-ni suwatte iru. (J) place-on

sitting

is

‘Mary is sitting in that place.’ (22) Relative time expression a. [메리가

돌아온] 날의

[Mary-ka tolaon]

다음 날에

수가

돌아왔다

nal-uy taum nal-ey Sue-ka tolawass-ta. (K)

202  rel ative cl auses b. [メリーが

帰った]

[Mary-ga

kaetta]

日の

翌日に

hi-no

スーが

yoku-zitu-ni Sue-ga

帰ってきた。

kaettekita. (J)

Mary-Nom returned day-Gen next.day-on Sue-Nom came-back ‘Sue came back on the day after Mary returned.’

c. 메리가

그 날에

돌아왔다

Mary-ka ku nal-ey tolawass-ta. (K)

d. メリーが Mary-ga

その 日に sono

Mary-Nom that

hi-ni

帰った。

kaetta. (J)

day-on returned

‘Mary returned on that day.’

8.2.3  Appositive clauses As shown above, the head noun of a relative clause, be it gapped or gapless, can be semantically interpreted as either part of or in relation to the event that is referred to by the relative clause. Appositive clauses, on the other hand, have a different semantic relationship with their head nouns. An appositive clause elaborates on the content of the head noun. The head noun of an appositive clause is not semantically or pragmatically related to the event to which it refers. Appositive clauses have no structural or pragmatic missing information and no gap into which their head nouns fit. Instead, they provide information pertaining to what the head noun is about. The example in (2) is repeated below with bracketing and a corresponding Japanese sentence in (2)ʹ. These examples have sasil/zizitu ‘fact’ as the head noun, and the preceding appositive clauses describe the fact. The head nouns in the other appositive clause examples in (23) and (24) function in the same way. The appositive clauses in (23) state the warning, and the appositive clauses in (24) spell out the rumor. (2)

[그 남자가

그 여자에게

책을

준]

사실

[ku namca-ka ku yeca-eykey chayk-ul cwu-n] sasil (K)

(2)ʹ

[その 男が

[sono otoko-ga the

その 女に sono

man-Nom that

onna-ni

本を

hon-o

あげた] ageta]

事実

zizitu (J)

woman-to book-Acc give-Pst(N) fact

‘the fact that the man gave a book to the woman’ ((2a) Comrie 1998: 52 (4))

(23) a. [사이버 공격에

주의 하라는]

[saipe

kongkyek-ey cwuuy-ha-ra-nun]

cyber

attack-to

경고

kyengko (K)

be-alert-Imp-PresN warning



8.3 A structural difference  203 b. [サイバー 攻撃に

注意しろという]

[saibā

kōgeki-ni tyūi-si-ro-toiu]

cyber

attack-to

警告

keikoku (J)

be-alert-Imp-Comp warning

‘a warning that (we) must be alert to cyber-attacks’ (24) a. [여우는

사람을

[Yewu-nun salam-ul fox-Top b. [キツネは

holli-n-ta-nun]

소문

somwun (K)

man-Acc fool-Pres-Pln-PresN rumor 人を

[Kitune-wa hito-o fox-Top

홀린다는]

化かすという] bakas-u-toiu]

言い伝え

ītutae (J)

man-Acc fool-NPst-Comp rumor

‘a rumor that foxes fool a man.’ Some appositive clauses are a complement of their head noun. The appositive clause in (23) can appear as the complement of kyengko-ha/keikoku-su ‘to warn’, as shown in (25). (25) a. 정부가

[사이버 공격에

b. 政府が

[サイバー 攻撃に

Cengpwu-ka [saipe Seihu-ga

[saibā

gov’t-Nom cyber-

주의하라]고

경고했다

kongkyek-ey cwuuy-hara]-ko kyengko-hayss-ta. (K) 注意しろ]と

kōgeki-ni tyūi-siro]-to attack-to

警告した。

keikoku-sita. (J)

alert-be.Imp-Comp warning-did

‘The government warned “Be alert to cyber-attacks.” ’ So far, we have demonstrated the nature of the semantic relationships that head nouns have with their modifying clauses. The head noun of a gapped or gapless relative clause can be semantically associated with the event to which the relative clause refers. In contrast, the head noun of an appositive clause is not associated with the event to which its modifying clause refers. The appositive clause spells out the content of its head noun.

8.3  A structural difference between relative and appositive clauses There is a structural difference between relative and appositive clauses in addition to the semantic difference between them as shown in 8.2, contrary to Comrie’s (1998: 52) statement that Korean relative clauses and S-fact clauses have ‘the same syntactic structure’. Relative clauses are, in a sense, smaller than appositive clauses in that the latter can contain more elements than the former. Although both

204  rel ative cl auses relative and appositive clauses are made up of a clause, relative clauses consist of core propositional elements (e.g., a predicate, arguments, adjuncts, and aspect and tense morphemes), whereas appositive clauses can contain peripheral clausal elements (e.g., a topic and mood morphemes) in addition to the core propositional elements.8 Observe the examples of appositive clauses in (23) and (24), which are repeated below. Both the Korean and Japanese appositive clauses in (23) contain an imperative mood morpheme -ra/-ro (glossed as Imp below), and the Korean appositive clause in (24a) has a plain declarative mood morpheme -ta (glossed as Pln). (23) a. [사이버 공격에

주의하라는]

경고

alert-be-Imp-Adn

warning

[saipe

kongkyek-ey cwuuy-ha-ra-nun] kyengko (K)

cyber

attack-to

b. サイバー [saibā

cyber

攻撃に

注意しろという]

attack-to

alert-be-Imp-Comp warning

kōgeki-ni tyūi-si-ro-toiu]

警告

keikoku (J)

‘a warning that (we) must be alert to cyber-attacks’ (24) a. [여우는

사람을

[Yewu-nun salam-ul fox-Top

b. キツネは

holli-n-ta-nun]

소문

somwun (K)

man-Acc fool-Pres-Pln-Adn rumor 人を

[Kitune-wa hito-o

fox-Top

홀린다는]

化かすという] bakas-u-toiu]

言い伝え

ītutae (J)

man-Acc fool-NPst-Comp rumor

‘a rumor that foxes fool a man.’ In contrast, the relative clauses, whether they are gapped or gapless, can contain neither an imperative nor a declarative morpheme, as shown below. The examples in (26) where a relative clause contains an imperative morpheme are ungrammatical. If the expressions in parentheses, -nun in Korean and -to-iu in Japanese, are added, the relative clauses assume a quotative reading, in which the clause corresponding to be alert to cyber-attacks is treated as a quote.9 That is, (26a) means the organization that says ‘Be alert to cyber-attacks’, but it does not mean the     8 

Murasugi (1991) argued that Japanese relative clauses are of the category IP, rather than CP. Jo (2002), following Murasugi, argued that Korean relative clauses are IPs and appositive clauses are CPs. Kaplan and Whitman (1995) presented evidence that Japanese (as well as Korean) relative clauses are CPs. More recently Saito (2012) argued that Japanese relative clauses are of the category TP (which corresponds to IP) and that topics are licensed in one of CP categories. Assuming variants of CPs proposed by Saito (2012), following Rizzi (1997), it may be possible to argue that Japanese relative and appositive clauses are projections of different types of CPs.     9  See Jo (2002: 115) for her similar Korean examples and comment.



8.3 A structural difference  205

organization where people ought to be alert to cyber-attacks. This Korean expression -nun is an abbreviation of -ko ha-nun ‘(people) say that-Adn’ parallel to Japanese to iu, whose structure will be explained in more detail shortly. (26) a. 사이버 공격에

주의하라*(는)

기관

alert-be-Imp-Adn

organization

saipe

kongkyek-ey cwuuy-ha-ra*(-nun) kikwan (K)

cyber

attack-to

saibā

kōgeki-ni

tyūi-si-ro*(-to-iu)

cyber

attack-to

alert-be-Imp-Quo-say organization

b. サイバ ー攻撃に 注意しろ*(という)

機関

kikan (J)

‘the organization that needs to be alert to cyber-attacks’ A declarative morpheme cannot appear when a relative clause modifies a noun, either, as shown in (27b); however, a relative clause with a tense morpheme can modify a noun, as shown in (27a). If you add -nun to the modifying clause in (27b), yielding (27c), this sentence is again interpreted only with a quotative reading, in which (a) man in (people) say the fox fooled a man is relativized, yielding the man that people say a fox fooled and not the man a fox fooled. The morpheme -nun in (27c), which links a relative clause with a head noun, is an abbreviation of -ko ha-nun, as stated above. (27) a. [여우가

홀린]

[yewu-ka holli-n]

사람

salam (K)

fox-Nom fool-PstN man ‘the man who a fox fooled’ b. *[여우가

홀렸다]

*[yewu-ka hollyess-ta] fox-Nom

사람

salam (K)

fool-Pst-Pln man

‘the man who a fox fooled’ c. [여우가

홀렸다는]

[yewu-ka hollyess-ta-nun]

사람

salam (K)

fox-Nom fool-Pst-Pln-Adn man ‘the man that people say a fox fooled’ In addition to such sentence-final mood morphemes, relative clauses do not allow a topic, whereas appositive clauses can have both. The appositive clauses in (24) have the topic yewu-nun/kitune-wa ‘fox-Top’. A subject marked in the nominative case can appear in a relative clause, as shown in (28); however, a topicalized subject cannot appear within a relative clause, as shown in (29).

206  rel ative cl auses (28) a. [여우가

홀린]

사람

[yewu-ka holli-n] b. [キツネが [kitune-ga fox-Nom

salam (K)

化かした]

人

hito (J)

bakasita]

fool-Pst(N) man

‘the man who a fox fooled’ (29) a. *[여우는

홀린]

化かした]

人

hito (J)

*[kitune-wa bakasita] fox-Top

사람

salam (K)

*[yewu-nun holli-n] b. *[キツネは

(same as (27a))

fool-Pst(N) man

‘the man who a fox fooled’ So far, we have shown that appositive clauses can contain a topic and mood morphemes; relative clauses cannot contain these. It follows from this that appositive clauses fall into a larger clausal category and allow sentence-peripheral elements to appear, while relative clauses, being of a smaller clausal category, can only contain core sentential elements such as a predicate, arguments, adjuncts, and aspect/tense morphemes. The reason appositive clauses are able to contain sentence peripheral elements is that they can be followed by the complementizer -ko or -to ‘that’. The complementizers -ko and -to appear in the sentences with the verb say in (30) as well as other verbs of saying. As shown in (30), a clause that ends with a complementizer can have a topic, Mary-nun or Mary-wa, as in (30a, b), a declarative marker, as in (30a, c), and an imperative form, as in (30c, d). (30) Complementizer -ko and -to ‘that’ a. 존이

John-i

메리는

방에

Mary-nun pang-ey

있다고

했다

hayss-ta. (K)

iss-ta-ko

John-Nom Mary-Top room-in is-Pln-Comp said-Pln

b. ジョンが John-ga

メリーは

Mary-wa

部屋に

heya-ni

いると

iru-to

言った。 itta. (J)

John-Nom Mary-Top room-in is-Comp said ‘John said that Mary was in the room.’

c. 존이

John-i

메리에게

방에

Mary-eykey pang-ey

John-Nom Mary-to

있으라고

iss-ula-ko

했다

hayss-ta. (K)

room-in be-Imp-Comp said-Pln



8.3 A structural difference  207 d. ジョンは John-ga

メリーに Mary-ni

John-Nom Mary-to

部屋に

いろと

heya-ni

言った。 itta. (J)

i-ro-to

room-in be-Imp-Comp said

‘John said to Mary, “Stay in the room.” ’ The same complementizers -ko and -to appear in appositive clauses, as shown in (31a, b). The Korean appositive clause in (31a) has a linking element -ko ha-nun before its head noun, and the Japanese appositive clause in (31b) has a linking element -to-iu before its head noun. Since both links contain the same complementizer as those in (30), a topic and a mood morpheme can appear in them. The expression that links the clause with the head noun in -ko ha-nun in (31a) can be abbreviated as -nun, but the same effect remains. It must be noted, however, that the links -(ko ha)-nun and -to iu in appositive clauses are functional elements (as a result of grammaticalization) to link an appositive clause to its head noun and lack a quotative interpretation. In this respect, the complementizer that is used in the appositive links differs from that used with verbs of saying as in (30). Appositive clauses without these links, however, incline to disallow a topic, as shown in (31c, d).10 (31) Complementizer in appositive clauses a. [존이/은 [John-i/un

메리에게

책을

Mary-eykey chayk-ul

John-Nom/Top Mary-to 사실

주었다(고 하)는]

cwu-ess-ta-(ko ha)-nun]

book-Acc give-Pst-Pln-(Comp say)-Adn

sasil (K) fact

b. [ジョンが/は [John-ga/wa

メリーに 本を Mary-ni

John-Nom/Top Mary-to

hon-o

[John-i/*?un

메리에게

d. [ジョンが/*?は [John-ga/*?wa

책을

Mary-eykey chayk-ul

John-Nom/Top Mary-to

John-Nom/Top Mary-to

iu]

준]

zizitu (J)

fact

사실

sasil (K)

cwu-n]

book-Acc give-PstN fact

メリーに 本を Mary-ni

ageta-to

いう] 事実

book-Acc gave-Comp say

‘the fact that John gave a book to Mary’ c. [존이/*은

あげたと

hon-o

あげた] ageta]

book-Acc gave

事実

zititu (J) fact

    10  In fact, however, those in (31c, d) sound much better than those in (29). Kuroda (2005) notes that a topic is possible in a Japanese appositive construction similar to (31c, d) with the head noun koto ‘thing’ that appears as a complement of verbs of knowing or saying.

208  rel ative cl auses The example in (31c) parallels the example Comrie (1998) gave in (2), and this appositive clause may have the same structure as relative clauses in terms of their syntactic clausal type. However, other appositive clauses allow a larger clause to appear with the links containing a complementizer element as shown above. Appositive clauses need to have such links when they have a mood morpheme and/or a topic, as shown in (26) and (27). Some head nouns for appositive clauses in Korean and Japanese require a link with a complementizer, i.e., (-ko ha)-nun or -to-iu. Modifying such head nouns without this link yields ungrammatical or awkward sentences. Sohn (1999: 313), referring to the example in (32a) wrote that it requires (ko-ha)-nun. Note that without it, the appositive clause is ungrammatical (with casalha-l) or very marginal (with casalha-nun), as shown in (32b). The corresponding Japanese examples in (33) exhibit the same contrast. (32) a. [언니가 [enni-ka

자살하겠다(고 하)는]

협박

casalha-kess-ta-(ko-ha)-nun] hyeppak (K)

sister-Nom suicide-Fut-Pln-Comp-Adn

threat

‘the threat that my older sister would commit suicide’ (Sohn (83b) 1999: 312) b. [언니가 [enni-ka

자살 *할/*하는]

협박

casal-*hal/?*ha-nun] hyeppak (K)

sister-Nom suicide-FutN/PresN

threat

‘the threat that my older sister would commit suicide’ (33) a. [姉が [ane-ga

自殺するという]

脅迫

zisatu-suru-to-iu] kyōhaku (J)

sister-Nom suicide-Comp

threat

‘the threat that my older sister would commit suicide’ b. *[姉が *[ane-ga

自殺する]

脅迫

zisatu-suru] kyōhaku (J)

sister-Nom suicide

threat

‘the threat that my older sister would commit suicide’11 In addition to hyeppak ‘threat’, Sohn (1999: 313) added somwun ‘rumor’, yaksok ‘promise’, sosik ‘news’, cwucang ‘claim’, ilon ‘theory’, poko ‘report’, cengpo ‘information, myenglyeng ‘order’, kopayk ‘confession’, sayngkak ‘idea, thought’, uykyen ‘opinion’, chwukchik ‘speculation’, and nukkim ‘feeling’, which largely overlap with     11  The sentences in (32b) and (33b) are grammatical as gapped relative clauses with the reading ‘the threat because of which my sister will commit suicide’.



8.4 Rel ativiz able positions  209

a similar list by Lee and Ramsey (2000: 205). Some of the corresponding Japanese nouns behave in the same way, i.e., they require the to-iu Comp for a link: syutyō ‘claim’, riron ‘theory’, hōkoku ‘report’, zyōhō ‘information’, meirei ‘order’, kokuhaku ‘confession’, kangae ‘idea, thought’, iken ‘opinion’, and suisoku ‘speculation’. There, however, seems to be some variation among native speakers, with some allowing appositive clauses to be expressed as in the b-examples in (32) and (33) rather than just in the a-examples. We have shown above that appositive clauses differ structurally from relative clauses in allowing elements such as a topic and a mood morpheme to be included.

8.4  Relativizable positions Keenan and Comrie (1977: 66) proposed a hypothesis on the Noun Phrase Accessibility, wherein they claimed that there is an implicational relationship between NP positions (in simplex main clauses) in terms of relativizability. Those positions in Table 8.1 are ordered in terms of relativizability, with positions to the left being more relativizable than those on the right. Table 8.1  Relative relativizability (Keenan and Comrie 1977: 77, 78) Subj

DObj

IObj

Obl

Gen

OCon

Korean 1. prenom, ‒case 2. prenom, +case

+ ‒

+ ‒

+ ‒

+ ‒

+

‒

Japanese 1. prenom, ‒case 2. prenom, +case

+ ‒

+ ‒

+ ‒

+/‒ ‒

+/‒ +/‒

‒? ‒?

(Subj: subject position, DObj: direct object position, IObj: indirect object position, Obl: oblique position, e.g., a locative or an instrumental position, Gen: genitive position, and OCon: the object of comparison, prenom, -case: a prenominal relative clause with a gap, prenom, +case: a prenominal relative clause with a resumptive pronoun attached with a case or postposition).

Table 8.1 shows that Korean and Japanese both require a gap and do not allow an overt resumptive pronoun when a subject, direct object, indirect object, or oblique position is relativized; however, they differ slightly when an oblique, a genitive, and the object of comparison are relativized. Nevertheless, a careful examination of those constructions shows that both languages behave in roughly the same way. First, a resumptive pronoun can or must be used in some oblique positions that cannot be easily relativized with a gap in both Korean and Japanese. As shown in (34), Korean and Japanese relative clauses with a relativized source position need a resumptive pronoun. Those examples are ungrammatical without a resumptive pronoun, although the examples in (34) improve with a gap when there is a clear context for interpreting the station as a source.

