Auxiliary Verbs and Structural Case Assignment in Korean

Abstract

This paper investigates diverse case marking patterns in auxiliary verb constructions (AVCs) in Korean, and provides an account in terms of a general mechanism of structural case assignment within the framework of Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). It is first shown that the complicated case marking patterns which arise from various combinations of auxiliary verbs posit problems for both transformational analyses based on head movement and previous HPSG analyses in which the final auxiliary verb solely determines the case marking property of the whole complex predicate. This paper argues that auxiliary verbs are different in their way of "inheriting" case marking property of the preceding predicate, and case alternation in siphta construction can be explained by the dual "inheritance" property specified in the lexicon. Drawing upon a complex predicate analysis of AVCs, this paper proposes that complicated case patterns in AVCs can be accounted for by classification of verbs/auxiliary verbs via distinct feature values and by the mechanism of structural case resolution.