Adversity and Korean/Japanese Passives: Constructional Analogy

Author: Oshima, David

Source: Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Volume 15, Number 2, April 2006 , pp. 137-166(30)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

In past studies of the Korean and Japanese morphological passives (KMP and JMP, respectively), emphasis has been put on their similarities. To explain their differences (e.g., only the JMP has a subvariety called indirect passive), several authors have attempted to capture the relation between the KMP and JMP on a continuous scale, where the KMP is more “restricted” than the JMP. The “continuity” approach to the KMP/JMP is, however, hard to maintain for two reasons. First, under the continuity hypothesis it is hard to explain the link between the KMP/JMP and their related constructions, i.e., the causative for the former and the spontaneous, potential, and honorific for the latter. Second, the continuity hypothesis cannot explain why the two constructions invoke an adversity implicature under different conditions. I argue that the KMP and JMP have substantially different core syntax/semantics and examine the sources of adversity implicatures associated with them. The KMP is semantically monostratal and is associated with a construction-specific adversative meaning (conventional implicature). By contrast, the JMP encodes the triadic relation of “lack of control” among an agent, an undergoer, and an event; the adversative meaning of the indirect passive is derived as a conversational implicature.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10831-005-4915-6

Affiliations: 1: Email: davidyo@stanford.edu

Publication date: 2006-04-01