210  rel ative cl auses (34) Source a. [메리가

*(거기에서) 멀리 걸어서 온]

[Mary-ka *(keki-eyse)

b. メリーが

[Mary-ga

melli kelese はるばる

*(そこから)

o-n] yek (K)

歩いて きた]

駅

kita]

eki (J)

all.the.way walking came

station

*(soko-kara) harubaru

Mary-Nom there-from

역

aruite

‘the station from which Mary walked (i.e., came by walking) all the way’ (Cf. Inoue 1976: 171 (47a), Sohn 1999: 312 (81)) c. [메리가

*(거기에서) 멀리 걸어서 간]

[Mary-ka *(keki-eyse)

d. [メリーが [Mary-ga

melli kelese

*(そこから)

はるばる

ka-n] yek (K)

歩いて

いった] 駅

itta]

eki (J)

all.the.way walking went

station

*(soko-kara) harbaru

Mary-Nom there-from

역

aruite

‘the station from which Mary walked (i.e., went by walking) all the way’ Similar examples are given in (35). The comitative oblique position in (35a, b) is gapped, and those examples are ungrammatical unless the adverb kachi/issyoni ‘together’ occurs with the verb. In this case, without the adverb, even a resumptive pronoun in the gapped position does not salvage the sentences as shown in (35d, f ). (35) Comitative a. *[메리가

등산을

한]

사람

登山を

した]

人

mount.climbing-Acc

did

person

*[Mary-ka tungsan-ul

b. *[メリーが *[John-ga

John-Nom

ha-n]

tozan-o

sita]

‘the man with whom Mary climbed a mountain’ c. [메리가

같이

등산을

[Mary-ka kachi tungsan-ul

d. [メリーが [Mary-ga

一緒に

issyoni

登山を

tozan-o

한]

ha-n]

した] sita]

Mary-Nom together mount.climbing-Acc did ‘the man with whom Mary climbed a mountain’ e. *?[메리가

그하고

등산을

*?[Mary-ka ku-hako tungsan-ul

한]

ha-n]

salam (K)

hito (J)

사람

salam (K)

人

hito (J) person 사람

salam (K)



8.4 Rel ativiz able positions  211 f. *?[メリーが *?[Mary-ga John-Nom

彼と

kare-to

登山を

した] 人

tozan-o

hito (J)

sita]

he-with mount.climbing-Acc did

person

‘the man with whom Mary climbed a mountain’12 Secondly, in both languages, some genitive positions need a resumptive pronoun when they are relativized. Keenan and Comrie (1977: 74) referred to a Korean example in (36a) with the remark that ‘where genitives are relativized, a pronoun must be retained’. The corresponding Japanese expression in (36b) is also very awkward if there is no resumptive pronoun. (36) Genitive position a. [*(자기의)

개가

총명한]

[*(caki-uy)

kay-ka

self-Gen

dog-Nom be-smart-Adn

그

사람

the

man

chongmyenghan] ku

salam (K)

‘the man whose dog is smart’ (Keenan and Comrie 1977: 74 (25)) b. [*(自分の)

犬が

[*(zibun-no) inu-ga self-Gen

賢い]

その 人

kasikoi]

dog-Nom be-smart

sono

hito (J)

the

man

‘the man whose dog is smart’ (A similar example in Inoue 1976: 182 (88c)) In both languages, such genitives can sometimes be relativized without a resumptive pronoun particularly when they are ‘inalienable possessors’ (Kim and Sells 2017). Oyncchok noy/sa-nō ‘left brain’ can be easily interpreted as being possessed by hwanca/kanzya ‘patient’, its inalienable possessor. (37) Genitive position a. [그 [ku

유명한

외과의가

yumyenghan oykwauy-ka

that famous

(?그의/?자기의)

왼쪽

뇌를

left

brain-Acc

(?ku-uy/?caki-uy) oynccok noy-lul

surgeon-Nom he-Gen/self-Gen

수술한]

환자는

완전히

operated-on

patient-Top

completely recovered-Pln

swuswulhan] hwanca-nun wancenhi

회복했다

hoypok-hayss-ta. (K)

‘The patient whose left brain that famous surgeon operated on r­ ecovered completely.’     12  Kim and Sells (2017: 65) also noted a contrast between Korean relative clauses like (35a) and (35c). Inoue (1976: 188) wrote that a relative clause with a comitative adjunct as its head noun is grammatical with a resumptive pronoun in Japanese, but she did not give an example. Such examples as in (35e, f ) in Korean and Japanese sound marginal at best.

212  rel ative cl auses b. [その 有名な

外科医が

(?彼の/?自分の)

[sono yūmeina gekai-ga

that

famous

surgeon-Nom he-Gen/self-Gen

手術した]

患者は

operated-on

patient-Top completely recovered

syuzyutusita] kanzya-wa

左脳を

(?kare-no/?zibun-no) sanō-o 完全に

回復した。

left.brain-Acc

kaihuku-sita. (J)

kanzenni

‘The patient whose left brain that famous surgeon operated on ­recovered completely.’ Lastly, the object of comparison cannot be relativized (Inoue 1976: 188, Kim and Sells 2017: 65). The head nouns in (38a) and (38b) are supposed to be associated with the object of comparison; both sentences are completely ungrammatical without a resumptive pronoun; and they are marginal at best with it. (38) Object of comparison a. *[이 개가 *[i

(그것보다)

b. *[この 犬が

*[kono inu-ga

this

착은]

고양이

kay-ka (kukes-pota) chakun] koyangi (K) (それより) 小さい] 猫 (sore-yori)

dog-Nom that-than

tīsai]

neko (J)

small

cat

‘a cat such that this dog is smaller than it’ Korean and Japanese were described as slightly different from each other in Keenan and Comrie (1977) regarding the relativization of obliques, genitives, and the object of comparison, as shown in Table 8.1. However, we have shown above that the two languages actually behave almost identically in regard to these elements as well. The relativization of obliques by gapping sometimes results in ungrammaticality in Korean, (34a) and (35a), just as in Japanese, (34b) and (35b). The relativization of genitives by gapping sometimes results in grammatical sentences in Korean, (37a), just as in Japanese, (37b). The relativization of the object of comparison by gapping results in severe ungrammaticality in Japanese, (38b), just as in Korean, (38a). It follows from this that Korean and Japanese behave more or less in the same way in the position of relativization. In addition to those positions shown above, there are some other positions that can be relativized in Korean and Japanese but not in English. A position contained within a wh-clause can be relativized, as shown in (39). (e in (39) stands for an empty category or a gap.)



8.4 Rel ativiz able positions  213

(39) a. [미나가

[민수가

보았는지]

물었던]

영화

see-Pst-Q

ask-Ret-Adn movie

[Minswu-ka ei po-ass-nunci] mwul-essten] yenghwai (K)

[Mina-ka

Mina-Nom Minsu-Nom

‘the moviei which Mina asked whether Minsu had seen ti’ (Kim and Sells 2017: 86 (89a), slightly changed) [ミンスが

b. [ミナが [Mina-ga

見たかと]

聞いた] 映画

[Minsu-ga ei mi-ta-ka-to]

Mina-Nom Minsu-ga

eigai (J)

kiita]

see-Pst-Q-Comp asked

movie

‘the moviei which Mina asked whether Minsu had seen ti’ English does not allow a position within a wh-clause to be relativized as shown in the English translations in (39), and hence wh-clauses are called wh-islands. This raises a question as to whether the gaps e in the Korean and Japanese relative clauses coreferent to their head noun are created in a way different from the gap t in the English, i.e., by movement. This question is briefly explained below using Han and Kim’s (2004) structure of a Korean example in (40a), whose structure is given in (40b). (40) a. [

[

e 빵을

먹는]

[np [ip e ppang-ul

아이]

mek-nun] ai]

e bread-Acc eat-Rel

kid

‘the child who is eating bread’ (Han and Kim 2004: 315, (1)) b. Han and Kim 2004: 316 (2) c. structure with RC replacing CP c. structure with RC replacing CP b. Han and Kim 2004: 316 (2) NP CP

Opi

NP IP

NP NP ei

NP

kid

NP

bread-Acc

NP ei

VP V

NP

RC VP NP bread-Acc

kidi V eat-Rel

eat-Rel

An analysis of relativization by movement assumes the null relative pronoun operator Opi (coreferent with the head noun kid) is moved from ei in the subject position; thus, e in this case is a trace. A nonmovement analysis assumes that ei

214  rel ative cl auses in the subject position is a null pronoun pro (coreferent with the null operator). For simplicity (and because some researchers, e.g., Kuno 1973, Kang 1986, do not assume a null relative clause pronoun operator), the structure in (40b) is simplified as (40c), where RC, a relative clause, replaces CP. The difference between these two approaches may look trivial, but it in fact is crucial in the following discussions. Kuno (1973) argued that no movement is involved in relativization in Japanese by showing that it is possible to relativize an NP from a complex noun phrase in Japanese, although it is not in English. A complex noun phrase is defined as ‘a noun phrase followed by a relative clause or an appositional clause’ (Kuno 1973: 238). Note that ‘followed by’ in this definition pertains to English and should be read as ‘preceded by’ in the case of Japanese relative/appositional clauses. The complex NP in (41) contains two relativized gaps (represented by ei and ej) in RC2, the inner relative clause. Note that between the first gap, ei, and the corresponding head noun, kodomoi, there is an intervening complex NP (i.e., the NP that contains the relative clause RC2 modyfing its head noun inu ‘dog’). In this case, the relativization of kodomo has to be done from a complex NP, and yet the sentence is perfect. A Korean sentence with the same structure as in (41) is given in (42). 可愛がっていた 犬が

(41)

[rc1 [[rc2 ei ej kawaigatte-ita] 子供

was.fond.of

inu]-gaj

死んで しまった sinde

dog-Nom dying

simatta]

ended.up.with

kodomoi (J)

child

‘the child who the dog (he) was fond of died’ (Kuno 1973: 239 (18)) (42) [

좋아하는

강아지가

죽은]

아이

like-PresN

dog-Nom

die-PstN

kid

[rc1 [[rc2 ei ej cohaha-nun] kangaci]-kaj cwuk-un] aii (K) ‘the kid who the dog which [he] liked died’ (Han and Kim 2004: 326 (3a)) Kuno (1973) assumes that a null pronoun occupies a relativized position, e.g., ei, and, hence, the kind of relativization as shown in (41) is possible. Kang (1986) assumes the same approach for Korean. The analysis of multiple relativization proposed by Kuno (1973) and (Kang 1986), however, was questioned (Han and Kim 2004, Sakai 1994, Hoshi 2004, Kim and Sells 2017, Miyamoto 2017). Han and Kim (2004: 325) proposed a movement analysis. They argued that what appears to be an example of ‘double relative clause’ in (42) is in fact an example of relativization of the major subject of the ‘double nominative construction’ in (43), i.e., ai-ka or kodomo-ga ‘child-Nom’. Note that the head noun aii in (42) can serve as the major



8.4 Rel ativiz able positions  215

subject for the clause consisting of its subject cohaha-nun kagaci-kaj ‘the beloved dog’ and the predicate cwuk-ess-ta ‘died’, as in (43a). The head noun kodomoi in (41) can also serve as the major subject, as shown in (43b). pro is a null pronominal element coreferent with the major subject in (43). (43) a. 아이가 Ai-kai

kid-Nomi

[

좋아하는]

강아지가

죽었다

like-PresN

dog-Nomj

die-Pst-Pln

[ RC proi ej cohaha-nun] kangaci-kaj cwuk-ess-ta. (K)

‘A s for the kid, the dog that he liked died.’ (Han and Kim 2004: 327 (22a)) b. 子供が

[

可愛がっていた] 子犬が

kodomo-gai [ RC proi ej kawaigatte-ita] child-Nomi

liked

‘A s for the child, the dog that he liked died.’

koinu-gaj

死んで しまった sinde

dog-Nomj dying

simatta. (J) ended-up

The above examples in (43) show that it is not necessary to relativize the subject in the inner relative clause (RC2) as shown in (41) and (42), but the major subject in (43) instead can be relativized to derive the phonologically equivalent expressions, as shown in (44a) and (44b). In (44), the major subject position (ei) is relativized, and crucially, this position is not contained in RC2. That is, ei in (44) is a trace of movement. 可愛がっていた 犬が

(44) a.

[rc1 ei [[rc2 proi ej kawaigatte-ita] 子供

was.fond.of

inu]-gaj

死んで しまった sinde

dog-Nom dying

simatta]

ended.up

kodomoi (J)

child

‘the child whose dog which he was fond of died’ b. [

좋아하는]

강아지가

죽은]

아이

like-PresN

dog-Nom

die-PstN

kid

[rc1 ei [rc2 proi ej cohaha-nun] kangaci-kaj cwuk-un] aii (K) ‘the kid whose dog which he liked died’ (Han and Kim 2004: 328 (23)) No such ‘double relativization’ is possible if it is not possible to have a head noun serving as a major subject. The head noun chayk ‘book’ in (45a) cannot serve as a major subject for the clause consisting of the subject ai-ka ‘child-Nom’ and the predicate pappu- ‘busy’, as shown in (45b). This forces the object position in RC2 (in a complex NP) to be relativized for the expression in (45a), resulting in ungrammaticality due to the Complex NP constraint.

216  rel ative cl auses (45) a. *[

[

읽고있는]

아이가

read-PresN

kid-Nomj busy-Adn booki

*[rc1 [rc2 ei ej ilkkoiss-nun] ai-kaj

바쁜]

pappu-n]

책

chayki (K)

‘the book [rc1 whichi the kid [rc2 whoj ej is reading ei] is busy’ (Han and Kim 2004: 324 (13a)) ‘the (kind of ) book such that a kid who is reading it is busy’ b. *책이 *Chayk-i

아이가 ai-ka

바쁘다

pappu-ta.

book-Nom kid-Nom busy ‘A s for the book, the kid is busy.’ (Han and Kim 2004: 333 (34a)) The Japanese examples in (46a) also show the same pattern. They are from Shimojo (2002), to which notations (e.g., RC1, RC2, ei, ej) are added following Han and Kim 2004; Shimojo (2002: 75) credited the example in (46b) to Hasegawa (1981); we added the nominative marker to it. The head noun yōhuku ‘clothes’ cannot serve as a major subject (with a topic marker or a nominative marker) for the clause consisting of the subject sono sinsi ‘that gentleman’ and the predicate yukuehumei-da ‘is missing’, as shown in (46b). Hence, relativization of the object position, ej, in RC2 is the only option, and thus the resulting expression is ungrammatical.13 (46) a. *[

着ていた]

*[rc1[rc2 ei ej kiteita]

紳士が

sinsi-gaj

行方不明な

洋服

yukuehumei-na] yōhukui (J)

was.wearing gentleman-Nomj missing.is

clothesi

‘the clothes which the gentleman who was wearing (them) is missing’ (Shimojo 2002: 75 (25a))

b. *その 洋服は/が

*Sono yōhuku-wa/ga that

着ていた kiteita

紳士が sinsi-ga

行方不明だ。

yukuhehumei-da.

clothes-Top/Nom was.wearing gentleman-Nom missing.is

‘the clothes, the gentleman who is wearing them is missing’ (Shimojo 2002: 75 (25b)) We have shown that both Korean and Japanese allow various argument and adjunct positions to be relativized, but there is a certain restriction on whether and how they can be relativized. In addition, both languages allow a little wider range of positions to be relativized than, say, English, e.g., allowing a position within a wh-island to be relativized, but they seem to be at least subject to the Complex NP constraint just as in English.     13  Miyamoto (2017) points out a problem with the movement analysis as proposed by Sakai (1994) and Han and Kim 2004 and presents a different type of evidence in favor of a movement analysis of relative clauses in Japanese.



8.5 Internally he aded rel ative cl auses  217

8.5  Internally headed relative clauses In addition to the prenominal external relatives in Korean and Japanese that we have looked at above, there are also internally headed relative clauses (IHRCs) in those languages. Keenan (1985: 161) noted that IHRCs are typically found in SOV languages and that the positions that can be relativized internally are limited. The examples in (47) are externally headed relative clauses (EHRCs) with the external head noun totwuk/dorobō ‘thief ’ coreferent with the gap, which we have seen above, and those in (48) are IHRCs. Note that the above IHRCs in (48) clauses are followed by ‘defective’14 nouns, namely, kes (Sohn 1999: 313) in Korean and no in Japanese, and that they are interpreted as coreferent with totwuk/dorobō ‘thief ’, which is within each of the IHRCs. (47) a. 너는 [___ 은행에서 나오는] 도둑을 잡았니? [___ unhayng-eyse nao-nun]

ne-n

you-Top

bank-from

totwuk-ul cap-ass-ni? (K)

exit-PresN thief-Acc

catch-Pst-Q

‘Did you catch the thief coming out of the bank?’ (Sohn 1999: 313 (85bʹ))

b. お前

[___ 銀行から

出てくる] 泥棒を

つかまえたの?

Omae [___ ginkō-kara detekuru] dorobō-o tukamaeta-no? (J)

you

bank-from come.out thief-Acc catch-Pst-Q

‘Did you catch the thief coming out of the bank?’

(48) a. 너는 ne-n

[도둑이 [totwuk-i

은행에서

나오는]

unhayng-eyse nao-nun]

you-Top thief-Nom bank-from

것을

kes-ul

잡았니?

cap-ass-ni? (K)

exit-PresN Nmn-Acc catch-Pst-Q

‘Did you catch the thief when he came out of the bank?’ (Sohn 1999: 313 (85b))

b. お前

[泥棒が

銀行から

出てくる] のを

bank-from

come.out Nmn-Acc catch-Pst-Q

Omae [dorobō-ga ginkō-kara detekuru] no-o

you

a.

thief-Nom

つかまえたの?

tukamaeta-no? (Q)

‘Did you catch the thief when he came out of the bank?’ IHRCs differ from EHRCs in that their readings are less fixed and more dependent on the linguistic and nonlinguistic (discourse) context in which they are uttered. The Japanese sentence with an IHRC in (49) can be interpreted as Taro catching the cat, the mouse, or both the cat and the mouse. Kim (2008: 13) noted that the Korean example in (50) with an IHRC can be translated as ‘Jinho comforted the child while she was crying’ or as ‘Jinho comforted the child because she was crying.’ That is, the semantic relationship between the IHRC and the main clause can be both temporal, ‘while’, and causal ‘because’, depending on the situation of utterance.     14 

These nouns are defective in the sense that they do not denote any substantial meaning.

218  rel ative cl auses (49) 太郎は

Tarō-wa

[[猫が

ネズミを

[[neko-ga nezumi-o

Taro-Top cat-Nom

追いかけていた]の]を 捕まえた。

oikake-tei-ta]-no]-o

tukamae-ta. (J)

mouse-Acc chasing-was-Nmn-Acc caught

Reading 1: ‘A /The cat was chasing a/the mouse and Taro caught the cat.’ Reading 2: ‘A /The cat was chasing a/the mouse and Taro caught the mouse.’ Reading 3: ‘A /The cat was chasing a/the mouse and Taro caught the cat and the mouse.’ (Kim 2008: 5 (5)) (50) 진호는

[[아이가

Jinho-nun [[ai-ka

우는]

것을]

wu-n]-un kes]-ul

Jinho-Top child-Nom cry-PstN

달랬다

tallay-ess-ta. (K)

kes-Acc comfort-Pst-Pln

‘Jinho comforted a/the child while she(the child) was crying.’ (Kim 2008: 13 (25)) Particularly intriguing questions are how the difference in interpretation of the nominal head arises between IERCs and EHRCs and how IHRCs differ structurally from EHRCs (whether or not there is a gap, for example) (Grosu and Landman 2012, Ishikawa 2009, Kim 2007, Ohara 2018, Shimoyama 1999).

8.6 Conclusion We have shown that Korean and Japanese have, as noun modification constructions, relative and appositive clauses, which differ in terms of (i) the semantic relationship a head noun has with its modifying clause and (ii) the categorial structure of a noun-modifying clause. The relative clauses in these languages are divided into two types: (i) gapped relative clauses that contain a structurally gapped argument/adjunct position coreferential with the head noun, and (ii) gapless relative clauses which modify a head noun that can be semantically associated with the event to which each refers. As Comrie (1998) pointed out, having these gapless relative clauses may be a typical characteristic of these languages, which is observable in many other Asian languages and is distinct from European-type languages. We have also shown that Korean and Japanese are subject to similar constraints in terms of relativizable positions with or without a resumptive pronoun. Moreover, it is likely that relativization from a complex NP is not possible in both languages, just as in English. These languages, however, differ from English in permitting the relativization of a position within a wh-island. Korean and Japanese have internally headed relative clauses in addition to such prenominal, external relative clauses.

9

Nominalization 9.1  Introduction In this chapter, we describe the interaction of morphology and syntax with a focus on nominalization. Horie (2000) contrasted Korean and Japanese nominalizers and summarized their difference in semantics as follows. (1) a. Japanese nominalizers encode the semantic distinction between ‘event’ and ‘proposition’ by employing two nominalizers, i.e. ­semantically more specific tokoro and more general no in the domain of ‘event’ [‘Directly Perceived Event’, p. 15], as contrasted with the more abstract ‘propositional’ [‘Indirectly Perceived Event’, p. 15] nominalizer koto. b. In contrast, Korean nominalizers encode the semantic distinction between ‘realis’ and ‘irrealis’, which presents itself in the choice between the ‘realis’ nominalizer (u)m and the ‘irrealis’ nominalizer ki. The other nominalizer kes, which is semantically less specific, neutralizes the distinction (p. 22).

We will examine these nominalizers focusing more on their syntactic behaviors, in the following. Section 9.2 describes three types of Korean nominalization, i.e., nominal clauses with -ki, -(u)m, and kes. The first two are nominalizers and do not require a predicate to appear in the adnominal form. We will examine whether the presence (or absence) of tense correlates with having a PRO or raising subject and whether a genitive subject instead of a nominative subject is allowed. Kes is a complementizer and a predicate appears in the adnominal form. A possibility of genitive subjects in kes clauses is also examined. Section 9.3 examines three types of Japanese nominalization. We particularly focus on two of them, i.e., no and koto nominalizers, to examine what kind of verbs take them. The semantic types of verbs that take one exclusively of the other will be shown. Another nominalizer tokoro, which is similar to no, will be delineated as to how these nominalizers differ. Section 9.4 illuminates an issue concerning genitive subjects in Korean and Japanese. Section 9.5 summarizes the chapter.

