A Study Of Ergative Verbs In Modern Korean

The term �ergative verb� was firstly put forward by Perlmutter(1978)in Unaccusative Hypothesis.Since 1970 s,Scholars in Korea began to conduct research on ergativity,ergative construction,ergative verb,but the related research often took ergative verbs as a means to explain other grammatical phenomena and very few took ergative verbs as the target.Besides,the prior research was more macroscopic in nature and as a consequence lacked thick and detailed analysis.This research intends to holistically explore the morphological,syntactic and semantic features as well as the typological characteristics of ergative verbs in Korean.This research,based on prior research,used such theories in Language Typology for reference as implicational universals,markedness,grammatical hierarchy and prototype.And other concepts like reflexive relationship,controllability and subordination were also involved in this research.Theoretically speaking,this research explained syntactic and semantic phenomena in view of light verb lexicalization pattern.This research firstly clarifies the connections and distinctions of ergative verbs,unaccusative verbs,middle verbs and intransitive-transitive verbs.Secondly,a new classification of verbs in modern Korean is put forward,which comprise two subcategories: unaccusative verb and unergative verb.Ergative verbs,which can be further divided into one-argument ergative verbs and two-argument ergative verbs based on argument configurations,exist as a sub-ordinate term of unaccusative verb.This research defined typical ergative verbs and proposed the criteria to identify ergative verbs in Korea.The first is syntactic criterion,that is the alternating occurrence �NP1(?) +NP2 (?)+ V----NP2 (?)+V�.The second is semantic criterion,that is to test with �(?)� in the first place and then test with �(?)�.Both of them are compulsory.In line with these standards,ergative verbs in modern Korean are subjected to exhaustive selection and then classified into three sub-categrories,namely �(?)�,�(?)�,�(?)� according to their morphological and semantic features.In terms of morphological features,a diachronic research shows �(?)� ergative verbs are largely the products of two word-formation processes,namely derivation and compouding.�(?)�and �(?)� ergative verbs are compound verbs consisting of predicative component and light verbs.With regard to syntactic features,the thematic roles of ergative verbs with seven argument structures and choice collocation are explored.In semantic analysis,ergative verbs are explored from the perspectives of subordination,reflexive relationship,controllability and lexicalization pattern.The research findings are as follows:(1)This research proposed such implicational universals as double nominative sentences,Non-transferable relation,reflexivity transitive verb,intransitive verb and suffer semantics.(2)This research put forward the connection between argument structure and subordination,the sequent dependence of light verbs,as well as the hierarchical sequence of �X(?)�.(3)This research also investigated the typological features of ergative verbs.They are examined within the framework of Causative and split ergativity.The findings show that the causative form of ergative verbs stands between lexical causative and morphological causative.The causative semantic mechanism of ergative verbs has something to do with noun in NP.(4)From the perspective of light verbs,those onomatopoeic words �(?)� and �(?)� all fall into the category of morphological light verbs.This research also claimed the syntactic features of ergative verbs can be explained from the perspective of light verbs.(5)This research conducted diachronic study of �(?)� and posited verbs of this type underwent the process �intransitive verb+ causative verb suffix ? transitive verb�.In reference to the resources in ancient Chinese from Middle Ages Korean period back to Ancient Korean period,the diachronic study of �(?)� put forward the concept of ergative morpheme.The focus of this research is confined to ergative verbs,excluding ergative construction and ergativity.In addition,the significant roles that ergative verbs play in foreign language teaching require further exploration.