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Suppletive verbal morphology in Korean and the mechanism of vocabulary insertion1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2009

INKIE CHUNG
INKIE CHUNG*
Affiliation:
University of Seoul
*
Author's address: University of Seoul, Department of General English, 13 Shiripdae-gil Rd., Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-743, South Koreainkiechung@alumni.uconn.edu
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Abstract

This paper provides a Distributed Morphology analysis of the paradoxical interaction of the two cases of verbal suppletion in Korean, and argues that the two suppletion types are characterized by two different types of morphological operations. The two roots found with short-form negation and honorification suggest different morphological structures: [[Neg-V] Hon] for al- ‘know’, molu- ‘not.know’, a-si- ‘know-hon’, molu-si- (not *an(i) a-si-) ‘neg know-hon’; and [Neg [V-Hon]] for iss- ‘exist’, eps- ‘not.exist’, kyey-si- ‘exist-hon’, an(i) kyey-si- (not *eps-(u)-si-) ‘neg exist-hon’. Predicate repetition constructions support the [[Neg-V] Hon] structure. In this structure, however, the negative suppletion (analyzed as fusion of negation and the root) is blocked by the honorific suffix structurally more peripheral to the root. C-command is the only requirement for context allomorphy in Distributed Morphology (Halle & Marantz 1993). Since the [+hon] feature c-commands the root, the root can show honorific suppletive allomorphy in the first cycle with negation intervening between the root and [+hon]. Negation fusion occurs in the second cycle after vocabulary insertion of the root. Fusion, then, should refer to vocabulary items, not abstract features, and will be interleaved with vocabulary insertion. If the output of the root is /kyey/ due to the honorific feature, negative suppletion will not apply and the correct form an(i) kyey-si- will be derived. Therefore, both of the distinct morphological operations for suppletion, i.e., fusion and contextual allomorphy, are necessary. The revised formulation of fusion shows that certain morphological operations follow vocabulary insertion. This derivational approach to the suppletion interaction provides support for separation of phonological and nonphonological features and for late insertion of phonological features.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , November 2009 , pp. 533 - 567
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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Footnotes

[1]

This work is an expansion of an excerpt from my University of Connecticut Ph.D. dissertation (I. Chung 2007b). Portions of this work were presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Michigan Linguistics Society (Oakland University, Rochester, MI, October 2006), the Ninth Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar (Kwangwoon University, Seoul, August 2007), the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (Chicago, IL, January 2008), and the 18ème Congrès International des Linguistes (Korea University, Seoul, July 2008). I sincerely thank Duk-Ho An, Jonathan Bobaljik, Andrea Calabrese, Kiyong Choi, M. Esther Chung, Y. Irene Chung, Nigel Fabb, Orin Genster, Hong-Pin Im, Ji-young Kim, Sun-Woong Kim, Chungmin Lee, Jeong-Shik Lee, Diane Lillo-Martin, Myung-Kwan Park, Serkan Sener, Yael Sharvit, Sang Wan Shim, William Snyder, Susi Wurmbrand, anonymous Journal of Linguistics referees and external readers, and the audiences of the aforementioned gatherings. All errors and misrepresentations, if any, are solely mine.

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