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0009

220 nominaliz ation

9.2  Nominalization in Korean Nominalization is the process of changing a verb or adjective into a noun. Contemporary Korean has a wide variety of forms, perhaps as many as twenty, that have been described as nominalizers. In an agglutinative language, morphological derivation plays an important role in nominalization, but functionally the process of nominalization overlaps with clausal complementation, i.e., ways of making clauses arguments of higher predicates. We will focus on two affixal nominalizers, -(u)m and -ki, and the complementizer kes.

9.2.1 Nominalizers -(u)m and –ki Certain embedded clause types such as subjunctive or irrealis complements selected by verbs such as 바라다 palata ‘want’, 원하다 wenhata ‘want’, and 지지하다 cicihata ‘support’, as well as the ‘tough’ predicates 쉽다 swipta ‘easy’ and 어렵다 elyepta ‘difficult’ select nominalized complements in -ki, while 알다 alta ‘know’ and 의미하다 uymihata ‘mean’ select nominalized complements in -(u)m. Both of these are productive nominalizers deriving nominalized forms of verbs in (2) and adjectives in (3). The nominalizations may function as arguments of the main clause predicates and be case marked accordingly. (2) Deverbal nominalizations a. 메리가

Mary-ka

피자를

phica-lul

먹는다

mek-nun-ta.

Mary-Nom pizza-Acc eat-Pres-Pln ‘Mary eats pizza.’

b. 메리가

Mary-ka

피자를

phica-lul

먹기가

mek-ki-ka

어렵다

elyep-ta.

Mary-Nom pizza-Acc eat-Nmn-Nom difficult-Pln ‘It was difficult for Mary to eat pizza.’

c. 메리가

Mary-ka

학교에

hakkyo-ey

간다

ka-n-ta.

Mary-Nom school-dir go-Pres-Pln ‘Mary goes to school.’

d. 메리가

Mary-ka

학교에

hakkyo-ey

갔음을

ka-ss-um-ul

알렸다

ally-ess-ta.

Mary-Nom school-dir go-Pst-Nmn-Acc let.know-Pst-Pln ‘It was announced that Mary went to school.’



9.2 Nominaliz ation in Kore an  221

(3) Deadjectival nominalizations a. 메리가

Mary-ka

기뻐한다

kippeha-n-ta.

Mary-Nom glad-Pres-Pln ‘Mary is glad.’

b. 메리가

Mary-ka

기뻐하기가

쉽지않다

kippeha-ki-ka

swipci-anh-ta.

Mary-Nom glad-Nmn-Nom easy-Neg-Pln ‘It is not easy for Mary to be glad.’

c. 메리가

Mary-ka

행복하다

hayngpokha-ta.

Mary-Nom happy-Pln ‘Mary is happy.’

d. 메리가/의

Mary-ka/-uy

행복함을

아무도

모른다

nobody

not.know-Pres-Pln

hayngpokha-m-ul amwuto molu-n-ta

Mary-Nom/-Gen happy-Nmn-Acc ‘No one knows Mary is happy.’

The nominalizing suffixes -(u)m and -ki show important differences. The suffix -(u)m assigns nominative or genitive case to the subject of the nominalized clause, as shown in (3d). Nominalizations in -ki do not assign genitive, and typically serve as the arguments of Raising or Control predicates. The latter property is shown in (4): (4) a. 남교수님이

[

술을

Nam kyoswu-nimi-i [PROi swul-ul Nam professor-Hon-Nom

Chelswu-ka

귀가

kwii-ka

masi-ki]-lul

싫어하세요

silheha-sey-yo.

alcohol-Acc drink-Nmn-Acc dislike-Hon-Pol

‘Professor Nam dislikes drinking alcohol.’

b. 철수가

마시기]를

[ 가렵기]

시작했다

[ti kalyep-ki] sicakhay-ss-ta.

Chelswu-Nom ear-Nom itch-Nmn

begin-Pst-Pln

‘Chelswu’s ears began to itch.’ (literal meaning) ‘Chelswu began to feel he was being talked about.’ (idiomatic meaning)

222 nominaliz ation In (4a), both the main predicate 싫어하- sileha- ‘dislike’ and the nominalized predicate 마시- masi- ‘drink’ require a subject. The usual analysis of ‘Control’ constructions like this is that the main clause predicate is generated with a subject, in this case Nam kyoswu ‘Professor Nam’, which is then coindexed with the unpronounced subject of masi- ‘drink’, shown as PRO in (4a). In (4b), in contrast, Chelswu’s ears don’t begin doing anything, especially on the idiomatic interpretation of kwi-ka kalyep-ki ‘(feel that one is) being talked about’. Instead what begins is the event of being talked about. Such patterns are usually analyzed as ‘Raising’ constructions, where the subject of the nominalization, here kwi ‘ears’ begins inside the nomimalization and then is displaced to the main clause subject position. What is notable for our discussion here is that -ki complements show this kind of Raising and Control behavior, while -(u)m nominalizations do not. This difference is related to the fact that nominalizations with -(u)m as main clause complements allow tense, but nominalizations with -ki as main clause complements do not. Crosslinguistically, tenseless clausal complements are likelier to undergo Control or Raising. These differences are summarized in (5). (5) Differences between -(u)m and -ki as main clause complements -(u)m

-ki

Genitive subjects

No genitive subjects

+ tense

‒ tense

No Control or Raising Control or Raising possible Differences with respect to case marking and Control are shown in (6). (6) a. 메리는

[영희가/의

늦게

Mary-nun [Yenghuy-ka/-uy

감]이

nuckey ka-m]-i

Mary-Top Yenghuy-Nom/-Gen late ‘Mary dislikes that Yenghuy goes late.’ b. *메리는

영희에게

늦게

감이

Yenghuy-Dat

late

go-Nmn-Nom dislike-Pln

‘Mary dislikes that Yenghuy goes late.’

c. 메리는

silh-ta.

go-Nmn-Nom dislike-Pln

*Mary-nun Yenghuy-eykey nuckey ka-m-i Mary-Top

싫다

영희가/*의

Mary-nun [Yenghuy-ka/*-uy

빨리

ppalli

돌아오기]를

tolao-ki]-lul

싫다

silh-ta.

원한다

wenha-n-ta.

Mary-Top Yenghuy-Nom/-Gen quickly return-Nmn-Acc want-Pres-Pln ‘Mary wants Yenghuy to return quickly.’



9.2 Nominaliz ation in Kore an  223 d. 메리는

[영희에게

[ 빨리

돌아오기를]]

quickly

return-Nmn-Acc want-Pres-Pln

Mary-nun [Yenghuyi-eykey [PROippalli tolao-ki-lul]]

Mary-Top Yenghuy-Dat

원한다

wenha-n-ta.

‘John wants Yenghuy to return quickly.’ We analyze (6d) as a Control structure, while (b) shows that the corresponding pattern is impossible with -(u)m. The contrast between (c) and (d) shows that -ki clauses can license a nominative subject. We can show that the nominative subject is inside the -ki clause while the dative-marked subject is not by scrambling the complement clause: (7) 존은

[빨리

John-nun [ppalli

돌아오기]를 tolao-ki]-lul

메리*가/에게

원한다

Mary*-ka/-eykey wenha-n-ta.

John-Top quickly return-Nmn-Acc Mary-Nom/-Dat want-Pres-Pln ‘John wants Mary to return quickly.’ The presence of tense generally correlates with the occurrence of Control. The nominalizer -(u)m generally allows overt tense morphology. In contrast -ki allows overt tense morphology only in noncontrol contexts such as (8b): (8) a. 메리는

영희가

Mary-nun Yenghuy-ka

늦게

왔음이

nuckey o-ass-um-i

Mary-Top Yenghuy-Nom late 영희가

Mary-nun Yenghuy-ka

빨리

ppalli

silh-ta

come-Pst-Nmn-Nom dislike-Pln

‘Mary dislikes that Yenghuy came late.’

b. 메리는

싫다

돌아왔기를

tolao-ass-ki-lul

원한다

wenha-n-ta.

Mary-Top Yenghuy-Nom quickly return-Pst-Nmn-Acc want-Pres-Pln ‘Mary wants Yenghuy to have returned quickly.’

c. 메리는

영희에게

빨리

Mary-nun Yenghuy-eykey ppalli Mary-Top Yenghuy-Dat

돌아왔기를

tolao-ass-ki-lul

원한다

wenha-n-ta.

quickly return-Pst-Nmn-Acc want-Pres-Pln

‘Mary wants of Yenghuy that she returned quickly.’

9.2.2 Complementizer -Kes Descriptively, the so-called bound noun kes heads clausal complements as a complementizer like -(u)m and -ki.1 Like them, because it can be followed by case markers and postpositions, kes is sometimes called a nominalizer, but the promiscuity     1 

Kes is traditionally treated as a bound noun, and it is also used as such in some other construction, e.g., i kes ‘this thing’.

224 nominaliz ation of Korean case marking makes this a weak criterion. Unlike -(u)m, kes does not allow genitive to be assigned to the subject of its complement clause. Kes uncontroversially introduces complement clauses, so we will use the term complementizer for it. Kes is a very productive morpheme in this function. It requires that it must be preceded by an adnominalized form of the embedded predicate: -nun (present), -(u)n (past), and -(u)l (future). (9) Complementizer: Kes a. 영희는

철수가

피자를

Yenghuy-nun Chelswu-ka

phica-lul

Yenghuy-Top Chelswu-Nom pizza-Acc 먹는것을

안다

mek-nun-kes-ul

a-n-ta.

eat-PresN-Comp-Acc know-Pres-Pln ‘Yenghuy knows that Chelswu eats pizza.’

b. 영희는

철수가

피자를

Yenghuy-nun Chelswu-ka

phica-lul

Yenghuy-Top Chelswu-Nom pizza-Acc 먹은것을

안다

mek-un-kes-ul

a-n-ta.

eat-PstN-Comp-Acc know-Pres-Pln ‘Yenghuy knows that Chelswu ate pizza.’

c. 철수가

피자를

Chelswu-ka

먹을것을

phica-lul

mek-ul-kes-ul

안다

a-n-ta.

Chelswu-Nom pizza-Acc eat-FutN-Comp-Acc know-Pres-Pln ‘Someone knows that Chelswu will eat pizza.’

d. 피자를

Phica-lul

영희는

철수가

Yenghuy-nun Chelswu-ka

pizza-Acc Yenghuy-Top Chelswu-Nom 먹는것을

mek-nun-kes-ul

안다

a-n-ta.

eat-PresN-Comp-Acc know-Pres-Pln ‘Pizza, Yenghuy knows that Chelswu eats.’ Although kes clauses require adnominal morphology, as they serve as complements, their syntactic properties differ from relative clauses. For example, scrambling is possible out of a kes complement clause as in (9d).



9.3 Nominaliz ation in Japanese  225

9.3  Nominalization in Japanese 9.3.1  -No and -koto The Japanese nominalizers that roughly correspond to Korean -ki, -um, and kes shown above are no and koto. No and koto are called keishiki taigen (or meishi) ‘formal nouns’, i.e., nouns that are semantically empty (Matsushita 1930). By adding either no or koto at the end of clauses, noun clauses can be formed, and hence they are treated as nominalizers in early history of Japanese generative grammar (Makino 1969, Nakau 1973), just like the Korean equivalents. We will mainly focus here on the use of no or koto complement clauses followed by the accusative marker -o (S no-o or S koto-o). Their distribution is largely determined by semantics: the likely candidates are the semantic relation that a predicate (a verb or adjective2) has with its complement clause and the semantic property of the proposition denoted by a complement clause. These nominalizers that attach to complements discussed below are distinct from complementizers, for example, in allowing genitive subjects.3 We first compare these two nominalizers (no and koto) with the complementizer -to and later compare their distribution in regard to the semantic type of verbs that they appear with. Kuno (1973) compared no and koto with the complementizer -to in terms of factivity and generalized the semantic difference between the first two as follows: ‘koto is used for nominalizing a proposition and forming an abstract concept out of the proposition [e.g., (10b)], while no is used for representing a concrete event [e.g., (10a)]’ (p. 221). (10) a. 私は

ジョンが

Watakusi-wa John-ga I-Top

見た。

メリーを Mary-o

ぶったの/*ことを butu no/*koto-o

John-Nom Mary-Acc hit-Nmn-Acc

mita. (Kuno 1973: 219 (23a)) saw ‘I saw John hit Mary.’

b. 私は

ジョンに 働く

こと/*のを

John-to

Nmn-Acc

Watakusi-wa John-ni

hataraku

I-Top

work

命じた

koto/*no-o

meizita. (Kuno 1973: 220 (24b)) ordered ‘I ordered John to work.’     2 

Adjectives take nominative marked S no/koto-ga as their complements. No, in fact, also appears as a complementizer, as will be discussed in 9.2.3, which does not allow genitive subjects.

    3 

226 nominaliz ation Elaborating Kuno (1973), Josephs (1976) presented a detailed analysis that accounts for the distribution of koto and no by listing different semantic types of verbs that cooccur with either no or koto, or with both. She classifies the noun complement clauses in terms of the semantic feature directness. No complements are characterized as direct, whereas koto complements are characterized as indirect (Josephs 1976: 325). Complements that can end with both no and koto are considered as an ambiguous type that can be interpreted in either way, i.e., direct or indirect (Josephs 1976: 326). Josephs (1976) wrote as follows. (11) No means something like ‘directly perceived, simultaneously occurring, or imminent action, event, etc.’, while koto means ‘nonsimultaneous, nonrealized, or abstractly perceived action, event, state, etc.’ We can summarize this inherent meaning difference by characterizing no with a semantic feature like and koto with a semantic feature like . (Josephs 1976: 325) Josephs’s (1976) classification of semantic types of verbs that are followed by no exclusively is shown in (12). (12) Verbs that take no exclusively:

a. verbs of sense perception, e.g., 見る miru ‘see’, 聞く kiku ‘hear’, 感じる kanziru ‘feel’, 見える mieru ‘be seen’, 聞こえる kikoeru ‘be heard’, 聞き 入る kikiiru ‘listen enraptured to’, 眺める nagameru ‘watch’, 見かける mikakeru ‘catch sight of ’, おびえる obieru ‘be frightened at’

b. verbs of discovery, e.g., 見つける mitukeru ‘find’, 捕まえる tukamaeru ‘catch’ c. verbs of helping, e.g., 助ける tasukeru ‘help’ and 手伝う tetudau ‘help’

d. verbs of stopping, e.g., 止める tomeru ‘stop’, 制止する seisi suru ‘stop, check’, 振り切る hurikiru ‘shake off ’, 食い止める kuitomeru ‘check, hold’, 受け流 す ukenagasu ‘ward off, elude (a question)’, さえぎる saegiru ‘interrupt, stop’, 受け止める uketomeru ‘stop/catch (a blow) (restricted to fencing)’

All the verbs in (12) cannot be in the past tense but must be in the present tense ‘in the meaning of simultaneous time’ or in the progressive aspect -te iru in some cases (p. 326).4 Josephs’s (1976) list of verbs taking no exclusively and her characterization of them, as shown above, are supported by later researchers, but her characterization of verbs that take koto exclusively and her list are not in agreement with later works, e.g., Kudō (1985) and Hashimoto (1990).     4 

Tomeru ‘stop’ in (12d), however, can take koto as well as no when it is in the potential form tomerareru ‘can stop’ (Josephs 1976: 331–332).



9.3 Nominaliz ation in Japanese  227

Hashimoto (1990) listed and characterized verbs that exclusively take koto complements, as shown in (13). Hashimoto’s main argument against Josephs (1976) is that indirectness is not a property that determines the type of verbs that take koto exclusively, although he agrees with Josephs’s characterization of verbs taking no exclusively as direct. Hashimoto (1990: 108) instead argues that verbs that denote events that result in some kind of production take complement clauses with koto and that complement clauses with no are infelicitous with them. He gave three types of verbs of production, as shown in (13). His argument is that all the verbs listed below denote events in which something (e.g., ideas, utterances, events) is produced (or generated or brought about) as a result. (13) Verbs that take koto exclusively a. verbs of productive mental activity (shinteki kōi dōshi) (Hashimoto 1990: 107)

思いつく omoi-tuku ‘produce/come up with an idea’, 考えつく kangae-tuku ‘produce/come up with an idea’, 計画する keikaku-suru ‘create/ draw up a plan’, 考案する kōan-suru ‘create/draw up a plan’, 案出する ansyutu-suru ‘produce/come up with an idea’, 考える kangaeru ‘think (up of something)’, たくらむ takuramu ‘concoct a scheme’

b. verbs of productive locutionary activity (hatsuwa kōi dōshi) (Hashimoto 1990: 106)

命じる meiziru ‘issue an order’, 求める motomeru ‘seek’, 要求する yōkyū-suru ‘demand’, 勧める susumeru ‘produce a recommendation’, 主 張する syutyō-suru ‘insist’, 唱える tonaeru ‘propose’, 提案する teian-suru ‘present an idea’, 申し出る mōsi-deru ‘offer’, 宣言する sengen-suru ‘issue a statement’, 証言する syōgen-suru ‘offer a testimony’, 述べる noberu ‘put out a statement’, (伝える tutaeru ‘make/issue a report’, 報じ る hōziru ‘make a report’, 報告する hōkoku-suru ‘make a report’, 白状す る hakuzyō-suru ‘make a confession’, 告白する kokuhaku-suru ‘make a confession’, 話す hanasu ‘utter/speak’, 告げる tugeru ‘make a statement’)

c. verbs of actualization (jitsugen dōshi) (Hashimoto 1990: 105)

始める hazimeru ‘start’, 試みる kokoromiru ‘attempt’, 企てる kuwadateru ‘scheme (to do something)’, 推進する suisin-suru ‘promote’, 実現する zitugen-suru ‘actualize’

The verbs of productive locutionary activity in (13b) include Josephs’s verbs of ordering or request and verbs of proposal or advice. The verbs of ordering or request and verbs of proposal or advice are characterized by Josephs (1976: 332–333) as ‘futuritive verbs’, and they must ‘contain the present tense marker in the meaning of future time . . . ’. Other verbs in (13), however, do not impose any restriction on tense and can appear in both past and nonpast tense. Hashimoto’s

228 nominaliz ation verbs of productive locutionary activity in (13b) include Kudō’s communication verbs (e.g., tutaeru ‘communicate’) and indicating verbs (e.g., syōgen suru ‘offer a testimony’),5 which were not included in Josephs’s (1976) list of the verbs that take koto complements exclusively. Hashimoto (1990) agrees with Josephs’s (1976) treatment of the predicates that take no exclusively, labeling them with the semantic feature , which he translated as missetsusei ‘proximity/immediacy’ in Japanese, but he disagrees with Josephs (1976) in characterizing koto complements as having features such as ‘nonsimultaneous, nonrealized, or abstractly perceived action, event, state, etc.’ (Josephs 1976: 325). Hashimoto argued that it is expected from Josephs’s (1976) classification that the degree of directness connoted by complement clauses decreases from those taking no exclusively to those taking koto exclusively, with those taking both no and koto in between. That is, the clauses taking no exclusively carry the most connotation, and those taking koto exclusively carry the least connotation, with no/koto clauses in between. Hashimoto (1990) does not find such a difference. For example, he disagrees with Josephs’s interpretation of her example in (14) that it connotes greater urgency when no instead of koto is used (1990: 110). (14) 犯罪が

Hanzai-ga

将来

起こる {の/こと}を

syōrai okoru {no

crime-Nom future arise

しなければなりません。

/

Nmn-Acc

防止

koto}-o bōsi

prevent

sinakereba   narimasen. must ‘We’ve got to prevent crime from occurring in the future.’ (Josephs 1976: 333 (28))

Hashimoto (1990: 109) also contends that there is no difference in directness between sentences like (15) and (16). Meiziru ‘order’ (its past tense meizita) in (15), being a verb of ordering, needs to cooccur with koto rather than no, unlike the verb yurusu ‘allow’ (its past tense yurusita) in (15), which takes both no and koto. No difference in urgency or immediacy, however, is found between the two events, i.e., between Taro’s allowing Jiro to go out (15) and Taro’s ordering Jiro to go out. (15) 太郎は

Tarō-wa

次郎に Zirō-ni

外に

soto-ni

出る deru

{の / こと}を 許した。 {no / koto}-o

Taro-Top Jiro-Dat outside-to go.out Nmn-Acc

yurusita.

allowed

‘Taro allowed Jiro to go outside.’ (Hashimoto 1990: 109 (17))     5 

The English translations of Kudō’s dentatsu dōshi and hyōji dōshi as communication verbs and indicating verbs are from Hasegawa (2015: 190).



