A Realizational Approach to Light Verb Ellipsis in Korean: Non-constituent Ellipsis as Zero Vocabulary Insertion

초록

In Distributed Morphology, the operation of Vocabulary Insertion applies a phonological exponent (Vocabulary Item) to a functional terminal morpheme. In this article, I propose that even if there is a candidate Vocabulary Item for the designated terminal node, Vocabulary Insertion may not insert a Vocabulary Item, which I dud Zero Vocabulary Insertion. Specifically, based on the fact that the light verb ha- ‘do’ in Korean may be elided in certain contexts, I offer a realizational, morpheme-based analysis of the phenomenon of the light verb in which the ha- ellipsis is not a bona fide syntactic constituent ellipsis. Rather, it occurs post-syntactically when the operation of Vocabulary Insertion does not apply a Vocabulary Item to the relevant functional morpheme for the verb at stake. Zero Vocabulary Insertion explains the property of the non-constituent ellipsis of the light verb.

키워드