한국어 기동 동사의 어휘 의미 구조와 생성적 기제

Abstract

This paper aims to explain the lexico-semantic structure of the Korean inchoative verbs and their generative mechanism by means of the Generative Lexicon approach. This paper uses the extended concepts and formalisms of the Generative Lexicon Theory (Pustejovsky, 1995 2000), specially, Pustejovskys (2000) opposition structure. lnchoatíve verbs mean the change-of-state and they also belong to achievements in terms of Vendlers (1967) aspectual classes. This study proposes that the Korean inchoatives can be classified into three groups, the gradable, the semi-gradable and the ungradable one, considering their aspectul interpretation, semantic properties of their arguments and their opposition structures reflected in their event structures. The gradable inchoatives denote the gradual change related to some scale. Thus, they have a dimensional noun (i.e. height, width, or temperature) as their theme argument and polar property of their opposition structure. The semi-gradable inchoatives express the change related to a certain scale but restricted to a culmination point. So they have an event argument and both binary and polar property of their opposition structure. On the other hand, the ungradable inchoatives are typical achievements and mean the change with culminating point. Therefore, ungradable inchoatives have the typically affected theme argument and the binary property of their opposition structure. In addition, it suggests that gradable and semi-gradable inchoatives show the generativity of the lexicon by the type coercion. The typology and the lexico-semantic structures of the Korean inchoatives in this paper are just a starting point of further studies of the comprehensive classification of other change-of-state verbs.