9.3 Nominaliz ation in Japanese  229

(16) 太郎は

Tarō-wa

次郎に Zirō-ni

外に

soto-ni

出る deru

{??の {??no

/ こと}を 命じた。 / koto}-o

Taro-Top Jiro-Dat outside-to go.out Nmn-Acc

meizita.

ordered

‘Taro ordered Jiro to go outside.’ (Hashimoto 1990: 109 (18)) Hashimoto’s (1990) analysis as shown above accounts for the contrast in grammaticality between the sentences in (15) and (16), and it includes both the communication verbs and indicating verbs proposed by Kudō (1985) in the verbs that take koto exclusively. Hashimoto’s above analysis, however, needs to be amended to accommodate verbs that cannot be readily labeled as verbs of production. They are motomeru ‘seek’, yokyū-suru ‘demand’, classified as locutionary verbs in (13b), and Josephs’s (1976: 324) verbs of learning, e.g., narau ‘learn’ and manabu ‘learn’, which were not included in (13) but take koto complements exclusively. The events denoted by these verbs do not involve production or generation of something, but rather the referent of their subject requires something to be done by someone or takes in some ideas rather than producing them. A semantic feature like ‘abstract concept’ (Kuno 1973: 221) or (Josephs 1976) may be a good indicator at least for verbs like motomeru ‘seek’, yokyū-suru ‘demand’, narau ‘learn’ and manabu ‘learn’ than Hashimoto’s labeling. Finally, Josephs’s (1976) list of verbs that take both koto and no is shown in (17). Kudō (1985) came up with a similar list, and Hashimoto (1990) listed other verbs as well, such as verbs for permission (e.g., yurusu ‘permit’), prohibition (kinsi-suru ‘prohibit’), agreement (dōi-suru ‘agree’), recognition (mitomeru ‘admit’), and rejection (hitei-suru ‘deny’). (17) Verbs that take both koto and no (Josephs 1976)

a. verbs of prevention, e.g., 防止する bōsi suru ‘prevent’, 防ぐ husegu ‘prevent’, 邪魔する zyama suru ‘hinder’ b. verbs of expectation, e.g., 期待する kitai suru ‘expect’, 頼みにする tanomi-ni suru ‘look forward to’, 待つ matu ‘wait’,6 祈る inoru ‘pray, hope’

c. verbs of prediction, e.g., 予言する yogen suru ‘predict’, 予知する yoti suru ‘predict, foretell’, 予期する yoki suru ‘forecast’, 予告する yokoku suru ‘give advance notice’

    6  The verb matu ‘wait’ classified here is meant to be used in the sense of ‘expect (something to happen)’, i.e., an indirect sense, and thus allows koto as well as no, but matu in the sense of ‘waiting for someone’ takes no exclusively, as pointed by Kudo (1985: 49).

230 nominaliz ation d. verbs of emotional response (e.g., surprise, shock, fright, annoyance, embarrassment), e.g., 閉口する heikō suru ‘be annoyed’

e. verbs designating mental activities of understanding and realization, e.g., わかる wakaru ‘understand’, 知る siru ‘know’

9.3.2 -Tokoro Tokoro is also regarded as one of the keisiki meishi ‘formal nouns’, as, in principle, it is a bound noun and cannot stand alone in an utterance, just like no and koto. It can be used not only in noun complement clauses but also in adverbial clauses, just like no and koto. We will focus here on the use of tokoro in noun complement clauses in comparison with no noun complement clauses. Josephs (1976: 348) noted that the nominalizer tokoro occurs with ‘many of those same predicates’ as taking noun complement clauses with the nominalizer no: ‘S tokoro o appears regularly in sentences containing nonpresuppositional, nonfuturitive predicates, i.e., verbs of sense perception, discovery, helping, and stopping’. The verbs of sense perception that take tokoro, however, are confined to those of visual perception (Josephs 1976: 353), and hence verbs of hearing and feeling, for example, are excluded, as the following examples show. (18) Verbs of sense perception a. 美香は

メリーが

Mika-wa Mary-ga

家から ie-kara

出る {ところ / の}を deru {tokoro / no}-o

Mika-Top Mary-Nom house-from leave Nmn-Acc 見た/目撃した。

mita/mokugeki-sita. saw/witnessed ‘Mika saw/witnessed Mary leave her house.’

b. 美香は

Mika-wa

メリーが Mary-ga

ピアノを ひく {*ところ/ piano-o

Mika-Top Mary-Nom piano ‘Mika heard Mary play the piano.’

c. 美香は

Mika-wa

体が

温まる

karada-ga atatamaru

hiku {*tokoro / no}-o kiita. play Nmn-Acc

heard

{*ところ / の}を 感じた。

{*tokoro / no}-o

Mika-Top body-Nom become.warm Nmn-Acc ‘Mika felt her body warm up.’

の}を 聞いた。

kanzita.

felt



9.3 Nominaliz ation in Japanese  231

Tokoro has a slightly more substantial meaning than no and koto in that it denotes ‘location’, although classified as one of the formal nouns that are devoid of any substantial meaning. Josephs (1976: 348) cited Harada’s (1973: 114–115) characterization of tokoro complements as referring to ‘a physically perceptible state of affairs which indicates the situation in which the event referred to by the matrix sentence takes place’ and generalizes that ‘tokoro complements describe the circumstances that serve as the situational backdrop or context for another event’. Because of this characteristic, tokoro complement clauses behave slightly differently from no complement clauses. One pair of Josephs’s examples is given in (19) to contrast no and tokoro. The tokoro complement clause in (19a), for example, can depict just one moment of the situation it refers to, whereas the comparable no complement in (19b) depicts the entirety of Sachiko’s act of swimming (from the other side to here). (19) a. 幸子が

Satiko-ga

向こう岸から

mukōgisi-kara

こちらまで 泳ぐ ところを 見た。 kotira-made oyogu tokoro-o

Sachiko-Nom opposite.side-from here-up.to

mita.

swim Nmn-Acc saw

‘I saw Sachiko just as she was swimming/about to swim from the other side to here.’ (Josephs 1976: 350 (51a))

b. 幸子が

Satiko-ga

向こう岸から

mukōgisi-kara

こちらまで 泳ぐ のを kotira-made oyogu no-o

Sachiko-Nom opposite.side-from here-up.to

見た。 mita.

swim Nmn-Acc saw

‘I saw Sachiko swim from the other side to here.’ (Josephs 1976: 350 (51b)) Josephs (1976: 350), referring to the contrast in (19), wrote that the example with no in (19b) reports ‘the total event of the embedded proposition’ observed by the speaker, whereas the example with tokoro in (19a) can be construed as the speaker reporting a moment (or instant) of Sachiko’s swimming ‘in progress or about to begin’ which he or she ‘happened to perceive’. Josephs notes that the semantic feature of tokoro ‘moment, instant’ ‘puts vivid focus on the (unusual or interesting) coincidence of the matrix sentence and embedded sentence events’, whereas no in (19b) lacks such a ‘coincidental nature of the two events’ (p. 350).

9.3.3  Genitive subjects and PRO control The Japanese nominalizers no, koto, and tokoro in the constructions discussed above all allow a genitive subject, just like a genitive subject in relative clauses (see Chapter 8).

232 nominaliz ation Maki and Uchibori (2008) contrasted clauses with no as shown in (20), where a genitive subject is allowed, and (21), where it sounds unnatural. They argued that (20) is an instance of the nominalization with no and (21) an instance of the cleft sentence, where no is treated as a complementizer. (20) この 辺りは

Kono atari-wa this

[日が/の

[hi-ga/no

暮れるの]につれて 冷え込んで くる kureru-no-ni-ture]

around-Top sun-Nom/Gen go-down-no-as

hiekonde

kuru.

colder

get

‘It gets chillier around here as the sun goes down.’ (Maki and Uchibori 2008: 203 (22d))

(21) ??[[メリーの 逃げ出した]の]は

??[[Mary-no nigedasita]-no]-wa Mary-Gen

学校からだ。

gakkō-kara-da.

ran-away-Comp-Top school-from-is

‘It is from school that Mary ran away.’ (Maki and Uchibori 2008: 204 (24b), originally Murasugi’s 1991) No complement clauses in the constructions discussed in the above (9.2.1) allow a genitive subject, behaving similarly to (20) rather than (21), as shown in (22). (22) 私は

[その 細身の

Watasi-wa . . . sono  hosomi-no

I-Top

that slim-body-Gen train-Gen

を

つくづく

見た。

Adn-Acc

intently

saw

no-o

電車の

走って

densya-no hasitte

くるの] kuru

running come

tukuzuku mita.

‘I intently watched that slender train come running toward me’ (, accessed August 23, 2021) Ochi (2017) gives the example in (23), showing that a koto clause allows both subject and object nominative marker -ga to be replaced by the genitive marker -no. (23) 太郎が/の

Taro-ga/no

英語が/の eigo-ga/no

わかる

wakaru

こと koto

Taro-Nom/Gen English-Nom/Gen understand thing ‘the fact that Taro understand English’ (Ochi 2017: 664 (6))



9.3 Nominaliz ation in Japanese  233

All the verbs discussed in 9.2.1 that take koto exclusively or both no and koto can take complement clauses like (23). It is not readily clear whether the verbs of ordering or request and verbs of proposal or advice generally allow a genitive subject (or genitive object) because they take clauses with a null subject (PRO, hence caseless), and they do not usually take a complement clause with a stative proposition, where nominative object is allowed (Kuno 1973). However, when an overt subject in a stative sentence is allowed, a clause like (23) is possible, with a genitive subject and/or a genitive object, as shown in (24). Tokoro complement clauses also allow a genitive subject, as shown in (25). (24) この

Kono this

会社は

英語が/の]

[社員が/の

kaisya-wa

syain-ga/no

eigo-ga/no

company-Top employee-Nom/Gen English-Nom/Gen

わかる ことを

要求した。

know

demanded

wakaru koto-o

yōkyū-sita.

Nmn-Acc

‘This company demanded that the employees understand English.’ (25) [神父の [sinpu-no

休んで

いる ところ]を 見た ことが

yasunde iru

priest-Gen resting

is

tokoro]-o

mita

Nmn-Acc saw

koto-ga

ない nai

fact-Nom there.isn’t

‘(we) have never seen the priest at rest’ (Salesian Polytechnic newsletter no. 134, https://docsplayer.net/104798681-サレジオ高専news-no-134-一般配布 版.html, accessed August 23, 2021) Both koto and no complement clauses allow PRO controlled by a matrix element, as shown in (26a, b). PRO cannot be realized as an overt case-marked element, as shown in (27). The example in (27) is ungrammatical with an overt pronoun whether it refers to the matrix subject or someone else. (26) a. 美香は

Mika-wa

b. 美香は

Mika-wa Mika-Top

野球を

見るのが

好きだ。

野球を

見ることが

好きだ。

PRO yakyū-o PRO yakyū-o

miru-no-ga miru-koto-ga

suki-da. suki-da.

baseball-Acc watch-Nmn-Nom like

‘Mika likes to watch baseball.’

234 nominaliz ation (27) *美香は

彼女が

*Mika-wa kare-ga

野球を

見るの/ことが

yakyū-o

miru-no/koto-ga

好きだ。 suki-da.

Mika-Top he-Nom baseball-Acc watch-Nmn-Nom like ‘*Mika likes her watching baseball.’

9.4  Genitive subjects in nominals Japanese and Korean relative clauses, which behave mostly in similar ways (see Chapter 8), differ in whether they allow genitive marked subjects in place of nominative marked ones. Some languages in the world such as Turkish and Dagur (a Monglic language) allow genitive-marked subjects in relative clauses, and Japanese is also one of them, while Korean is not. The subject of the Japanese example in (28a) can be followed by either the nominative marker -ga or the genitive marker -no, whereas the subject of the Korean example in (28b) only allows the nominative marker -i. (28) a. [[昨日 [[kinō

ジョンが/の John-ga/no

買った] 本] katta]

yesterday John-Nom/Gen bought

hon] (J) book

‘the book John bought yesterday’ (Maki et al. 2016: 133 (1a, b)) b. [[어제 [[ecey

존이/?*의

John-i/?*uy

산]

san]

yesterday John-Nom/Gen bought

책]

chayk] (K) book

‘the book John bought yesterday’ (Maki et al. 2016: 134 (2a, b)) Maki et al. (2016: 136) summarize that there are three approaches to analysis of genitive subjects in Japanese. (29) Three approaches to formalizing the condition on allowing genitive subjects a. D-licensing approach (Miyagawa 1993, Maki and Uchibori 2008) b. C-licensing approach (Watanabe 1996, Hiraiwa 2001) c. v-licensing approach (Miyagawa 2012) The D-licensing approach assumes that clauses with a genitive subject occur in a nominal structure (a determiner phrase, DP). The C-licensing approach assumes that marking subjects genitive is not contingent on appearing within a nominal structure, but it is licensed by the adnominal form of a predicate. The v-licensing approach is proposed by Miyagawa (2012), as a response to the arguments made



9.4  Genitive subjects in nominals  235

by the C-licensing approach against the D-licensing approach, throwing a new light on special constructions where genitive subjects are allowed in structure not enclosed in a DP. As we are concerned with nominalization in this chapter, we will here only focus on the D-licensing approach and introduce an interesting phenomenon of scope ambiguity first pointed out by Miyagawa (1993). (30) a scope difference between nominative and genitive subjects (Miyagawa 2012: 156 (29)) a. [[太郎か 花子]が

[[Tarō-ka Hanako]-ga Taro-or

来る] 理由を kuru] riyū-o

教えて。 osiete.

Hanako-Nom come reason-Acc tell.me

‘Tell me the reason why Taro or Hanako will come.’ ‘reason’ > ‘Taro or Hanako’, *‘Taro or Hanako’ > ‘reason’

b. [[太郎か 花子]の

[[Tarō-ka Hanako]-no Taro-or

Hanako-Gen

来る] 理由を kuru] riyū-o

教えて。 osiete.

come reason-Acc tell.me

‘Tell me the reason why Taro or Hanako will come.’ ‘reason’ > ‘Taro or Hanako’, ‘Taro or Hanako’ > ‘reason’ Miyagawa (2012) contrasted the interpretations of the sentences with a nominative marked subject in (30a) and a genitive subject in (30b). (30a), on the one hand, allows only one interpretation, where the head noun ‘reason’ has wide scope over the subject (‘reason’ > ‘Taro or Hanako’). (30b), on the other hand, allows either the head noun or the subject to have wide scope over the other. The subtle contrast alluded to in (30) is as follows: the speaker of (30a) is just asking for ‘the single reason why Taro or Hanako will come’ (for the speaker, the reason matters and who will come does not), and the speaker of (30b) is either asking for the same thing as in (30a) or asking for ‘either the reason why Taro will come or the reason why Hanako will come’ (Miyagawa 2012: 156). In the latter interpretation, because ‘Taro or Hanako’ has wide scope over ‘reason’, a different reason for each person can be anticipated. The D-approach captures such a difference in interpretation by proposing that the genitive subject can appear in a structure different from the one that the nominative subject appears in. That is, the genitive subject appears at the specifier of a nominal category (D) by moving out of the clause (covertly7) and amenable to     7 

Miyagawa (1993: 217) proposes that ‘[t]he genitive subject moves at LF to have its feature checked by D’, as shown below. This process is equivalent to ‘Agree without movement’ (Miyagawa 2012: 126) in a more recent framework of generative grammar. LF: [DP genitive-subjecti

[IP ... ti ... verb] noun]

236 nominaliz ation being associated with the nominal head, as in the case of genitive possessors. The genitive subject can also stay within the clause and gets the interpretation the same as that of the nominative subject.8 Genitive subjects with no ‘apparent’ nominal head like (31a) that the C-licensing approach presented are accounted for by the D-licensing approach (Maki and Uchibori 2008, Miyagawa 2012) by assuming a covert nominal head no. This is because the insertion of the nominalizer no is possible, as shown in (31b), and, in fact, it sounds much better with it. (31) a. ジョンは John-wa

[メリーの

[Mary-no

読んだ

yonda

John-Top Mary-Gen read

より]

たくさんの 本を

than

many-Gen book-Acc read

yori] takusan-no hon-o

‘John read more books than Mary did.’ (Watanabe 1996: 394 (48a))

b. ジョンは John-wa

[メリーの

[Mary-no

読んだの より]

yonda-no

たくさんの 本を

yori] takusan-no hon-o

John-Top Mary-Gen read-Nmn than

読んだ yonda.

読んだ。 yonda.

many-Gen book-Acc read

‘John read more books than Mary did.’ (Miyagawa 2012: 167 (58b)) Maki et al. (2016) noted an implicational relationship between genitive subjects and a process of NP-deletion in Japanese as well as other languages, namely, Korean, English, Mongolian, and Urdu, as shown in (32) (see Chapter 4 for a similar discussion on NP-deletion). Capturing the differences, an implicational relationship between them is proposed by Maki et al. (2016: 140), as in (33). (32) Genitive subjects and NP-deletion Japanese Korean

English

Mongolian Urdu

Genitive subjects Possible Not possible Not possible Possible

Possible

NP-deletion

Possible

Possible Not possible Possible

Possible

(33) Relation between genitive subjects and NP-deletion If a language allows genitive subjects, it also allows NP-deletion. (Maki et al. 2016: 140 (18)) Examples of NP-deletion are given in (34). The noun taido ‘attitude’ in (34b) can be deleted in Japanese, whereas the noun thayto ‘attitude’ in (35b) cannot in Korean. The right-hand side of each slash e stands for an empty category (a trace or

    8 

The D-approach was further developed in Miyagawa (2012), and it accounts for other phenomena that the C-approach cannot, but it is beyond the space and scope of this work, and thus those interested are encouraged to read his book.



9.4  Genitive subjects in nominals  237

null pronoun); i.e., when the noun on the left-hand side is deleted (see Chapter 4 for the illustration of NP-deletion). (34) a. [だれの [Dare-no who-Gen

態度]が

taido]-ga

よく

ないですか。

yoku nai-desu-ka?

attitude-Nom good not-be-Q

‘Whose attitude is not good?’ (Maki et al. 2016: 139 (15a))

b. ジョンの John-no

John-Gen

[

態度/e]です。

[np taido/e]-desu. attitude-be

‘John’s (attitude) is.’ (Maki et al. 2016: 139 (15b))

(35) a. 누구의

태도가

[Nwuku-uy thayto]-ka

who-Gen

좋지 않습니까?

cohci anhsupni-kka?

attitude-Nom good not.be-Q

‘Whose attitude is not good?’ (Maki et al. 2016: 139 (14a))

b. 존의

John-uy John-Gen

[

태도/*e]입니다.

[np thayto/*e]-ipnita. attitude-be

‘John’s (attitude) is.’ (Maki et al. 2016: 139 (14b)) Maki et al. (2016) noted NP-deletion does not take place not only before another case marker but also before a copula, as shown in (35b). A challenge to the analysis of NP-deletion in Japanese and lack thereof in Korean comes from data like (36), where a nominative subject alternates with a genitive subject in a clause that ends with the nominalizer -(u)m in Korean, as shown in (36). (36) 철수는

[영희가/의

Chelswu-nun [Yenghuy-ka/uy

늦게

감이]

nuckey ka-m]-i

Chelswu-Top Yenghuy-Nom/Gen late

싫다

silh-ta. (K)

go-Nmn-Nom dislike-Pln

‘Chelswu dislikes that Yenghuy goes late.’ (Cho and Whitman 2020: 170 (62)) Korean thus provides a good testing ground for analyses of genitive subject. Miyagawa (2012: 122, 123) wrote that the licensing conditions for genitive subjects ‘are not uniform across languages’ and that Dagur is subject to the D-licensing of the genitive subject, whereas Turkish is subject to the C-licensing of the genitive subject. Genitive subjects in Korean remain to be explored to see what regulates their distribution.

