HEAD MOVEMENT:INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY AND COMPLEX PREDICATES IN KOREAN

Yoen Mee Park

Ph.D. Dissertation, 1991

Abstract

This thesis studies X0-Movement in inflectional morphology and complex predicates in Korean. An alternative formal force of X0-Movement in Korean inflectional morphology is proposed in terms of syntactic definitions of the stem and affix together with the Stray Stem and Affix Filter. As a consequence of the proposal for the X0-Movement in inflectional morphology, contrasting properties between finite and nonfinite clauses on the one hand, and among different types of nonfinite clauses on the other hand, are given a principled explanation. Regarding complex predicates, causatives and passives are studied in depth. It is argued that causatives and passives are of two kinds: lexical and syntactic. Only the latter type is shown to invoke X0-Movement. Two lexical operations of the lexical passive, unaccusative formation and stativization, are proposed based upon the Argument Structure of the verbal stem to which the passive morpheme attaches. Regarding the syntactic passive, based upon the hypothesis that a passive morpheme is an argument (BJR), a parameter of the categorial status of passive morpheme is elaborated to capture cross-linguistic variations in passives.