Co-Event Conflation for Compound Verbs in Korean

Compound verbs in Korean show properties of both syntactic phrases and lexical items. Earlier studies of compound verbs have either assumed two homonymous types, i.e. one as a syntactic phrase and the other as a lexical item, or posited some sort of transformation from a syntactic phrase into a lexical item. In this paper, I show empirical and conceptual problems for earlier studies, and present an alternative account in terms of Talmy’s (2000) theory of lexicalization. Unlike Talmy who proposed [Path] conflation into [MOVE] for Korean, I suggest several types of [Co-Event] conflation; e.g. [Co-Event Manner] conflation as in kwul-e-kata ‘to go by rolling’, [Co-Event Concomitance] conflation as in ttala-kata ‘to follow’, [Co-Event Concurrent Result] conflation as in cap-a-kata ‘to catch somebody and go’, etc. The present proposal not only places Korean compound verbs in a broader picture of cross-linguistic generalizations, but, when viewed from Jackendoff’s (1997) productive vs. semi-productive morphology, provides a natural account for classifying the compounds that allow –se intervention from those that do not.