238 nominaliz ation

9.5 Conclusion In this chapter, we have dealt with the interface of morphology and syntax relating to NPs in nominalization. Nominalization is a process of changing a verb or an adjective into a noun. We focused on complement clauses with nominalizers in this chapter. In Section 9.2, we discussed two nominalization processes in Korean. Complement clauses with two Korean nominalizers -ki and -(u)m and complement clauses with kes (a complementizer) are compared in regard to their syntactic structure, the morphological case of their subject (whether or not a genitive case in place of a nominative case is possible), and the presence or absence of a tense morpheme in them. The suffix -(u)m assigns nominative or genitive case to the subject of a nominalized clause, whereas -ki and kes allow only nominative case (but not genitive case). Nominalizations in -ki that are tenseless serve as the arguments of Raising or Control predicates, while noncontrol -ki allows tense morphology. Kes clauses require adnominal forms unlike the nominalizers -ki and -(u)m, but their syntactic properties differ from relative clauses in allowing an element to scramble out from them. In Section 9.3, we described three types of nominalizations in Japanese. The nominalizers no, koto, and tokoro are compared in regard to the semantic type of verbs that take them. The type of verbs that take no complement clauses exclusively are postulated to have the semantic feature of directness (Josephs 1976), and the type of verbs that take koto complement clauses exclusively are characterized by Hashimoto (1990) as verbs of production, i.e., verbs of productive mental activity, verbs of productive locutionary activity, and verbs of actualization. Tokoro is similar to no but differs from it subtly, referring to a focused segment of a situation and ‘a precise coincidence’ between the matrix and embedded events. All the three Japanese nominalizers allow genitive subjects. An issue concerning genitive subjects was referred to in Section 9.4. Maki et al. (2016) generalized that a language that allows genitive subjects also allows NP-deletion. However, Korean does not allow NP-deletion, and yet it allows genitive subjects in -(u)m nominalizations. This piece of data calls for an analysis that compares Korean and Japanese genitive subjects and the mechanisms that allow them.

10

Negation 10.1  Introduction A sentence, as stated elsewhere, is uttered to state that a certain situation (an event or state) holds, and sentential negation is a process in which this is negated. Sentential negation is one of the most basic linguistic phenomena that can be found in any language, but how languages negate sentences varies. Japanese and Korean, almost like twin languages in so many ways, differ in how they express sentential negation, exhibiting their separate characteristics. To elucidate their differences in negating sentences, we need to look at two different clusters of linguistic properties, i.e., (i) the type of predicates to be negated and (ii) the morphological type of the negators. In addition to how Japanese and Korean sentences are negated, we also look at elements that are the targets of negation in this chapter. When a sentence is negated, usually only a part of the sentence is negated. One interpretation of the negated sentence ‘Mary did not come yesterday’ is that it was not yesterday that she came. In this case the target of negation is yesterday, although it is possible for other elements, e.g., Mary, to be targeted depending on the context and intonation of utterance. There is a group of expressions called Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) in Japanese and Korean that always function as the target of negation. We will look at the different ways in which sentences are negated in Japanese and Korean in 10.2 and examine what kind of NPIs these languages have in 10.3. Section 10.4 concludes this chapter.

10.2  Different types of negation To examine how sentences are negated, we need to take into consideration two aspects: (i) the type of predicates to be negated and (ii) the morphological type of the negators, as stated above. Sentential negation often exhibits different patterns depending on the type of predicate. In English, for example, a sentence with a finite verb usually needs the auxiliary verb do for negation, as in (1a, b), but if a sentence has a copula, the negative particle not can just follow it, as in (1c, d), and if there is an auxiliary in the sentence, the negative particle not can follow it too, as in (1e, f ). Similarly, we need to know the type of sentence to see how sentences are negated in Japanese and Korean.

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0010

240 negation (1) a. Mary jogs every day. b. Mary does not jog every day. c. Mary is tall. d. Mary is not tall. e. Mary may come. f. Mary may not come. There are three different types of predicates that we need to consider when examining sentential negation in Japanese and Korean. The three different types are: (i) verbal predicates, (ii) adjectival predicates, and (iii) nominal predicates, as noted in Chapter 6. Both Japanese and Korean have different ways of negating sentences depending on the type of predicate. In Japanese the negative forms of verbs differ greatly from those of adjectival and nominal predicates, and in Korean the verbal and adjectival predicates have similar (albeit not identical) negative forms and contrast with the negative forms of nominal predicates. In addition to these different ways in which Japanese and Korean group predicates, they employ different morphological types of sentential negation. Payne (1985) listed four types of negation in a ‘syntactic typology of standard negation’, as shown in (2). (2) Payne’s (1985) syntactic typology of standard negation a. Negative verbs b. Negative particles c. Morphological negatives d. Negative nouns There are basically three types of standard negation, if we exclude the fourth type ‘negative nouns’ in (2d), which Payne (1985) characterized as a ‘rare possibility’ (p. 228). Japanese and Korean differ in terms of the typology of negation. Korean mainly uses either a negative verb, (2a), or a negative particle (or clitic), (2b), whereas Japanese mainly uses a morphological negative (or a bound negative morpheme), (2c), as shown in Table 10.1. Table 10.1  Sentential negation in Japanese and Korean Japanese Predicate type

Plain

Hearer Honorific

(i) verb

Morphological Negative Suppletive Negative Adjective

Morphological Negative (Suppletive Negative Adjective)

(ii) adjective (iii) nominal predicate

Korean

Negative Verb Negative Particle Negative Particle



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  241

According to WALS (Haspelmath 2005), the use of a negative particle, as in Korean, is widely seen among the languages in the world, e.g., languages in Europe and Chinese, and yet a morphological negative, as observed in Japanese, is a typological feature shared by many of the Altaic languages, particularly among those in Northeast Asia (e.g., Orok, Manchu, Yakut, Buriat, Khalkha, Tuvan). The use of a negative particle and a negative auxiliary verb, however, is also found among some of the Altaic languages, e.g., a negative particle in Manggheur and a negative auxiliary verb in Evenki (Haspelmath 2005). Japanese sentences with verbal predicates use morphological negatives, and those with nominal or adjectival predicates in the hearer honorific style are also negated with a morphological negative, although it is also possible to negate the latter with a suppletive negative adjective. Japanese adjectives or nominal predicates in the plain style exclusively employ the suppletive negative adjective na(-i) ‘to be nonexistent’ serving as the negative form of the verb ar(-u) ‘to exist, to be’ in its plain (i.e., nonhonorific) form. Korean sentences with verbal or adjectival predicates use a negative verb (or negative auxiliary verb) for sentential negation. As the negative verb used with adjectives exhibits an inflectional paradigm of ‘adjectives’, it would in fact be more appropriate to call it a negative adjective instead, but the term negative verb will be used in the following to refer to both a negative verb and negative adjective for ease of reference. In addition, negative particles (or negative clitics) are used in sentences with verbal, adjectival, and nominal predicates in Korean, although there are some restrictions on the use of negative particles in the case of adjectival and nominal predicates. Table 10.1 is a rough illustration of the patterns of sentential negation in Japanese and Korean, which will be illustrated in more detail in the following.

10.2.1  Negative verbs in Korean Korean has two negative verbs: anh- ‘(do) not, (is) not’ and mos ha- ‘not able to (do)’, of which the former negates the truth value of the preceding clause ending with the suspective marker -ci, and the latter negates the ability to carry out the proposition denoted by the preceding clause ending with -ci, as shown below. Both negative verbs can be used with verbs as in (3e, f ), but only anhcan be used with adjectives, as in (3g). Adjectives do not allow mos ha- to be used with them except for a few exceptions, e.g., chwungpwunha- ‘to be sufficient’. Nominal predicates can be negated with neither of the negative verbs, as shown in (3h). Sentential negation by means of negative verbs is called Long-Form Negation (LFN) in Korean linguistics and contrasts with Short-Form Negation (SFN) using the pre-verbal negative particles, an(i) and mos, which will be illustrated in the following subsection (10.2.2). Historically, negative verbs are derived

242 negation (3) Korean negative verbs (anh- and mos ha-) AFFIRMATIVE Verbs

a. 메리가

Mary-ka

Mary-Nom

NEGATIVE

뛴다

e. 메리가

ttwy-n-ta.

Mary-ka

run-Pres-Pln

ttwy-ci

않는다

anh-nun-ta.

Mary-Nom run-Susp NV-Pres-Pln

‘Mary runs/will run.’1

b. 메리가

뛰지

‘Mary does/will not run.’

헤엄친다

Mary-ka

heyemchi-n-ta.

Mary-Nom

swim-­Pres-Pln

f. 메리가

Mary-ka

헤엄치지

heyemchi-ci mos

Mary-Nom swim-Susp

한다

‘Mary swims/will swim.’

못

cannot

ha-n-ta.2 do-­Pres-Pln ‘Mary cannot swim.’ Adjectives

c. 야채는

Yachay-nun

신선하다

g. 야채는

sinsenha-ta.

Yachay-nun

신선하지

않다

sinsenha-ci anth-ta.

vegetable-Top fresh-Pln

vegetable-Top fresh-Susp NV-Pln

‘The vegetables are fresh.’

‘The vegetables are not fresh.’

Nominal Predicate

d. 메리는

학생이다

Mary-nun

haksayng-i-ta.

Mary-Top

student-­Cop-Pln

h. *메리는

‘Mary is a student.’

학생이지

*Mary-nun haksayng-i-ci

Mary-Top student-Cop-Susp

않다

anth-ta. NV-Pln ‘Mary is not a student.’     1 

It is also possible to interpret this as an ongoing action, i.e., ‘John is running’. See Chapter 11 ‘Tense and aspect’.     2  The affirmative sentence given in (3b) is not exactly the one in the opposite polarity of (3f ). Note that the translation of (3b) is ‘Mary swims/will swim’ and that of (3f ) is ‘Mary cannot swim’. The Korean equivalent of ‘Mary can swim’ is as follows. (i)

메리가 헤엄칠 Mary-ka heyemchi-l Mary-Nom swim-FutN ‘Mary can swim.’

수 swu Pot

있다 iss-ta. exist-Pln

The particle mos means ‘not able to’ and adds a potential meaning to the sentence it occurs in in addition to negation.



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  243

from the Korean dummy verb ha- ‘to do’ preceded by either of the negative particles, resulting in either an(i) ha- and mos ha-, and take a complement clause to negate. As stated above, LFN is possible with verbs and adjectives, but LFN cannot be used to negate nominal predicates, for which SFN is used. For adjectives, LFN with anh- is possible, whereas LFN with mos ha- generally is not, but for a few exceptions. Korean negative verbs inflect for tense, and the predicate within its complement clause (the clause ending with -ci) does not. Subject honorifics, however, can be marked on either the negative verb or the predicate (or on both). The examples in (4a, c) show that the past tense marker can be suffixed to a negative verb, but that it cannot be suffixed to the verb in the clause ending with -ci, as in (4b, d). The examples in (5a, c) show that a subject honorific marker can be suffixed to a negative verb, and the examples in (5b, d) show that it can also be suffixed to the verb within a complement clause ending with -ci.

(4) Sentential negation (LFN) inflecting for tense a. 메리가

Mary-ka

뛰지

ttwy-ci

Mary-Nom run-Susp ‘Mary did not run.’

b. *메리가

*Mary-ka

뛰었지

ttwy-ess-ci

않았다

anh-ass-ta. NV-Pst-Pln 않다

anh-ta.

Mary-Nom run-Pst-Susp NV-Pln ‘Mary did not run.’

c. 메리가

Mary-ka

헤엄치지

heyemchi-ci

Mary-Nom swim-Susp ‘Mary could not swim.’

d. *메리가

*Mary-ka

헤엄치었지

못

mos

‘Mary could not swim.’

ha-yess-ta.

cannot do-Pst-Pln 못

heyemchi-ess-ci mos

Mary-Nom swim-Pst-Susp

하였다

하다

ha-ta.

cannot do-Pln

244 negation (5) Sentential negation (LFN) inflecting for subject honorification a. 선생님께서

Sensayng-nim-kkeyse

뛰지

ttwy-ci

teacher-Hon-Nom (Hon) run-Susp ‘The teacher did not run.’

b. 선생님께서

Sensayng-nim-kkeyse

뛰시지

ttwy-si-ci

않으시었다

anh-usi-ess-ta.

NV-SHon-Pst-Pln 않았다

anh-ass-ta.

teacher-Hon-Nom (Hon) run-SHon-Susp NV-Pst-Pln ‘The teacher did not run.’

c. 선생님께서

Sensayng-nim-kkeyse

헤엄치지

heyemchi-ci

teacher-Hon-Nom (Hon) swim-Susp ‘The teacher could not swim.’

d. 선생님께서

Sensayng-nim-kkeyse

헤엄치시지

heyemchi-si-ci

못

mos

하시었다

ha-si-ess-ta.

cannot do-SHon-Pst-Pln 못

mos

하였다

ha-yess-ta.

teacher-Hon-Nom (Hon) swim-SHon-Susp cannot do-Pst-Pln ‘The teacher could not swim.’

10.2.2  Negative particles in Korean There are two negative particles in Korean: one that negates the truth value of a sentence, an(i), and another that negates the ability to carry out the action described by the sentence, mos. The two negative particles appear in pre-verbal position, as shown in (6). Neither adjectival nor nominal predicates can take mos. If adjectives are morphologically complex (sinsen ‘fresh’ + ha- ‘do’), they generally cannot be used with the negative particle an, either, as in (6j). For the negation of nominal predicates, a nominative marker is placed after a noun (or NP), as shown in (6k, l).3 (6) Korean negative particles (SFN) AFFIRMATIVE Verbal predicate

a. 메리가

Mary-ka

    3 

뛴다

ttwy-n-ta.

NEGATIVE g. 메리가

Mary-ka

안

an

뛴다

ttwy-n-ta

Mary-Nom run-Pres-Pln

Mary-Nom Neg run-Pres-Pln

‘Mary runs/will run.’

‘Mary does/will not run.’

Orthographically, the negative form of the copula is treated as a fused element, rather than an- procliticized on i-, but it is here treated on par with other forms with the proclitic an-.



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  245 b. 메리가

헤엄친다

Mary-ka

heyemchi-n-ta.

h. 메리가

못

mos

Mary-ka

헤엄친다

heyemchi-n-ta.

Mary-Nom swim-Pres-Pln

Mary-Nom cannot swim-Pres-Pln

‘Mary swims/will swim.’

‘Mary cannot swim.’

Adjectival predicate 좋다 c. 날씨가 Nalssi-ka

coh-ta.

i. 날씨가

안

an

Nalssi-ka

좋다

coh-ta.

weather-Nom good-Pln

weather-Nom Neg good-Pln

‘The weather is good.’

‘The weather is not good.’

d. 야채는

신선하다

j. *야채는

안

신선하다

vegetable-Top fresh-Pln

*Yachay-nun

‘The vegetables are fresh.’

‘The vegetables are not fresh.’

Yachay-nun

sinsenha-ta.

Nominal predicate

e. 존은

John-un

학생이다

haksayng-i-ta.

an

sinsenha-ta.

vegetable-Top Neg fresh-Pln

k. 존은

John-un

학생이

haksayng-i

아니다

an-i-ta.

John-Top student-Cop-Pln

John-Top student-Nom Neg-Cop-Pln

‘John is a student.’

‘John is not a student.’

f. 메리는

천재다

Mary-nun chencay-ta.

l. 메리는

천재가

Mary-nun chencay-ka

아니다

an-i-ta.

Mary-Top genius-Pln

Mary-Top genius-Nom Neg-Cop-Pln

‘Mary is genius.’

‘Mary is not genius.’

As negative particles do not inflect, it is the main verb that takes on tense and subject honorific markers, as shown in (7) and (8). The past tense -ess- is suffixed to a verb in (7) and (8), and so is the subject honorific marker -si-, as shown in (8). Table 10.2 summarizes what has been shown above. (7) Sentential negation (SFN) inflecting for tense a. 메리가

Mary-ka

안

an

Mary-Nom Neg ‘Mary did not run.’

b. 메리가

Mary-ka

못

mos

뛰었다

ttwy-ess-ta. run-Pst-Pln 헤엄쳤다

heyemchi-ess-ta.

Mary-Nom cannot swim-Pst-Pln ‘Mary could not swim.’

246 negation (8) Sentential negation (SFN) inflecting for subject honorification a. 선생님께서

안

an

Sensayng-nim-kkeyse

teacher-Hon-Hon (Hon) Neg ‘The teacher did not run.’

b. 선생님께서

Sensayng-nim-kkeyse

못

mos

뛰시었다

ttwy-si-ess-ta. run-SHon-Pst-Pln 헤엄치시었다

heyemchi-si-ess-ta.

teacher-Hon-Hon (Hon) cannot swim-SHon-Pst-Pln ‘The teacher could not swim.’ Table 10.2  Negation in Korean sentences Negative type

Negative verb (LFN) . . .-ci anh- . . .-ci mos ha-

Predicate type (i) verb (ii) adjective morphologically simple derived (iii) nominal predicate

OK OK

OK

Negative particle (SFN) an . . . OK OK

mos . . . OK

OK OK

10.2.3  Morphological negatives in Japanese Japanese has neither of the ways of sentential negation that Korean employs, i.e., LFN (negative verbs) or SFN (negative particles). Japanese mainly uses morphological negatives for sentential negation. That is, negatives are morphologically bound, incorporated into predicates, and realized as different allomorphs /-ana-, -na-, -en/. The patterns of Korean sentential negation shown above may appear a little complex, but Japanese is also complex because the negation of sentences with addressee honorifics needs to be taken into account. In the following, both plain and hearer honorific forms of nonpast sentences in Japanese will be illustrated. Korean mainly distinguishes verbs and adjectives from nominal predicates for sentential negation, i.e., negative verbs are used with verbs and adjectives, but not with nominal predicates, as shown in Table 10.2. In contrast, Japanese distinguishes verbs from both adjectives and nominal predicates for sentential negation. Pustet (2003) categorizes Japanese as a split-A language, which uses a copula with one group of adjectives and does not use it with the other group of adjectives,



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  247

as schematically shown in the typology of copularization in Table 10.3. According to Pustet’s (2003) labels, the Tagalog-type languages are called non-copularizing, the Lakota-type split-N, the Burmese-type AV, the Japanese-type split-A, the German-type AN, the Basque-type split-V, and the Bambara-type fully copularizing. Table 10.3  Typology of copularization patterns (Pustet 2003: 71, Table 2.4) NOMINALS

ADJECTIVALS

VERBALS

Tagalog Lakota Burmese Japanese German Basque Bambara (dark shading: copula used in predicate position; light shading: copula not used in predicate position)

The example in (9a) is an adjective that occurs without a copula, referred to here as a canonical adjective, and the example in (9b) is an adjective with a copula, referred to here as a nominal adjective. The canonical adjectives mostly consist of native vocabulary, and the nominal adjectives mainly consist of borrowed or derived stems. (9) Japanese adjectives NONPAST a. Canonical adjective 温度が

Ondo-ga

PAST 高い。 taka-i.

温度が

Ondo-ga

高かった。 taka-katta.

temperature-Nom high-NPst

temperature-Nom high-Pst

‘The temperature is high.’

‘The temperature was high.’

b. Nominal adjective メリーが

きれいだ。

Mary-Nom

pretty-Cop.NPst Mary-Nom

Mary-ga

‘Mary is pretty.’

kirei-da.

メリーが Mary-ga

きれいだった。 kirei-dat-ta.

pretty-Cop-Pst

‘Mary was pretty.’

As shown above, the Japanese copula da, the contracted form of de followed by ar-u ‘to exist, be’, has to appear after a nominal adjective in (9b), whereas the same copula cannot appear after a canonical adjective in (9a) (see Chapter 6).

