This article analyzes the Korean [X-ko iss-ta] construction from the perspective of construal-based semantics, where the speaker’s choice and the grammatical context play an important role. The [X-ko iss-ta] construction exhibits ambiguity between the Progressive and the Resultant meanings. I argue that the Progressive reading is associated with the accomplishment construal of the construction, while the Resultant reading is associated with the achievement construal. I further argue that this type of alternative construal is motivated by the granularity observed ubiquitously in our everyday language. In terms of the function of -ko iss-, I argue that it segments out a smaller portion of the profiled semantic contour for focused viewing — an advantageous perspective from which to analyze stative verbs. My construal-based semantic analysis overcomes difficulties left by the previous proposals on the same topic.
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Cited by
Cited by 6 other publications
Chae, Hee-Rahk
2018. The structural ambiguity of the (im)perfective [V-ko iss-] in Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 27:4 ► pp. 377 ff.
Chae, Hee-Rahk
2020. Constraints on the Perfective [V-ko
(iss-)] in Korean:With Reference to a Present State
Reading. Lanaguage Research 56:3 ► pp. 309 ff.
Chae, Hee-Rahk
2020. Constraints on the Perfective [V-ko
(iss-)] in Korean:With Reference to a Present State
Reading. Lanaguage Research 56:3 ► pp. 309 ff.
Ogihara, Toshiyuki & Eun-Hae Park
2019. Aspect shift without coercion: continuous causative verbs in Japanese and Korean. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 28:2 ► pp. 107 ff.
서성기
2016. Resultative Readings in -ko issta Construction. Studies in Generative Grammar 26:4 ► pp. 453 ff.
[no author supplied]
2019. Syntax–Semantics Interface. In Korean, ► pp. 245 ff.
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