Morphological causatives in Korean: Problems in grammatical polysemy and constructional relations

This dissertation is an analysis of the Korean morphological causative construction in comparison with a range of constructions related to it either formally or semantically. In previous work the causative marker (CM) used in the morphological causative has generally been treated as being homonymous with the marker used in the morphological passive, both variously surfacing as i, ki, li, or hi depending on context. It is instead argued here that the CM is a single polysemous grammatical morpheme, and that the various CM constructions (covering a wider semantic range than is usually cited, including middle as well as passive and causative uses) constitute a family of distinct but related constructions centered on the causative. The CM itself has a range of meanings, much like the polysemy patterns recognized for lexical items.;After a general introduction in Chapter 1, the substantial portion of the dissertation follows in Chapters 2 through 4. Chapter 2 discusses the morphological causative in comparison with the syntactic and lexical causatives, noting the multiple possibilities for case-marking the "causee" NP (including the "causee-case"--(u)lo.hayekum and the instrumental case, possibilities which have been ignored in previous studies) and the change in function that the morphological causative has undergone since Middle Korean. The morphological causative has almost lost the function of expressing indirect causation, which has been taken over by the syntactic causative. Chapter 3 examines the clause structure of the syntactic and morphological causative constructions. It is proposed that the clause structures of the various syntactic causative constructions (distinguished by the case-marking of the causee--nominative, causee-case, dative, or accusative) and of the morphological causative construction form a gradual cline from fully biclausal to monoclausal, rather than a strict dichotomy. Chapter 4 explores the relationships existing among fourteen CM constructions, four of which have causative meaning, four passive, and six middle. As with all constructions, it is crucial to specify which formal and/or semantic properties each construction inherits from other constructions in the system to which it belongs, and which are particular to the individual construction. This is a central theme of Chapter 4.