248 negation Nishiyama (1999), however, argued that both types of adjectives basically have identical structure consisting of a predicational phrase with the dummy copula verb ar- ‘to exist’, which sometimes does not appear overtly for morphological reasons. If a particle attaches to a predicational phrase, as in (10a, b), the dummy copula verb ar- has to appear. Moreover, the past tense form taka-katta ‘was high’ in (9a) can be considered a contracted form of takaku atta, which can actually be used, particularly when a particle intervenes, e.g., takaku-mo atta ‘was also expensive’, as stated already in Chapter 6. (10) Japanese adjectives a. Canonical adjective (periphrastic, nonpast) 温度が

Ondo-ga

高くは

taka-ku-wa

ある。 ar-u.

temperature-Nom high-KU-Con be-NPst ‘The temperature is at least high.’ b. Canonical adjective (periphrastic, past) 温度が

Ondo-ga

高くは

taka-ku-wa

あった。 at-ta.

temperature-Nom high-KU-Con be-Pst ‘The temperature was at least high.’ If we follow Nishiyama (1999), Japanese can be categorized as an AN language along with languages like German in Table 10.3 (or Altaic languages, Kazama 2014). Korean, in contrast, rarely uses a copula after adjectives,4 and hence it is classified as an AV language along with languages like Burmese. Whatever may be the type of Japanese with regard to whether or not a copula is used in affirmative sentences, when it comes to sentential negation, both types of adjectives in Japanese exhibit almost identical negative forms, which differ from verbal negative forms. The negative forms of Japanese adjectives and nominal predicates basically consist of three elements: an adjectival or nominal stem, a linking element (or an infinitive suffix), and the negative form of the dummy auxiliary verb ar- ‘to exist’. In sentential negation, the linking element for a canonical adjective is -ku, and that for a nominal adjective or a nominal predicate is de, or its variant.5 One more     4 

Korean ‘adjectival nouns’ can be followed by a copula, which, however, is not common (Robbeets 2015). If so as Robbeets argues, it can be classified as a split-A type language.     5  The head of a Predicational Phrase (Nishiyama 1999) for canonical adjectives is represented as -KU and that for nouns or nominal adjectives as -DE here. Both are the infinitive ending of each type of predicates (Martin 1975).



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  249

complication is that the plain negative form of the verb ar- ‘to exist’ is its lexical substitute, namely, the adjective na-(i) ‘to be nonexitent’. The expected negative form of ar- in (11a), *ar-ana-, is missing.6 Observe the existential sentence in (11a) with ar-u. When negated, the sentence in (11b) is used. (11b) has the negative suppletive form na-i, which is also used to negate adjectival or nominal predicates. (11) Verb of existence a. 机の

上に

Tukue-no ue-ni

本が

ある。

hon-ga

ar-u.

desk-Gen top-on book-Nom be-NPst ‘There is a book on the desk.’

b. 机の

上に

Tukue-no ue-ni

本が

ない。

hon-ga

na-i.

desk-Gen top-on book-Nom nonexistent-NPst ‘There is not a book on the desk.’ The Japanese nominal and adjectival predicates, unlike verbs, are negated with the existential verb ar- in the negative (or one of its stylistic variants, e.g., ara-zu, ar-imas-en, goza-imas-en ‘do not exist’) or the negative lexical substitute na-. The affirmative plain nonpast forms of verbal, adjectival, and nominal predicates and their corresponding negative forms are shown in (12). (12) Japanese plain nonpast forms AFFIRMATIVE Verb

a. メリーが Mary-ga

Mary-Nom

走る

hasir-u. run-NPst

‘Mary runs/will run.’ Adjective (canonical)

b. トマトが

b. Tomato-ga

    6 

高い。 taka-i.

NEGATIVE メリーが

走らない。

Mary-Nom

run-Neg-NPst

e. Mary-ga

hasir-ana-i.

‘Mary does/will not run.’ f. トマトが

Tomato-ga

高く

taka-ku

ない。 na-i.

tomato-Nom high-NPst

tomato-Nom high-KU nonexistent-NPst

‘The tomatoes are e­ xpensive.’

‘The tomatoes are not expensive.’

Except for its literary variant ara-zu ‘exist-not-(and)’, which can be used as a negative form of arand part of a nominal or adjectival predicate in a literary style.

250 negation Adjective (nominal)

c. トマトが

新鮮だ。 g. トマトが

Tomato-ga

sinsen-da.

Tomato-ga

新鮮で(は)

ない。

sinsen-de-(wa) na-i.7

tomato-Nom fresh-Cop

tomato-Nom fresh-DE-Con nonexistent-NPst

‘The tomatoes are fresh.’

‘The tomatoes are not fresh.’

Nominal predicate

d. メリーが Mary-ga

学生だ。

gakusei-da.

h. メリーが Mary-ga

学生で(は)

ない。

gakusei-de-(wa) na-i.

Mary-Nomstudent-Cop

Mary-Nom student-DE-Con nonexistent-NPst

‘Mary is a student.’

‘Mary is not a student.’

As shown in (12e), the morphological negative -ana- is suffixed to the consonant verb hasir- ‘run’ in (12e). Vowel verbs, like tabe- ‘eat’, are followed by its allomorph -na-, e.g., tabe-na(-i) ‘do not eat’. Both morphological negatives -ana- and -na- are bound and differ from the adjective na- ‘to be absent/­nonexistent’ used with adjectives and nominal predicates in (12f, g, h). The negative suppletive form na- suffixed with an inflectional suffix appears as a free morpheme in (12f, g, h). Separating the negative element from its host by a particle results in ungrammaticality when the host is a verb, as shown in (13f, g), whereas it is possible when the host is an adjective or nominal, as shown in (13h, i, j). (13) Separation by a particle f. *走りは

Verbs

a. 走らない

run-Neg-NPst

*hasir-(i)-wa

‘do not run’

‘do not run’

hasir-ana-i

run-(Inf )-Con g. *食べは

b. 食べない

eat-Neg-NPst

*tabe-wa

‘do not eat’

‘do not eat’

tabe-na-i

Adjectives c. 高く

ない

taka-ku

na-i

high-KU

nonexistent-NPst

‘is not high’     7 

eat-Con

h. 高くは

taka-ku-wa high-KU-Con

ない

(a)na-i Neg-NPst ない na-i.

Neg-NPst

ない na-i

nonexistent-NPst

‘is not (at least) high’

In the negative, the insertion of wa after de in (12g, h) is preferred, although not necessary.



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  251 d. 新鮮で

ない

i. 新鮮では

na-i

sinsen-de fresh-DE

ない na-i

sinsen-de-wa

nonexistent-NPst

fresh-DE-Con

‘is not fresh’

nonexistent-NPst

‘is not fresh’

Nominal predicate e. 学生で

ない

j. 学生では

na-i

gakusei-de student-DE

ない na-i

gakusei-de-wa

nonexistent-NPst

student-DE-Con nonexistent-NPst

‘is not a student’

‘is not a student’

The difference in the types of negative morphemes between the verbs, on the one hand, and the nominal and adjectival predicates, on the other, disappears in sentences with addressee honorifics, in which the morphological negative -en is used with the predicates of all syntactic categories. (14) Japanese hearer honorific nonpast forms AFFIRMATIVE Verb

a. メリーが Mary-ga

走ります

hasir-imas-u.

NEGATIVE d. メリーが Mary-ga

走りません

hasir-imas-en.

Mary-Nom run-Pol-NPst

Mary-Nom run-Pol-Neg

‘Mary runs/will run.’

‘Mary does/will not run.’

Adjective (canonical) b. トマトが

Tomato-ga

高いです

taka-i-desu.

e. トマトが

Tomato-ga

高く

taka-ku

ありません

ar-imas-en.

tomato-Nom high-Pol.Npst

tomato-Nom high-KU be-Pol-Neg

‘The tomatoes are expensive.’

‘The tomatoes are not expensive.’

Adjective (nominal) c. トマトが

Tomato-ga

新鮮です

sinsen-des-u.

tomato-Nom fresh-Pol.Cop-NPst ‘The tomatoes are fresh.’

f. トマトが

Tomato-ga

新鮮で(は)

sinsen-de-(wa)

tomato-Nom fresh-DE-Con

ありません

ar-imas-en. be-Pol-Neg ‘The tomatoes are not fresh.’

252 negation Nominal predicate d. メリーが Mary-ga

学生です

gakusei-des-u.

Mary-Nom student-Pol.Cop-NPst ‘Mary is a student.’

g. メリーが Mary-ga

学生で(は)

gakusei-de-(wa)

Mary-Nom student-DE-Con

ありません

ar-imas-en. be-Pol-Neg ‘Mary is not a student.’

The morphological negative -en appears with all types of predicates, as shown in (14d, e, f, g). Adjectival and nominal predicates in the negative in (14e, f, g) end with ar-imas-en, i.e., ar-imas- inflected for negation. There is, in fact, another set of polite negative forms, which are identical to those in (12) followed by desu, as shown in (14)ʹ. (14)ʹ Japanese hearer honorific negative nonpast forms a. Verb:

メリーが

走らない

です

Mary-Nom

run-Neg-NPst

Pol

Mary-ga

hasir-ana-i

‘Mary does/will not run.’

b. Canonical adjective: トマトが

Tomato-ga

高く

takaku

tomato-Nom high-KU

です

desu.

ない na-i

nonexistent-NPst

desu. Pol ‘The tomatoes are expensive’

c. Nominal adjective:

トマトが

Tomato-ga

新鮮で(は)

sinsei-de-(wa)

tomato-Nom fresh-DE-Con

です

desu. Pol ‘The tomatoes are not fresh.’

ない na-i

nonexistent-NPst



10.2  Different t ypes of negation  253 d. Nominal predicate: メリーが Mary-ga

Mary-Nom

です

学生では

gakusei-de(wa)

ない

na-i

student-DE-Con nonexistent-NPst

desu. Pol ‘Mary is not a student.’

Desu at the end of each sentence is a polite sentence-final particle and it is not a copula, although morphologically identical. This is because it does not inflect for tense, unlike the polite copula -desu (whose past tense is -desita). The contrast in the morphological status between verbs and the other types of predicates (adjectives and nominal predicates) also holds in the above. The negator in negation of verbs is morphologically bound, whereas the negator in negation of adjectival or nominal predicates is free. The negative suppletive form of ar- is used in the latter predicates. To sum up, we have shown above two types of sentential negation in ­Japanese. Verbs are negated with a bound morpheme, -(a)na- or -en (after -(i)mas-). Adjectives and nominal predicates are negated with an existential auxiliary verb in the negative, e.g., ar-imas-en, or its negative suppletive form na(-i).8 The function of the suppletive negative form na- is to take on an inflectional suffix, e.g., for tense. Sentential negation with the suppletive negative form na-, however, is a case of lexicalized negation, similar to lexicalized negative forms in Korean, e.g., eps- ‘to not exist’ the negative of iss- ‘to exist’, and molu- ‘to not know’ the negative of al- ‘to know’. The patterns of sentential negation in Japanese are as shown in Table 10.4. Table 10.4  Negation in Japanese sentences Negative type Morphological negative Predicate type (i) verb (ii) adjective

canonical nominal (iii) nominal predicate

    8 

-ana- or -na-

(-(i)mas)-en

OK

OK OK with arimas-sen

na-, suppletive form of ar- ‘to exist’ in the negative

OK

Kishimoto (2007) demonstrated that both canonical and nominal adjectives in the negative (as well as affirmative) differ from verbs in being unable to appear as the complement of hosi- ‘to want’. Kishimoto (2018) basically is also in the same line. He, however, assumes a lexical derivational process whereby the negative forms of some special verbs are categorically changed to adjectives to account for some exceptional cases.

254 negation So far, we have looked at how Korean and Japanese negate sentences. Korean uses negative particles with all types of predicates, although there are some restrictions on their use, and it uses negative verbs with verbs and adjectives. Japanese, in contrast, uses morphological negatives with verbs, and it uses an existential auxiliary verb in the negative (or its suppletive form) with nominal and adjectival predicates. In the rest of this section, we will look at some other negative verbs for special mood or modality.

10.2.4  Variation of negatives according to mood This subsection introduces some variations in negatives according to mood in Korean and Japanese, particularly, negative forms in the imperative and hortative moods in Korean and those in the imperative, volitional, and epistemic moods in Japanese.

10.2.4.1  The Korean negative verb malFor prohibition and negative proposition (or negative hortation), Korean does not use the negative particles and negative verbs shown above, but it uses a different negative verb, mal-. A command is expressed with a verb and an imperative suffix as shown in (15a). A prohibition consists of a clause ending with -ci followed by the negative verb mal- and the imperative suffix as shown in (15b). (15) Imperative (K) a. 먹어라

Mek-ela.

b. 먹지

Mek-ci

마라

ma-la.

eat-Imp

eat-Susp NV-Imp

‘Eat it.’

‘Don’t eat (it).’

To propose to do something, the propositive suffix -ca ‘let’s’ is added to a verb, as in (16), and to propose not to do something, the negative verb mal- is followed by -ca, as in (16b). (16) Hortative (K) a. 가자

Ka-ca.

b. 가지

Ka-ci

말자

mal-ca.

go-Prop

go-Susp

NV-Prop

‘Let’s go!’

‘Let’s not go!’

10.2.4.2  The Japanese morphological negatives -na and -mai Just as in Korean, Japanese uses a different morphological negative for prohibition. For a command, the imperative suffix is added to a verb, as in (17a), and for a prohibition, a verb is suffixed with a nonpast tense marker and the negative particle -na, as shown in (17b).



10.3 Negative Pol arit y Items (NPIs)  255

(17) Imperative (J) a. 食べろ。

b. 食べるな。

Tabe-ro.

Tabe-ru-na.

eat-Imp

eat-NPst-Neg.Imp

‘Eat (it).’

‘Don’t eat (it).’

Japanese has a morphological negative which may be etymologically related to the Korean mal-. It is -mai in modern Japanese and was -mazi in an earlier stage. As shown in (18b), -mai is used to express a will not to do something or a speculation that something will not happen. Just like Korean -mal, its older form -mazi could express prohibition as well as other meanings. (18) Volitional/epistemic a. 行こう。 Ik-ō.

b. 行くまい。 Ik-u-mai.

go-Vol/Hor

go-NPst-Neg.Vol/Susp

‘I will go.’/ ‘Let’s go.’

‘I won’t go.’/ ‘(He/She/They) will probably not go.’

It has been shown above that Korean uses the negative verb (. . .-ci) ma(l)- for commands or negative propositions, and Japanese uses morphological negatives, i.e., -na and -mai for commands and volitional or speculative expressions. That is, the negative forms of sentences in the special moods or modalities shown above also exhibit similar patterns to the negative forms of Japanese and Korean sentences in the indicative mood.

10.3  Negative Polarity Items (NPIs) As stated at the beginning of this chapter, there are some lexical items in Japanese and Korean that function specially as targets of negation when they occur in negated sentences. They are called Negative Polarity Items (NPIs). This section introduces Japanese and Korean NPIs and different ways in which Japanese and Korean multiple NPI constructions behave.

10.3.1  Negation of quantifiers 10.3.1.1  Inherently negative quantifiers, ‘minimizers’ Japanese and Korean have quantifiers that occur only in sentential negation, which Sells (2015: 221) calls the ‘minimizer type of NPI’. The minimizer type includes

256 negation such expressions as hana-to (K) or hitotu mo (J) ‘(not) even one’, cokum-to (K) or sukosi mo (J) ‘(not) even a little/few’. They consist of an expression that denotes a minimal level and the particle to (K) or mo (J) ‘even’, and they always cooccur in sentential negation, meaning ‘not even that minimal level’. The minimizers hana-to (K) and hitotu-mo (J) ‘(not) even one’ in the examples in (19) modify object and appear in the context of sentential negation. (19) Minimizers hana-to/hitotu mo a. 그는

땅콩을

하나도

안

먹는다.

he-Top

peanut-Acc

one-even

Neg

eat-NPst-Pln

Ku-nun

ttangkhong-ul hana-to

mek-ci

anh-nun-ta. (K LFN)

peanut-Acc

eat-Susp NV-NPst-Pln

Ku-nun

b. 그는

he-Top

c. 彼は

ttangkhong-ul hana-to 땅콩을

ピーナッツを

Kare-wa pīnattu-o he-Top

peanut-Acc

하나도

one-even 一つも

an

mek-nun-ta. (K SFN)

먹지

않는다.

食べない。

hitotu-mo tabe-na-i. (J) one-even

eat-Neg-Pres

‘He does not eat even one peanut.’ The minimizers han salam-to (K) and hitori-mo (J) ‘(not) even one person’ in the examples in (20) occupy subject position and are licensed by a negative morpheme (the negative particle in (20a), the negative verb in (20b), and the morphological negative in (20c)). This means that a negative element can have within its scope a phrase as large as one that contains subject in Japanese and Korean. (20) Minimizers han salam-to (K)/hitori mo (J) ‘(not) even one person’ a. 그

Ku

모임에는

moim-ey-nun

한

사람도

han salam-to

안

an

왔다

w-ass-ta. (K SFN)

that

meeting-to-Top one person-even Neg come-Pst-Pln

Ku

moim-ey-nun

b. 그

that

모임에는

Sono atumari-ni-wa

사람도

han salam-to

meeting-to-Top one

c. その 集まりには that

한

오지 o-ci

않았다

anh-ass-ta. (K LFN)

person-even come-Susp NV-Pst-Pln

一人も

hitori-mo

来なかった。

ko-na-katta. (J)

meeting-to-Top one-person-even come-Neg-Pst

‘Not even one person came to that meeting.’



10.3 Negative Pol arit y Items (NPIs)  257

10.3.1.2  The indefinite type Another set of NPIs often discussed in Japanese and Korean linguistics is a type that involves interrogative pronouns (or wh-words) followed by a delimiter -mo (J) or -to (K) ‘also, even’, e.g., dare-mo (J), nwukwu-to ‘(not) anyone’, where dare and nwukwu both mean ‘who’ alone. The indefinite pronoun amwu in Korean can also behave the same way, i.e., amwu-to ‘(not) anyone’. Sells (2015: 220) calls this type the indeterminate type, and we will call it the indefinite type here. Examples are given in (21). (21) Indefinite type NPIs a. 누구도

할

수

없다

do-FutN

ability

not-exist-Pln

누구도

안

믿는다

who-even

Neg

believe-NPst-Pln

その

ことを

知らない。

that

Nmn-Acc know-Neg-NPst

Nwkwu-to ha-l who-even

‘No one can do it.’

b. 나는

Na-nun

I-Top

nwukwu-to an

‘I do not believe anyone.’

c. だれも

Dare-mo who-even

sono

‘No one knows about that.’

d. 私は

Watasi-wa I-Top

Amwu-to any-even

Na-nun I-Top

mit-nun-ta. (K)

sir-ana-i. (J)

食べて tabete

i-na-i. (J)

what-even

eat-Ger

be-Neg-NPst

그렇게

생각

안

한다

that-way

think

Neg

do-NPst-Pln

아무

것도

먹지

않았어

any

thing-even eat-Susp NV-Pst-IE

nani-mo

kulehkey

‘No one thinks that way.’

f. 나는

koto-o

eps-ta.9 (K)

何も

‘I have not eaten anything.’

e. 아무도

swu

amwu

sayngkak

kes-to

いない。

an

mek-ci

ha-n-ta. (K)

anh-ass-e. (K)

‘I have not eaten anything.’

    9 

The lexical substitute eps- ‘do not exist’ can induce sentential negation, as discussed by Sells (2015).

258 negation Indefinite- and minimizer-type NPIs behave differently from ordinary quantifiers like takusan ‘many/much’ (J) or manhun X ‘a lot of X’ (K). The most natural reading of both (22a) and (22b) is that ‘many people were not in Seoul’ (many is not in the scope of negation). It is rather difficult to interpret them as ‘Not many people were in Seoul’ (many is in the scope of negation), although such an interpretation is not totally impossible. That is, it is difficult to include a quantifier in subject position in the scope of negation. This contrasts sharply with the examples with NPIs (indefinite pronouns or minimizers followed by -to or -mo ‘even’), as shown in (21a, c, e) and (20). As indefinite pronouns and minimizers followed by -to or -mo mainly function as the target of negation, they can be easily negated even in subject position. (22) Ordinary quantifiers a. 많은

사람이

manhun

salam-i

many

b. たくさんの

Seoul-ey

people-Nom Seoul-in 人が

Takusan-no hito-ga many-Gen

서울에

ソウルに

없었다. (Sells 2015: 224, (34))

eps-ess-ta.

not.exist-Pst-Pln いなかった。

Souru-nivf i-na-katta.

people-Nom Seoul-in

be-Neg-Pst

‘Many people were not in Seoul.’

