Modern Korean Passive Performance

In Korean the forms representing a passive meaning are basically two kinds of affixes, "-i/hi/ri/ki" and "-t(?)da". "-i/hi/ri/ki-" is used after inherent verb stems while "-t(?)da" is used after the stems of Chinese words (hada denominal verbs) to form passive verbs. In this paper, passive sentences composed by "-i/hi/ri/ki-" and "-t(?)da" are studied by analyzing and comparing their characteristics, thoroughly exploring the sign, agent, sentence structure and formation mechanism of passive sentences, so as to determine the property of Korean passive areas.Statistics show that the inherent verbs combined with the affix "-i/hi/ri/ki-" to form passive verbs are extremely limited, only about one-third of transitive verbs. Every dictionary deals with passive verbs in the Korean language in a different way. The third chapter of this paper compares the results of five dictionaries, selects 90 passive verbs from them, and analyzes the characteristics of "-i/hi/ri/ki-" passive sentences mainly in terms of meanings contrast, semantic and syntactic structure. Comparing the meanings of transitive and passive verbs is the new method used in this paper. Through making comparisons, it is found that certain meanings of some passive verbs do not exist in their corresponding transitive verbs, which are the product derived from words. That is, after transitive verbs combine with the affix "-i/hi/ri/ki" to form passive verbs (intransitive verbs), the meaning within words begins to change, not just limited to the expression of a passive meaning. When the passive verb does not express a passive sense, its part of speech also changes and becomes an intransitive verb. Such changes have taken place in one third of the passive verbs selected from the text. Passive verbs have a close relationship with vocabulary; the phenomenon of change in meaning occurs in a passive verb, making it start to escape from the scope of passive verbs (derived) and develop into a separate vocabulary."-T(?)da" passive and "-i/hi/ri/ki" passive are in quite different conditions. Compared with the pure affix "-i/hi/ri/ki","-t(?)da" has two sides. On the one hand, it is a passive affix, and on the other hand it is an upper verb of high usage. From the semantic point of view, generally there is only one meaning in the "-hada" denominal verb combined with "-t(?)da", while a small number of verbs have multiple meanings. From the application point of view, a large number of denominal verbs can combine with "-t(?)da". In the fourth chapter, the "-hada" denominal verbs are divided into transitive, intransitive and trans-class verbs to study their combination with "-t(?)da", and their syntactic structure. Transitive and trans-class verbs can express a passive meaning after combined with "-t(?)da", whereas intransitive verbs do not express a passive meaning after combined with "-t(?)da". From the productivity of "t(?)da" and the extent of its fusion with the hada denominai verb, it can be considered that "-t(?)da" is in the process of grammaticalization.Whether the agent component can occur in "-i/hi/ri/ki-" and "-T(?)da" passives depends on the nature of the subject. When the subject is animate noun, the agent component often occurs in the passive sentence; when the subject is inanimate noun, the agent seldom emerges. While the subject of Korean passives is mostly inanimate noun, so the probability of emergence of agent is not high.The signs of agent include case particle "-eke" and "-e":the former is mainly used after animate noun and the latter is mainly used after inanimate noun or a collective agent. But they are not the exclusive components of agent signs in passive sentences. Also case particle "-es(?)',??"e (?)hεs(?)" can be found in the "-t(?)da" passive sentences, but not often used. As for agent indicated by the so-called inanimate nouns, it depends.Sometimes object appears in a Korean passive sentence, but not common. The object in passives plays a role of supplementing the subject, i.e., the passivity, and has an indivisible relationship with the subject. The passive sentence with object mostly has animate noun as its subject, and the object is often inanimate noun.Comparing with other languages, you can glimpse from a different angle the characteristics of Korean passives. Korean and Chinese languages are unrelated, and quite different in terms of both linguistic genealogy and forms or word order types. Chapter V compared Korean passive sentences and Chinese passive sentences from the perspective of typology and found more individuality than commonality between them. Both show similar characteristics in passive signs, passive range and agent signs, whereas the formation mechanism, word functions, semantic relations, passive verbs, syntactic function of passive phrases, syntactic relations and semantic colors are obviously different.To sum up, the major areas of Korean passives are mainly reflected in the characteristics of morphology. However, whether it is "-i/hi/ri/ki" or "-t(?)da", the use has not reached every verb with a limited extent of combination.