Space in Tense: The interaction of tense, aspect, evidentiality and speech acts in Korean

311 Pages·2012·1.44 MB·English

by  Kyung-Sook Chung

Space in Tense
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
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General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Arizona State University
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Josef Bayer Christer Platzack
University of Konstanz University of Lund
Cedric Boeckx Ian Roberts
ICREA/UB Cambridge University
Guglielmo Cinque Lisa deMena Travis
University of Venice McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Ghent University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Terje Lohndal
Norwegian University of Science
and Technology
Volume 189
Space in Tense. The interaction of tense, aspect, evidentiality and speech acts
in Korean
by Kyung-Sook Chung
Space in Tense
The interaction of tense, aspect, evidentiality
and speech acts in Korean
Kyung-Sook Chung
Pusan National University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chung, Kyung-Sook.
Space in tense : the interaction of tense, aspect, evidentiality and speech acts in Korean /
by Kyung-Sook Chung.
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 189)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Korean language--Tense. 2. Korean language--Deixis. 3. Korean language--Aspect.
4. Korean language--Semantics. I. Title.
PL921.C48 2012
495.7’5--dc23 2012012719
isbn 978 90 272 5572 3 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 7380 2 (Eb)
© 2012 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
For Sangbaek and Chungwon

Table of contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of tables xiii
List of figures xv
Abbreviations xvii
chapter 1
Introduction 1
1.1 Goals of the investigation 1
1.2 Theoretical assumptions concerning tense, aspect, and eventuality 2
1.2.1 Tense as deixis 2
1.2.2 The referential theory of tense 5
1.2.3 Reference time 6
1.2.4 Eventualities and the event argument 7
1.2.5 Aspect as operators 8
1.2.6 Perfect as an operator tense denoting anteriority 9
1.3 Predicative suffixes in Korean 12
1.4 Organization of the book 16
chapter 2
Deictic and non-deictic tenses in Korean 21
2.1 The simple form -ess 22
2.1.1 Previous analyses 22
2.1.1.1 Perfective analyses 22
2.1.1.2 Past tense approaches 29
2.1.1.3 Ambiguous between past and perfect 31
2.1.2 -Ess as an anterior (perfect) 32
2.2 The double form -essess 35
2.2.1 Previous analyses 36
2.2.1.1 Pluperfect approaches 36
2.2.1.2 Past tense plus experiential-contrastive aspect 38
2.2.1.3 Discontinuous past tense 40
2.2.2 -Essess as a past tense 42
viii Space in Tense
2.3 The semantics of -essess versus -ess: Deictic versus non-deictic 47
2.4 Conclusion 54
chapter 3
Semantics and pragmatics of the perfect (anterior) 55
3.1 Semantics of the perfect 55
3.1.1 Different readings of the perfect 56
3.1.2 The relation between the semantics of the perfect and the
present 62
3.2 Pragmatics of the perfect 68
3.2.1 The perfect, discourse topic, and current relevance 68
3.2.2 Current relevance and the presupposition of the perfect 72
3.3 The present perfect puzzle 77
3.3.1 Rethinking the P-Definiteness Constraint 80
3.3.2 Another puzzle: Exceptions to the Deictic
T-Adverbial Constraint 82
3.4 Conclusion 86
chapter 4
Spatial deictic tense 89
4.1 The suffix -te 90
4.1.1 Past imperfective approaches 91
4.1.2 Evidential approaches 95
4.1.2.1 Constraints on ‘-te’ 95
4.1.2.2 The suffix ‘-te’ is not an evidential marker 99
4.1.3 -Te as a spatial deictic tense 102
4.1.3.1 Faller’s (2004) speaker’s perceptual field
and spatio-temporal deictic tense 102
4.1.3.2 The speaker of ‘-te’ is a passive perceiver 105
4.1.3.3 ‘-Te’ is the spatial deictic past tense 111
4.2 -Ney as the spatial deictic present tense 116
4.3 Conclusion 121
chapter 5
Evidentials in Korean 125
5.1 Evidential typology 125
5.2 True evidentiality and quasi-evidentiality 128
5.3 The spatial deictic tense and evidentials 132
5.3.1 Evidentials: -ess, -keyss, and -Ø 133
5.3.1.1 Defining the evidential meanings 134
Table of contents ix
5.3.1.2 Implementing the evidential meanings 137
5.3.1.3 Presupposition of the evidentials 140
5.3.2 Modal meanings of the inferential indirect evidentials 146
5.3.2.1 Indirect evidentials and epistemic modality 146
5.3.2.2 Izvorski’s analysis of the indirect evidential 148
5.3.2.3 Semantics of the indirect evidential 153
5.3.3 Modality in the definition of evidentials 157
5.4 Reportative evidentials 159
5.4.1 Reportative forms: -tanta (-tay) and -tatela (-tatey) 160
5.4.1.1 N.-K. Kim’s (2000) analysis 160
5.4.1.2 Hearsay vs. Second-hand 162
5.4.2 Reportative versus non-reportative evidentials 166
5.4.3 Reportative evidentials are illocutionary operators 170
5.4.3.1 Interaction with propositional operators 171
5.4.3.2 (In)felicity if embedded proposition
is known to be false 173
5.4.3.3 (In)felicity if embedded proposition
is known to be true 176
5.4.3.4 Assent/dissent 178
5.4.3.5 Embedability 181
5.4.3.6 Readings in interrogatives 188
5.5 Conclusion 196
chapter 6
Evidential vs. non-evidential sentences 199
6.1 Faller’s (2002) speech act of presentation 200
6.2 Korean evidential sentences lack assertive points 202
6.3 An analysis of the Korean evidential mode 210
6.4 Portner’s (2006) presented set approach 216
6.5 Korean evidentials and subjectivity 219
6.6 Conclusion 223
chapter 7
Conclusions and further issues 227
7.1 Spatial deictic tenses and world variables 230
7.2 Evidentiality and subjective epistemic modality 232
7.3 Syntactic structures of evidential vs. non-evidential sentences 243
7.4 Tense and aspect 251
7.4.1 Imperfective 252
7.4.2 Progressive and resultative 257