Coherence in Korean "Auxiliary" Verb Constructions

Abstract

1. Verbs in Korean are traditionally classified as 'main' or 'auxiliary.' For example, :sal 'lives' and silh 'is undesirable' in (l) are 'main' verbs, whereas siph 'is desirable' is an "auxiliary' verb. Choi (1965: 244-45) classifies verbs as 'main' vs. 'auxiliary', depending on whether a verb can stand by itself in a predicative function or whether it necessarily follows another verb, thereby 'helping' it. When one applies this 'stand-by-itself' test to the above three verbs, as in (2), siph turns out to be 'auxiliary', because only (2c) is ungrammatical.