A Predication Analysis of Korean Numeral Classifier Constructions

• Published in: 언어와 정보 사회 Vol. 38; pp. 65 - 99
• Main Author: Jong Un Park
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Korean
• Published: 서강대학교 언어정보연구소 30.11.2019
• Subjects: NP ellipsis; post-nominal numeral classifier construction; predication; selectional restriction; 명사구 생략; 명사후 수분류사 구문; 선택제약; 술어관계
• ISSN: 1598-1886

The major goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of two major approaches to post-nominal numeral classifier (post-NC) constructions, claiming that a predication approach, where an associate NP and a numeral-classifier (NC) complex are taken to be a subject and a predicate, respectively, is more tenable than a non-predication approach. As convincingly shown in Y.-T. Hong (2019), previous studies under the non-predication view are problematic in that they fail to properly capture several properties. However, although Y.-T. Hong is correct in showing the problematic aspects of the non-predication approach, his own ‘inverted predication analysis,’ which considers the associate NP as a predicate and the Num-Cl complex as a subject, is not unproblematic. After demonstrating that the inverted predication analysis poses some problems, we suggest an alternative version of predication analysis by adapting S.-Y. Park’s (2009, 2017) and Park and Park’s (2019) analyses.