10.3.2  Inherently negative adverbs and suffixes Japanese and Korean have adverbs that must be used in negated sentences. These adverbs include mattaku (J) ‘(not) at all’, sappari (J) ‘(not) at all’, cenhye (K) ‘(not) at all’, tomwuci (K) ‘(not) at all’, betuni (J) ‘(not) particularly’, pyello (K) ‘(not) particularly’, kessite (J) ‘never’, kyelkho (K) ‘never’, amari (J) ‘(not) very much’, kutaci (K) ‘(not) very much’, etc. Examples are given in (23), (24), and (25). (23) Japanese and Korean inherent negative adverbs meaning ‘(not) at all’ a. 私は

その 事件とは

全く

mattaku

Watasi-wa sono ziken-to-wa I-Top

that

incident-with-Top at-all

‘I have nothing at all with that incident.’

b. 나는

그

Na-nun ku

I-Top

사건하고는

saken-­hako-nun

전혀

関係

kankei

arimasen. (J)

relation be-Pol-Neg 상관이

cenhye sangkwan-i

that incident-with-Top at-all

ありません。

relation-Nom



10.3 Negative Pol arit y Items (NPIs)  259 없읍니다

ep-supni-ta. (K) not.exist-­Def-Pln ‘I have nothing at all with that incident.’

c. メリーは

日本語が

Mary-wa

nihongo-ga

さっぱり わからない。 sappari

Mary-Top Japanese-Nom at-all

wakar-ana-i. (J) understand-Neg-NPst

‘Mary does not understand Japanese at all.’

d. 우리는

그

Wuli-nun ku

we-Top

것을

kes-ul

도무지

알

수가

tomwuci al

that thing-Acc at-all

swu-ka

없다

eps-ta. (K)

know Pot-Nom not.exist-Pln

‘There is not any possibility at all for us to know about this.’ (24) Japanese and Korean inherent negative adverbs meaning ‘(not) particularly’ a. その 仕事は

別に

大変では

Sono sigoto-wa

betuni

that

particularly hard-DE-Top

work-Top

taihen-de-wa

‘That work is not particularly hard.’

b. 그

일은

별로

힘들지

ない。

na-i. (J) be/Neg-NPst 않아

Ku

il-un

pyello

that

work-Top

particularly energy-taking-Susp NV-IE

anh-a. (K)

him-tul-ci

‘That work is not particularly hard.’ (25) Japanese and Korean inherent negative adverbs meaning ‘(not) very much’ a. メリーは

Mary-wa

ピーマンが pīman-ga

あまり amari

好きでは

suki-de-wa

ない。

na-i. (J)

Mary-Top bell.pepper-Nom very-much fond-DE-Top be/Neg-NPst ‘Mary does not like bell peppers very much.’

b. 메리는

피망을

Mary-nun phimang-ul Mary-Top bell.pepper-Acc

그다지 kutaci

좋아하지 cohaha-ci

very-much like-Susp

않는다

anh-nun-ta. (K) NV-NPst-Pln

‘Mary does not like bell peppers very much.’ In addition to inherently negative adverbs, Japanese and Korean have the inherently negative suffixes sika and -pakkey ‘(no) other (than), which are used as follows. These inherently negative suffixes turn an element to which they attach as a kind of minimizer, implying that the element to which sika or -pakkey is attached is the minimum level and much less than normally expected.

260 negation (26) Japanese and Korean inherent negative suffixes ‘(no) other (than)’ a. メリーは

Mary-wa

英語しか eigo-sika

Mary-Top English-other

話せない。

hanas-e-na-i. (J) speak-Pot-Neg-NPst

‘Mary can speak no other languages than English.’ or ‘Mary can only speak English.’

b. 메리는

영어밖에

Mary-nun yenge-pakkey Mary-Top English-other

말할

수

없다

speak

Pot

not.exist-Pln

mal-ha-l swu eps-ta. (K)

‘Mary can speak no other languages than English.’ or ‘Mary can only speak English.’

c. 私は

20ドルしか

Watasi-wa 20-doru-sika I-Top

Ce-nun I-Top

ar-imas-sen. (J)

20-dollar-other be-Pol-Neg

‘I only have 20 dollars.’

d. 저는

ありません。

이십불밖에

없읍니다

20-pwul-pakkey eps-supni-ta. (K) 20-dollar-other not.exist-Def-Pln

‘I only have 20 dollars.’

10.3.3  Multiple NPI constructions A sentence with more than one NPI is possible in Korean and Japanese, just as in English, as shown in (27) and (28). (The NPIs are underlined.) (27)

He didn’t give anybody anything at any place at any time. (Kuno and ­Whitman 2004: 207 (1))

(28) 아무도

Amu-to だれも

아무것도

사지 않았다

何も

買わなかった。

amu-kes-to

Dare-mo nani-mo anybody anything

sa-ci anh-ass-ta. (K) kawanakatta. (J) buy-didn’t

‘(Lit.) Anybody didn’t buy anything; Nobody bought anything.’ (Kuno and Whitman 2004: 207 (2a)(3a))



10.3 Negative Pol arit y Items (NPIs)  261

Korean multiple NPI constructions as shown in (28) are subject to some constraints.10 Those in (29) are three of the five principles presented by Kuno and Whitman (2004: 222). (29) Kuno and Whitman 2004: 222 (29B, C, D) a. There are three types of NPIs in Korean depending upon how strong their NPI status is: NPI Hierarchy: Strong 

Pakkey-Type > Han . . .-to-Type >

Weak Amu-. . .-to Type

b. A Neg can license only a single NPI. c. An NPI can be indirectly licensed by an NPI to its left if it [the NPI to be licensed] is at the same level as, or lower than, the left-hand NPI in the NPI hierarchy. The above principles in (29) account for the contrast between the sentences in (30a) and (30b). The first NPI Inswu-pakkey in (30a), on the one hand, is licensed by the Neg and indirectly licenses another NPI han mati-to on its right. The latter operation is allowed because the second NPI is lower than the first one in the NPI hierarchy in (29a). But on the other hand, the first NPI han salam-to in (30b) cannot indirectly license the second NPI Inswu-wa-pakkey because the latter is not lower in the NPI hierarchy, which results in ungrammaticality. (30) Kuno and Whitman 2004: 221 (26a), slightly changed a. 인수밖에

한

Inswu-pakkey han Insu-only

마디도

mati-to

말하지

mal-ha-ci

사람도

ha-yess-ta. (K)

인수와밖에

만나지

Insu-with-only

meet-Comp Neg do-Pst-Pln

*Han salam-to Inswu-wa-pakkey manna-ci

single person

an

했다

single word-even- say-Comp Neg do-Pst-Pln

‘No one except for Insu said even a single word.’

b. *한

안

안

an

했다

ha-yess-ta.

‘(Intended meaning) Not a single person met anyone other than Insu.’ Those in (31) are corresponding Japanese examples. The ungrammaticality of (31b) can be accounted for by the principles in (29). The first NPI hitori-mo in ‘(even) a single person’ in (31b) cannot indirectly license the NPI Tarō-ni-sika     10  We assume that Kuno and Whitman’s (2004) proposal is applicable to Japanese multiple NPI constructions.

262 negation ‘(no one) but Taro’ on its right because the latter is not lower in the NPI hierarchy, resulting in an ungrammatical sentence. The above principles, however, cannot account for the marginal status of (31a) because the first NPI Tarō-sika is, in fact, higher in the NPI hierarchy than the second NPI hitokoto-mo, and thus (29) should allow the first NPI to license the second one. (31) Kuno and Whitman 2004: 221 footnote 12 (i) a. ??太郎しか

一言も

言わなかった。

??Tarō-sika

hitokoto-mo

Taro-only

one-word-even say-Neg-Pst

iw-ana-katta.

‘No one other than Taro said even a single word.’

b. **一人も

**Hitori-mo

太郎にしか

Tarō-ni-sika

会わなかった。 aw-ana-katta.

single-person Taro-with-only meet-Neg-Pst ‘(Intended meaning) Not a single person met anyone other than Taro.’ The low grammatical status of (31a) comes from the restrictive behavior of -sika in Japanese. Namely, -sika behaves differently from -pakkey, in that it only marginally cooccurs with another NPI in cases like (31a). Park (2007, 2014a, 2014b) pointed out that -sika can be followed by an NPI when it attaches to adjuncts (and not argument subjects or objects). Park (2014a: 156) explained the contrast between (32) and (33) by stating that -sika, when followed by another NPI like nani-mo ‘anything’, cannot be attached to the ‘(covert) case marker’ in (32a) but can be attached to the postposition de ‘with’ in (32b). In contrast, -pakkey, when followed by a similar NPI, can attach to postpositions, as shown in (33b), as well as ‘subjects or objects’, as in (33a). a. *太郎しか

(32) Japanese -sika (Park 2014a: 156 (16)) *Tarō-sika Taro-sika

何も

食べなかった。

anything

eat-Neg-Pst

nani-mo

tabe-na-katta.

‘(Intended meaning) Only Taro ate nothing.’ (Attributed to Aoyagi and Ishii 1994) ‘Except for Taro, no one ate anything.’

b. 私たちは

歌でしか

watasi-tati-wa uta-de-sika

we-Pl-Top

何も

返せない。

nani-mo kaes-e-nai.

song-with-other anything pay-back-Pot-Neg

‘We can’t pay [them] back with anything but a song.’ ‘Except for by singing, we cannot pay [them] back with anything.’



10.3 Negative Pol arit y Items (NPIs)  263

(33) Korean -pakkey (Park 2014a: 156 (17)) a. 철수밖에

아무것도

먹지

anything

eat-Susp NV-Pst-Pln

Chelswu-pakkey amwu kes-to mek-ci

Chelswu-other

않았다

anh-ass-ta.

‘Only Chelswu ate nothing.’ (Attributed to Kuno and Whitman 2004)

b. 우리들은

노래로밖에

아무것도

갚을

wuli-tul-un nolay-­lo-pakkey amwukes-tokaph-ul we-Top

song-with-other anything

수

없다

swu eps-ta.

pay-back-FutN Pot

not.exist-Pln

‘We can’t pay [them] back with anything but a song.’ Park (2014b: 152) pointed out another difference between -pakkey and -sika. That is, -sika, but not -pakkey, can attach to other adverbial elements headed by complex postpositional elements (which he called ‘secondary postpositions’), as shown in (34) and (35). Note that the linear sequence of NPIs is compatible with the NPI hierarchy in (29a) in all the sentences in (34) and (35), and yet the Korean sentences are ungrammatical and the corresponding Japanese ones are all grammatical in (34) and (35).  a. *이번에는

(34)  Park (2014b: 152 (7)), slightly changed *Ipen-ey-nun

농업에

nongep-ey

관해서밖에

아무것도

언급하지

kwanhayse-­pakkey amwukes-to enkup-ha-ci

this-time-Top agriculture-to regarding-­other 않았다

anything-to mention-Susp

anh-ass-ta. (K) NV-Pst-Pln ‘This time (they) did not mention anything except for (regarding) agriculture.’

 b. 今回は

Konkai-wa

農業に

nōgyō-ni

関してしか

kansite-sika

this-time-Top agriculture-to regarding-other

言及しない。

何も

nani-mo anything

genkyū-si-nai. (J) mention-Neg ‘This time (they) will not mention anything except for (regarding) agriculture.’

264 negation  a. *이것은 사고원인을

(35) Park (2014b: 152 (8)), slightly changed *Ikes-un sako-wenin-ul

제대로

ceytaylo

this-Top accident-cause-Acc surely 아무것도

할

수

없다

anything

do

Pot

Neg-Pln

amwukes-to hal

해명하고나서밖에

haymyengha-ko-nase-pakkey figure.out-and-then-other

swu eps-ta. (K)

‘In this case, we cannot do anything until we figure out the cause of the accident.’

 b. これは

事故原因を

Kore-wa ziko-gen’in-o

ちゃんと 解明してからしか tyanto

this-Top accident-cause-Acc surely 何も    できない。

kaimeisi-te-kara-sika figure.out-and-then-other

nani-mo  deki-nai. (J) anything  do-cannot ‘In this case, we cannot do anything until we figure out the cause of the ­accident.’

In the Korean sentence in (34a), -pakkey attaches to the infinitive form of the verb (kwanhay) followed by -se, meaning ‘regarding’, and in the Japanese sentence in (34b), -sika attaches to the gerund form of the verb (kansite), also meaning ‘regarding’. The former is ungrammatical, whereas the latter is grammatical. Similarly, in the Korean sentence in (35a), -pakkey attaches to the gerund haymyengha-ko ‘figuring out’ followed by -nase ‘finishing’, which together mean ‘after (we) finish figuring out’, and in the Japanese sentence in (35b), -sika attaches to the gerund kaimeisite ‘figuring out’ followed by the particle kara ‘from’, which means ‘after figuring out’. Again, the former is ungrammatical and the latter grammatical. Park (2014b) summarizes the above differences between -pakkey and -sika as shown in (36). (MNCs stand for Multiple NPI constructions.) (36) Syntactic environments of pakkey and sika appearing in MNCs (Park 2014b: 152) May appear in MNCs when attached to: a. arguments (subjects/objects)

√

b. non-arguments (primary postpositions)

√

c. non-arguments (secondary postpositions)

*

pakkey sika *

√ √



10.4 Conclusion  265

Park (2014a, 2014b) attributed the differences shown in (36) to different stages of grammaticalization -pakkey and -sika are at.

10.4 Conclusion This chapter has shown that Japanese and Korean use different types of sentential negation. Korean uses negative verbs and negative particles, and Japanese uses morphological negatives with verbs and an existential auxiliary verb in the negative (or its negative suppletive form) with adjectival and nominal predicates. Korean also has lexical negative substitutes, which induce sentential negation. Japanese and Korean have similar types of Negative Polarity Items (NPIs), such as minimizers and indefinite pronouns followed by the particle that means ‘even/also’ as well as inherently negative adverbs and suffixes. Lastly, we alluded to different ways in which Korean -pakkey and Japanese -sika behave.

11

Tense and aspect 11.1  Introduction Sentences presented as statements describe some situations (events or states), which are often expressed in reference to time. There are basically two ways to do so. One way is to refer to a situation relative to some specific point in time. In using language, the moment of speaking plays a very important role, and hence, the situation stated in a sentence is often specified in relation to the moment of speaking, i.e., taking the moment of speaking as its reference point. This system of anchoring a situation to some reference time1 is called tense. Another way is to refer to a situation (particularly an event) with regard to what stage of development an event is at. Has this event fully developed (and thus come to an end), or is it in the process of developing (and yet to come to an end), for example? The system that refers to the developmental stage of an event is called aspect. We will first look at the tense systems in Japanese and Korean in 11.2 and then look at their aspectual systems in 11.3.

11.2 Tense Comrie (1976a: 1–2) defines tense as follows: ‘Tense relates the time of the situation referred to to some other time, usually the moment of speaking.’ There are three possible different temporal relationships that tense morphemes can have in relation to the reference time: before (or anterior to), simultaneous with, and after (or posterior to) the temporal reference point. They correspond to past, present, and future with the reference time set at the moment of speaking. The English sentences in (1), for example, are examples that express past, present, and future events, respectively. Such temporal relationships are clearly marked in these examples by morphological tense: -ed (for past), is (for present), and will (for future). The timeline of the situation referred to in (1a), for example, is that the time of Mary’s playing tennis, as the past tense morpheme -ed in (1a) indicates, is presented as a past event relative to the reference point, i.e., when the speaker uttered the sentence. 1  The notion of reference time here is used differently from that of the ‘time of reference’ in Reichenbach (1960).

The Comparative Syntax of Korean and Japanese. Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho, Oxford University Press. © Yutaka Sato and Sungdai Cho (2024). DOI: 10.1093/oso/ 9780198896463.003.0011



11.2 Tense  267

(1) a. Mary played tennis. (past) b. Mary is playing tennis. (present) c. Mary will play tennis. (future) The ‘correct’ use of tense is obligatory in English, and hence utterances like those in (2) are impossible; in (2a) the situation is presented as a past event (occurring yesterday), but the verb is marked with nonpast tense, and in (2b) the situation is presented as a future event (occurring tomorrow) but is marked with past tense. (2) a. *John plays tennis yesterday. b. *John played tennis tomorrow. Not all languages in the world have obligatory morphological marking for temporal relationships. Chinese, for example, does not mark tense as English does. Chinese has a morpheme that marks the completion of a bounded event, i.e., an event which has some endpoint. The Chinese morpheme that marks the completion of an event, le, can be placed after the verb chī ‘eat’ to mean someone ‘has eaten (two bowls of rice)’, as in (3a). This perfective morpheme le, however, cannot be placed after the copula shì ‘be’ to mean someone ‘was a teacher in the past’, as shown in (3b). This is because being a teacher does not have a specific endpoint at which something reaches completion as in the case of eating two bowls of rice. To say ‘someone was a teacher’, we need to add some temporal adverb like yĭqián ‘before’, as in (3c). If the temporal adverb xiànzài ‘at the present’ appears instead with this copula shì ‘be’, the sentence means ‘he is a teacher now’, as shown in (3d). (3) Chinese examples a. Tā chī-le

liăng wăn

he eat-Prf two

fàn.

bowl rice

‘He ate two bowls of rice.’ (Sun 2006: 65 (3.38a)) b. *Tā shì-le lăoshī. he

is-Prf teacher

‘He was a teacher.’ (Sun 2006: 68 (3.43a)) c. Tā yĭqián shì lăoshī. he before is

teacher

‘He was a teacher some time ago.’ d. Tā xiànzài shì lăoshī. he now

is

teacher

‘He is a teacher now.’

268 tense and aspect Japanese and Korean are closer to English than to Chinese in having specific morphological markers for tense. Japanese and Korean speakers have to distinguish the forms of predicates to express sentences referring to past and nonpast events. That is, predicates are marked for either past or nonpast tense, of which the markings for the latter (i.e., nonpast tense) are used for either present or future events. The system and usage of tense morphemes in Japanese and Korean, however, differ greatly from English, particularly in embedded clauses, and their systems and usages differ also between Japanese and Korean. It will be shown below first in 11.2.1 how tense is expressed in main clauses, and next in 11.2.2 how tense is expressed in embedded clauses.

11.2.1  Main clauses Here we will look at how past, present, and future events are expressed in Japanese and Korean main clauses. Observe the sentences in (4) and (5). Those in (4) express dynamic situations (with verbs), and those in (5) express stative situations (with nominal or adjectival predicates). The morphological markers for nonpast and past tense are highlighted in bold. (4) Japanese and Korean sentences with verbal predicates a. メリーが Mary-ga

この 本を

kono hon-o

Mary-Nom this

Mary-ga

この 本を

kono hon-o

Mary-Nom this

Mary-ka

이 i

読んだ。

yon-da. (J, past)

book-Acc read-Pst

‘Mary read this book.’

c. 메리가

yom-u. (J, nonpast)

book-Acc read-NPst

‘Mary will read this book.’

b. メリーが

読む。

책을

chayk-ul

읽는다

ilk-nun-ta. (K, nonpast)

Mary-Nom this book-Acc read-Pres-Pln ‘Mary is reading/reads/will read this book.’

d. 메리가

Mary-ka

이 i

책을

chayk-ul

읽었다

ilk-ess-ta. (K, past)

Mary-Nom this book-Acc read-Pst-Pln ‘Mary read this book.’



