The structure of kes-clefts and the syntactic status of kes in Korean

윤항진 한국생성문법학회 2008 생성문법연구 Vol.18 No.3

This paper is an attempt to make a proposal for the constructions with kes morpheme in Korean which can accomodate a syntactic approach by Kang (2006) and an information structure approach by Kim and Sells (2007). While dealing with certain differences between what is called pseudo-clefts and what is called inverted pseudo-clefts in Korean by Jhang (1994), I propose that the difference in syntactic structure as well as that in information structure creates a difference in grammaticality. To be more specific, it is claimed that in a predicative use of a copular sentence, the subject and the predicate do not have to belong to the same syntactic category because information structure does not require it whereas in an equative use of a copular sentence they should belong to the same category because information structure asks for it. The occurrence of a PP permitted only in one construction can also be explained by the unified approach.

관형사절이 단언을 나타내는 열린 분열문에 대하여

최윤지 연세대학교 언어정보연구원 2017 언어사실과 관점 Vol.42 No.-

This paper aims to examine informational status of the proposition expressed by the adnominal clause in Independent pseudo-clefts, a quasi-category of the canonical cleft used in spontaneous spoken language. Independent pseudo-clefts have such a semantic structure in which an open proposition with a variable is expressed by the adnominal clause and the value of the variable is specified by the main clause, while the cleft constituent corresponds to an independent clause by itself. An Assertive Independent pseudo-cleft is a special kind of the Independent pseudo-clefts involving an adnominal clause which conveys a pragmatic assertion rather than a presupposition. This Assertive type has the following syntactic and semantic restrictions: only i/ga but not un/nun can be attached to the kes construction, the adnominal clause should express a speaker's subjunctive thought or attitude rather than objective facts or state of affairs, and the cleft constituent is constrained to mean a reason or background of the adnominal clause. Assertive Independent pseudo-clefts cannot be replaced by the corresponding canonical clefts, and in comparison with juxtaposition or coordination of root clauses they explicitly encode the closer relationship between the two clauses therein. Their complexity and compactness in terms of information structure can be seen as violating Grice's Maxim of quantity, but the reasons why these constructions are often used without any critical communicative failure may reside in the fact that the adnominal clause expresses a speaker's thought and the following clause provides a reason or background for it.

The structure of kes-clefts and the syntactic status of kes in Korean

Hang-Jin Yoon 한국생성문법학회 2008 생성문법연구 Vol.18 No.3

  This paper is an attempt to make a proposal for the constructions with kes morpheme in Korean which can accomodate a syntactic approach by Kang (2006) and an information structure approach by Kim and Sells (2007). While dealing with certain differences between what is called pseudo-clefts and what is called inverted pseudo-clefts in Korean by Jhang (1994), I propose that the difference in syntactic structure as well as that in information structure creates a difference in grammaticality. To be more specific, it is claimed that in a predicative use of a copular sentence, the subject and the predicate do not have to belong to the same syntactic category because information structure does not require it whereas in an equative use of a copular sentence they should belong to the same category because information structure asks for it. The occurrence of a PP permitted only in one construction can also be explained by the unified approach.

BE동사 중첩의 문법화에 대한 통사적 분석

김학연 현대문법학회 2013 현대문법연구 Vol.73 No.-

The primary purpose of this paper is to show the syntactic structure of reduplicative copula is is constructions found in recent speeches. Perhaps it should be regarded as a pleonasm, a kind of repetition. But the advantage of analyzing it from the perspective of syntax becomes clear when we derive the structure based on recent syntactic assumptions. The non-standard structure of pseudo-cleft structure, whP is is that ... can be interpreted as being the product of unpacking the topic phrase in C-domain, while leaving the focus phrase in vP domain. The linking of the two phrases is manifested by the reduplication of BE, the first one being the Case marker, the second one being the focus marker inserted late.

Metonymy in Korean copular constructions

Chongwon Park 조선대학교 언어융합연구소 2024 수어학과 언어융합연구 Vol.1 No.1

This article develops an analysis of the Korean copular construction from a Cognitive Grammar perspective with emphasis on the metonymic type copula. By pointing out that metonymy does not occur untethered, I draw attention to the importance of defining metonymy in a verifiable way. I attempt to identify the locus of metonymy based on the definitive properties laid out in Panther & Thornburg (2007) [Panther, Klaus-Uwe & Linda L. Thornburg. 2007. Metonymy. In Dirk Geeraerts & Hubert Cuyckens (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 236-263)]. I then argue that information structure plays a vital role in the rise of the metonymic meaning; given information tends to induce metonymy more easily than new information because of its relative conceptual salience. It is demonstrated that the metonymic link between the source and the target content is strengthened when the source gives rise to given information, thereby narrowing the conceptual distance between the two content. This narrowed conceptual distance makes the target more accessible from the source; therefore, the locus of metonymy tends to be associated with given information. After illustrating some variations of the metonymic copular construction, I extend my discussion to the specificational pseudo-cleft construction, where the topical subject nominal also tends to undergo a metonymic shift.

Specificational Copular Sentences in Korean as Focus-Background Structures

류병래 한국언어정보학회 2025 언어와 정보 Vol.29 No.3

This paper argues that Korean copular clauses with a clause-initial kes-headed phrase are specificational, whereas those with an immediately pre-copular kes-headed phrase are predicational. It further argues that the specificational construction instantiates a dedicated focus-background structure. Adopting a structured meaning approach, I analyze the clause-initial kes-headed phrase as a background-denoting CP and the immediately pre-copular phrase as a designated focus. This proposal resolves key empirical challenges for earlier accounts and situates Korean kes-clefts in a broader typology of copular constructions.

중국어 ‘VP的是X’ 구문의 한국어 대응 양상 - 신문 기사 병렬말뭉치 자료를 중심으로 -

증양 한국중국언어학회 2024 중국언어연구 Vol.- No.112

본고는 신문 병렬말뭉치를 이용하여 한국어에서 특정 표현들이 중국어 ‘VP的是X’ 구문으로 대응되어 있는지를 살펴보았다. 분석한 결과 한국어 분열문 외에 열린 분열문, 정의내리기 구문, 순위 표현 구문, 문장 부사어, 타동사문에서 목적어를 부각시키고자 할 구문, 자동사문 중의 피동문, 화자의 주관적인 판단을 표현하는 형용사문 등이 일정한 패턴으로 ‘VP的是X’ 구문과 대응한다. Which expressions in Korean can correspond to the Chinese ‘VP de shi X’ sentence structure is investigated via a parallel news report corpus data. The analysis results revealed that, in addition to the cleft sentence in Korean, such sentence patterns as independent pseudo-cleft, sentence patterns to define, sentence patterns to rank, sentence adverbs, transitive verb predicate sentence patterns to emphasize objects, passive sentences in intransitive verb predicate sentence patterns, and adjective predicate sentence patterns to express the speaker’s subjective judgment can correspond to the ‘VP de shi X’ sentence structure.