Capturing and Parsing the Mixed Properties of Light Verb Constructions in a Typed Feature Structure Grammar
Jong‐Bok Kim, Jaehyung Yang, Incheol Choi · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · 2004
One of the most widely used constructions in Korean is the so-called light verb construction (LVC) involving an active-denoting verbal noun (VN) together with the light verb ha-ta 'do'.This paper first discusses the argument composition of the LVC, mixed properties of VNs which have provided a challenge to syntactic analyses with a strict version of X-bar theory.The paper shows the mechanism of multiple classification of category types with systematic inheritance can provide an effective way of capturing these mixed properties.The paper then restates the argument composition properties of the LVC and reenforces them with a constraint-based analysis.This paper also offers answers to the the puzzling syntactic variations in the LVC.Following these empirical and theoretical discussions is a short report on the implementation of the analysis within the LKB (Linguistics Knowledge Building) system. IssuesThe first main theoretical and computational issue we encounter in the analysis of the LVC is the status of the light verb and argument composition.One of the main properties the light verb ha carries is that it does not affect the argument structure of the VN it combines with.(1) a. John-i Mary-eykey cenhwa(-lul hayessta) John-NOM Mary-DAT phone-ACC did 'John phoned Mary.' b.John-i Mary-lul myengtan-ey chwuka(-lul hayessta) John-NOM Mary-ACC list-LOC addition-ACC did 'John added Mary to the list.' c.John-i ku chayk-ul Mary-lopwuthe manwon-ey kwuip(-ul hayessta) John-NOM the book-ACC Mary-from 1,000 won-LOC buy-ACC did 'John bought the book from Mary at 1,000 won.'