The purpose of this paper is to describe the phenomenon of multiple subjects in Korean. In SOV languages like Korean and Japanese, where double subjects (S + S + V), occur, the second subjects has a subject marker in the surface form, but functions as the object of that structure. This relationship is termed as ergativity: the hypothesis of this study is that ergativity accounts for double subject constructions. When the hypothesis is applied to double subjects, almost all of them are identified as ergative structures.Another typical characteristic of the Korean language is that when topicalization is applied to a possessive structure in the subject position, it produces two successive NPs. Subjectivalization can further be applied to both NPs resulting in two subjects. The same phenomenon occurs when it applied to a structure which has a series of NPs or Locatives. In a few rare cases, these double subjects precede the ergative structure which already has other double subjects. Then the structure might have as many as four subjects in the surface structure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/182120 |
| Date | January 1979 |
| Creators | Yoon, Man-Kun |
| Contributors | Cox, Keith D. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vii, 93 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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