11.2 Tense  269

(5) Japanese and Korean sentences with stative predicates (nominal or adjectival predicates) a. メリーは

Mary-wa

この 大学の

kono daigaku-no

Mary-Top this

Mary-wa

この 大学の

kono daigaku-no

Mary-Top this

gakusei-de-ar-u. (J, nonpast)

university-Gen student-Cop-NPst

‘Mary is a student at this university.’

b. メリーは

学生である。

学生であった。

gakusei-de-at-ta. (J, past)

university-Gen student-Cop-Pst

‘Mary was a student at this university.’

c. 메리는

이

Mary-nun i

Mary-Top this

대학교

학생이다

university

student-Cop-Pln

tayhakkyo

‘Mary is a student at this university.’

d. 메리는

이

Mary-nun i

Mary-Top this

haksayng-i-ta. (K, nonpast)

대학교

학생이었다

university

student-Cop-Pst-Pln

tayhakkyo

haksayng-i-ess-ta. (K, past)

‘Mary was a student at this university.’ The Japanese nonpast tense morpheme is realized as -u after a consonant verb, as in (4a), but it is realized as -ru after a vowel verb. The Japanese past tense morpheme is realized as -da, as in (4b), or -ta, as in (5b), after a verb. The Korean nonpast tense morpheme is realized as -nun after a verb ending in a consonant, as in (4c), and it is realized as -n after a verb ending with a vowel. Note also that -nun or -n after a verb does not show up in certain styles and moods. There is no nonpast tense morpheme for stative predicates, i.e., nominal and adjectival predicates, as in (5c), as referred to in Chapter 6. The lack of a past tense marker from the predicates in (5c) shows that it is in the nonpast tense. The Korean past tense morpheme is realized as -ess- in (4d) and (5d), -ass-, or as -yess- (the remnant of vowel harmony alluded to in Chapter 6). Both Japanese and Korean predicates are basically morphologically binary, i.e., either marked for past tense or not.2 The Japanese and Korean tense morphemes mentioned so far are summarized in Table 11.1. It will be shown in more detail below, focusing particularly on the nonpast tense markers, how Japanese and Korean differ in their use of nonpast tense markers. (Ø under Korean for nonpast indicates the lack of an overt morpheme marking nonpast tense.)     2 

It is possible in Korean to use the morpheme -keyss- for volitional or speculative future situations. However, we treat this morpheme here as a futuritive mood morpheme because it can be also used for speculative past situations.

270 tense and aspect Table 11.1  Tense morphemes in Japanese and Korean nonpast past

Japanese

Korean

-u/-ru -ta/ -da

-nun-/-n-, -Ø-ess-/-ass-/-yess-

11.2.1.1  Nonpast forms This subsection first illustrates the use of nonpast tense in Japanese and next the use of nonpast tense in Korean. Note that markings for past and nonpast tense are basically binary, i.e., morphologically there is a distinction only between past and nonpast tense in Japanese and Korean main clauses. The forms for nonpast tense, however, can be used for either present or future. We will particularly focus in this subsection on which of the nonpast tenses Japanese and Korean sentences denote when they are in their nonpast forms. Japanese nonpast forms The nonpast forms of Japanese predicates in main clauses refer to nonpast situations in relation to the moment of speaking, but we need to look at the inherent lexical aspect of each predicate to interpret which type of nonpast tense it denotes, i.e., present or future. Let’s use English verbs to see differences in inherent lexical aspectual types. The English verbs jog and know differ in their inherent lexical aspect. Jog denotes a dynamic action, whereas know denotes a stative state. The sentence in (6a) means ‘Mary jogs (habitually)’, say, ‘every day’ or ‘every weekend’, which is an iterated activity or a ‘habitual’ action. (6a) does not mean that Mary is now engaged in the act of jogging, for which one has to say (6b). On the other hand, the sentence in (6c) means that ‘Mary has knowledge of Latin grammar’ at the moment of speaking. Having knowledge of something is a state and does not involve a dynamic action. Due to this stative meaning, the sentence in (6d) is ungrammatical. To sum up, English dynamic verbs have to appear in the progressive (be . . . -ing) form to denote a current ongoing action, but stative verbs in general do not appear in the progressive form to denote a current state. This difference comes from their different inherent lexical aspect. (6) a. Mary jogs. (E, habitual present) b. Mary is jogging. (E, present) c. Mary knows Latin grammar. (E, present) d. *Mary is knowing Latin grammar.



11.2 Tense  271

The distinction between dynamic and stative predicates varies from language to language, but Japanese also has a similar distinction. The Japanese verb hasir‘to run’ is dynamic and the Japanese verb wakar- ‘to understand’ is stative. Due to the difference in their inherent lexical aspect, although both verbs denote nonpast situations when suffixed with the nonpast allomorph -u, they differ in which type of nonpast tense is specifically denoted, i.e., present or future. The dynamic verb hasir-u ‘to run’ refers to a future event when it is used to describe a single action rather than an iterated or habitual action, as shown in (7a). (7) Japanese nonpast verbs a. メリーは

Mary-wa

(後で)

走る。

(atode) hasir-u. (Future)

Mary-Top later

run-NPst

‘Mary will run (later on).’

b. メリーは

Mary-wa

ラテン語が わかる。 Ratengo-ga

wakar-u. (Present)3

Mary-Top Latin-Nom understand-NPst ‘Mary understands Latin.’

c. メリーは

Mary-wa

毎朝

走る。

hasir-u. (Habitual present)

mai-asa

Mary-Top every-morning run-NPst ‘Mary runs every morning.’

d. いつか Ituka

あなたも わかる。

anata-mo wakar-u. (Future)

someday you-too

understand-NPst

‘Someday you too will understand.’ The stative verb wakar-u ‘to understand’, in contrast, refers to a present state, as in (7b). In addition, as there is no form for future distinct from present tense in Japanese, wakar-u can also be used to describe a future state, as shown in (7d). The tense of the sentence with hasir-u in (7a) is future, and that of the sentence with wakar-u in (7b) is present. The dynamic verb hasir-u in (7c) used for a habitual action denotes habitual present. It is different from an ongoing activity, for which this verb has to appear in the progressive form, just like (6b). The progressive form will be discussed in Section 11.3.     3 

The theme object of wakar- ‘to understand’ is marked with a nominative marker because this verb is stative. See Chapter 4.

272 tense and aspect Unlike verbs, adjectival and nominal predicates are all stative, and hence they denote present states with the nonpast tense morpheme (and future states with an appropriate context), as shown below. (8) Japanese nonpast adjectival and nominal predicates a. メリーは

Mary-wa

学生である。

gakusei-de-ar-u. (Nominal predicate, present)

Mary-Top student-Cop-NPst ‘Mary is a student.’

b. メリーは

Mary-wa

きれいである。

kirei-de-ar-u. (Nominal adjective, present)

Mary-Top pretty-Cop-NPst ‘Mary is pretty.’

c. メリーは

Mary-wa

かしこい。

kasiko-i. (Canonical adjective, present)

Mary-Top clever-NPst ‘Mary is smart.’ To sum up, the kind of nonpast tense that Japanese nonpast forms in the main clause refer to is summarized in Table 11.2. Dynamic verbs in the nonpast tense refer to future (or habitual) events, and stative predicates refer to present or future states. The reference time for main clauses is always the moment of speaking. Table 11.2  Tense of Japanese nonpast forms (relative to the moment of speaking) INHERENT LEXICAL ASPECT

NONPAST forms (e.g., -u, -i)

dynamic verbs future (or habitual present) stative predicates (stative verbs, adjectives, present, future and nominal predicates)

Korean nonpast forms The nonpast form of a Korean predicate is represented by -nun-/-n- or the lack of a past tense morpheme, as shown above. Although inherent lexical aspect plays an important role in Korean grammar, we cannot predict whether predicates denote present or future from their morphological makeup alone. Unlike Japanese nonpast forms, regardless of inherent lexical aspect, Korean nonpast forms can denote both future and present events/states. The sentences with nonpast dynamic verbs in (9) all refer to future events, and the sentences with nonpast dynamic verbs in (10) all refer to present ongoing events. (The relevant verbs in the present tense are underlined in (10).) Korean non-dynamic verbs can also denote habitual events.

(9)

11.2 Tense  273 Korean nonpast dynamic verbs (future) a. 나는

다음

주에

미국으로

next

week-on US-to

Na-nun taum cwu-ey I-Top

Mikwuk-ulo ka-n-ta.

‘I will go to the US next week.’

b. 그는

내일

서울을

Ku-nun nayil he-Top

간다

Sewul-ul

go-Pres-Pln 떠납니다

ttena-pni-ta.

tomorrow Seoul-Acc leave-Def-Pln

‘He will leave Seoul tomorrow.’

c. 오후에

비가

Ohwu-ey

와

pi-ka

w-a.

afternoon-in rain-Nom come-IE ‘It will rain in the afternoon.’ (10) Korean nonpast dynamic verbs (present)4 a. 들어가시지 Tuleka-si-ci

요

yo.

안에서

An-eyse

기다리십니다

kitali-si-pni-ta.

go-in-SHon-CI Pol inside-in wait-SHon-Def-Pln ‘Please go in. (He) is waiting inside.’ (Chŏng 1986, cited in Ito 1989: 18 (51))

b. 나와

Nawa,

나와

nawa.

너

Ne

여기서 뭐

하니? 뭐

해?

yekise mwe ha-ni? Mwe hay?

come-out come-out you here what

do-Q

what do

‘Come out, come out! What are you doing here? What are you doing?’ (Ch’oe 1974, cited in Ito 1989: 18 (52)) c. ‘사장님이라뇨? ‘Sacang-nim-i-la-nyo?

무슨

사장님을

Mwusun sacang-nim-ul

CEO-Hon-Cop-Quo-Q what

찾으시죠?’

chac-usi-cyo?’

president-Hon-Acc look.for-SHon-Susp.Pol

‘CEO? What president are you looking for?’ ‘우리 사장님을

‘Wuli sacang-nim-ul our

찾습니다.’

chac-supni-ta.’

CEO-Hon-Acc look.for-Def-Pln

‘We are looking for our CEO.’ (Kim 1985, cited in Ito 1989: 18 (55))

    4 

The English translations are by one of the authors.

274 tense and aspect Korean stative predicates, that is, stative verbs, adjectives, and nominal predicates, can refer to both present and future states, as shown in (11) and (12). This is the same as nonpast stative predicates in Japanese. (11) Korean stative verbs, adjectives, and nominal predicates (present) a. 저

Ce

멀리

웅장한

melli

산이

보인다

poi-n-ta. (Stative verb)

wungcanghan san-i

there far-away magnificent

mountain-Nom be.seen-Pres-Pln

‘(I) see magnificent mountains at that distance.’

b. 이것 은

비싸다

pissa-ta. (Adjective)

I

kes-un

this

thing-Top expensive-Pln

‘This is expensive.’

c. 그는

학생이다

Ku-nun haksayng-i-ta. (Nominal predicate)

he-Top

student-Cop-Pln

‘He is a student.’ (12) Korean stative verb, adjective, and nominal predicate (future) a. 내일

오면

Nayil

그는

방에

o-myen, ku-nun pang-ey

있어

iss-e. (stative verb)

tomorrow come-if he-Top room-in exist-IE ‘If you come tomorrow, he will be in the room.’

b. 올해는

Olhay-nun

입을 ip-ul

수

swu

있지만

내년에는

작다

iss-ciman, naynyen-ey-nun cak-ta.

this-year-Top wear-FutN ability exist-but

next-year-in-Top small-Pln

‘(You) can wear (it) this year, but (it) will be small next year.’ (Adjective)

c. 이 I

애는

ay-nun

내년에는

naynen-ey-nun

대학생이다

tay-haksayng-i-ta. (Nominal predicate)

this child-Top next-year-in-Top college-student-Cop-Pln ‘This child will be a college student next year.’ As shown above, without additional context Korean nonpast forms are ambiguous between present and future readings. Table 11.3 summarizes how Korean nonpast tense forms are used. The reference time for Korean main clauses is the moment of speaking, just as in Japanese.



11.2 Tense  275

Table 11.3  Tense of Korean nonpast forms (relative to the moment of speaking) INHERENT LEXICAL ASPECT

NONPAST forms

dynamic verbs stative predicates (stative verbs, adjectives, and nominal predicates)

present, future

11.2.1.2  Past forms The Japanese and Korean morphological forms for past tense, e.g., V-ta (J) and V-ess- (K), have been both derived through the process of grammaticalization from a verb suffixed with the gerundive -te (J) or the infinitive -e (K) and followed by a verb of existence (ar- (J) and iss- (K)) (An 2001, Hŏ 1987, Horie 1997), and they still retain the aspectual property of perfect but function as tense markers in modern Japanese and Korean. Predicates in the past tense refer to events or states that have taken place or took place sometime prior to the moment of speaking. The sentences with dynamic verbs in (13a) and (14a), for example, both refer to past events, and the sentences with stative predicates in (13b‒d) and (14b‒d) all refer to past states. (13) Japanese predicates in the past tense a. メリーが Mary-ga

その 本を sono

Mary-Nom that

読んだ。

yon-da. (Dynamic verb)

hon-o

book-Acc read-Pst

‘Mary read that book.’

b. その ときは

Sono toki-wa

that

山が

yama-ga

見えなかった。

mie-na-katta. (Stative verb)

time-Top mountain-Nom be.seen-Neg-Pst

‘At that time, the mountains could not be seen.’

c. メリーは

Mary-wa

背が se-ga

高かった。

taka-katta. (Adjective)

Mary-Top height-Nom high-Pst ‘Mary was tall.’

d. メリーは

Mary-wa

小学生だった。

syōgakusei-dat-ta. (Nominal predicate)

Mary-Top elementary.school.student-Cop-Pst ‘Mary was an elementary school student.’

276 tense and aspect (14) Korean predicates in the past tense a. 메리가

Mary-ka

그

책을

ku

읽었다

ilk-ess-ta. (Dynamic verb)

chayk-ul

Mary-Nom that book-Acc read-Pst-Pln ‘Mary read that book.’

b. 그

Ku

때는

ttay-nun

바다가

pata-ka

안

an

보였다

poi-ess-ta. (Stative verb)

that time-Top sea-Nom Neg be.seen-Pst-Pln ‘At that time, the ocean could not be seen.’

c. 메리는

키가

Mary-nun khi-ka

컸다

kh-ess-ta. (Adjective)

Mary-Top height-Nom big-Pst-Pln ‘Mary was tall.’

d. 메리는

초등

Mary-nun chotung

학교

학생이었다

hakkyo haksayng-i-ess-ta. (Nominal predicate)

Mary-Top elementary school

student-Cop-Pst-Pln

‘Mary was an elementary school student.’ The nonpast and past forms of Japanese and Korean predicates, as shown above, refer to the following types of situations relative to the moment of speaking. Table 11.4  The Japanese nonpast and past forms (relative to the moment of speaking) INHERENT LEXICAL ASPECT

NONPAST form (-u,-ru, -i)

PAST form (-ta, -da, -katta)

dynamic verbs

future (or habitual present) present, future

past

stative predicates (stative verbs, adjectives, and nominal predicates)

Table 11.5  The Korean nonpast and past forms (relative to the moment of speaking) INHERENT LEXICAL ASPECT

NONPAST form PAST form (-ess-, -ass-, -yess-) (-nun/n, Ø)

dynamic verbs

present, future

stative predicates (stative verbs, adjectives, and nominal predicates)

past



11.2 Tense  277

There is some hesitation, however, among both Japanese and Korean linguists to categorize the morphological tense forms shown above as solely designating tense. This is because there are some exceptional cases where the ‘tense’ forms shown above are used to mean something different from what would be expected from Tables 11.4 and 11.5. ‘Past’ tense forms, for example, are sometimes used to refer to future situations rather than past. In Japanese, ‘vulgar’ commands can be expressed in the past tense, although they refer to future events, as shown in (15). (15) Commands (past tense forms used for future tense) そこ どいた、 Soko doi-ta,

どいた。

doi-ta. (J)

there get.out-Pst get.out-Pst ‘Get out of there, get out!’ Past tense forms are also used to refer to nonpast events/states which the speaker can only vaguely remember. The speakers in both (16a) and (16b) vaguely remember what they believed to be true at the time of speaking (or after that) and confirm it with the hearer, using past tense forms. (16) Vaguely remembered nonpast events/states (past tense forms for nonpast) a. 今日の Kyō-no

会議は

kaigi-wa

三時からだった っけ? 3-zi-kara-dat-ta

kke? (J)

today-Gen meeting-Top 3-o’clock-from-Cop-Pst SFP ‘(I believe) today’s meeting will start at 3:00―right?’

b. 김순경이라고

Kim-Swunkyeng-i-la-ko

했나?

ha-yess-na? (K)

Kim-Swunkyeng-Cop-Pln-Comp say-Pst-Q ‘(I believe you are) Kim Swunkyeng―right?’ (Chŏng 1986, cited in Ito 1990: 38 (133))5 The examples shown above are cases of past tense used for a special mood or modality, i.e., commands and presenting sentences as referring to dubious (but vaguely remembered) information, and we will treat them as exceptions. The use of past tense for a special mood can also be found in English. Both sentences in (17) refer to future events, but in (17) past tense is used to imply that ‘it is unlikely that Mary will come’ (Palmer 2001: 14).     5 

The English translation is by one of the authors.

278 tense and aspect (17) Modal past (Palmer 2001: 14) a. If Mary comes, John will stay. b. If Mary came, John would stay.

11.2.1.3  Double past tense -ess-ess- in Korean The morpheme for past tense can be doubled in Korean (main and embedded) clauses, which is impossible in Japanese. Observe the contrast between the conversations in (18) and (19). The single form of past tense is used in (18), which indicates that the friend is likely to be still staying at their home at the moment of speaking. The use of past tense is possible in this case because the motion of coming has completed prior to the moment of speaking, although the result of an action still remains, i.e., the visitor is still there. In contrast with (18), the double form of past tense is used in (19), where the second one is always -ess- regardless of the vowel of the preceding syllable. The double form of past tense in (19) indicates that the friend has come but he/she is already left at the moment of speaking, i.e., the result of an action completed is no longer there at the moment of speaking. (18) single form -ess-

a. Mother: 누가

왔니?

Nwu-ka

w-ass-ni?

who-Nom

come-Pst-Q

‘Has anyone come?’

b. Daughter: 친구가

Chinkwu-ka

왔어

w-ass-e.

friend-Nom

come-Pst-IE

‘A friend has come.’ (19) double form -ess-ess-6 a. Mother: 누가

Nwu-ka

왔었니?

w-ass-ess-ni?

who-Nom come-Pst-Pst-Q ‘Did anyone come?’

b. Daughter: 친구가

왔었어

Chinkwu-ka w-ass-ess-e.

friend-Nom come-Pst-Pst-IE ‘A friend came.’ ((19a, b) are from Murata 1997: 23 (43))     6 

The English translations are by one of the authors.



11.2 Tense  279

Sohn (1995: 34) calls this double past tense form ‘pluperfect’, for which she cited Comrie’s (1985) definition: ‘there is a reference point in the past, and . . . the situation in question is located prior to that reference point’ (Comrie 1985: 65) and added that ‘the situation in question’ in Comrie’s preceding passage be construed as including both ‘a perfective situation’ and ‘a past situation’ for the definition of -ess-ess- in Korean. In the interpretation of (19) above, the perfective situation of a friend’s arrival and staying at their home was construed as taking place prior to the reference point (distinct from and prior to the moment of speaking). Double past tense in Korean hence often implies that the situation after the completion of an event has been discontinued prior to the moment of speaking. In Japanese such a situation as in (19) is usually expressed in past perfect, which will be discussed in subsection 11.3.2.2.

11.2.2  Embedded clauses We have seen above how Japanese and Korean differ, particularly in the use of nonpast tense markers in main clauses. We will look at how tense in embedded clauses is interpreted in these languages, particularly focusing on quotative and relative clauses. Before looking at Japanese and Korean examples, let’s observe the English relative clause in (20). The portion of the sentence in (20) surrounded by the outer pair of square brackets [John met the man . . .] is a main clause, and the portion in the inner pair of square brackets [who appeared on TV] is an embedded clause. As English uses the moment of speaking as the reference time for both main clauses and relative clauses, and both clauses in (20) have the verbs in the past tense, i.e., met and appeared, respectively, they both mean that the situations referred to took place prior to the moment of speaking, i.e., the time when someone said (20). (20) [John met the man [who appeared on TV]]. The chronological sequence of the events involved in (20) can be plotted on a timeline, as shown in Figure 11.1 or 11.2, where MC stands for the time of the situation referred to in the main clause, RC stands for the time of the situation referred to in the relative clause, and ST stands for the moment of speaking. There can be two chronological sequences depending on whether MC is before RC, or RC is before MC in time. past

MC

RC

John’s meeting the man

(the man’s) appearing on TV

Figure 11.1  A timeline of events for (20)

ST

future

280 tense and aspect past

RC (the man’s) appearing on TV

MC

ST

future

John’s meeting the man

Figure 11.2  Another timeline of events for (20)

Another way to represent the possible chronological sequences in (20) is to use the less-than symbol