Myths in Korean Morphology and Their Computational Implications

Myths in Korean Morphology and Their Computational Implications Hee-Rahk Chae Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Yongin, Gyeonggi, 449-791, Korea hrchae@hufs.ac.kr Abstract This paper examines some popular misanalyses in Korean morphology. For example, contrary to popular myth, the verbal ha- and the element -(nu)n- cannot be analyzed as a derivational affix and as a present tense marker, respectively. We will see that ha- is an independent word and that -(nu)n- is part of a portmanteau morph. In providing reasonable analyses of them, we will consider some computational implications of the misanalyses. It is really mysterious that such wrong analyses can become so popular in a scientific field of linguistics. 1 Introduction This paper aims at examining some popular misanalyses in Korean morphology. Focusing on the verbal ha- and what is called the present tense marker -(nu)n-, we will see that, contrary to popular myth, they cannot be analyzed as a derivational affix and as a present tense marker, respectively. In providing reasonable analyses of them, we will consider some implications of the misanalyses, especially from a computational point of view. Most Korean linguists assume that the ha- in kongpwu-ha- (‘to study’), for example, is a derivational affix and, hence, kongpwu-ha- as a whole is a verb.1 However, as we can see shortly, ha- itself is an independent word and [kongpwu ha-] is a phrase. More Korean linguists assume that the element -(nu)n- is a present tense marker. However, the Korean tense system becomes far simpler, if we assume that the present tense marker is null (-ø-) rather than -(nu)n-. 2 The Morpho-syntactic Status of Some Dependent Elements As an agglutinative language, Korean has rather complex structures of word-like expressions. Hence, it is not always easy to determine the 1 Noticeable exceptions are Song (1967: 64-71), Suh (1991: 486, 1994: 578, 1996: 346), Chae (1996) and some others. They have shown, for example, that ha- in kongpwu-ha- cannot be a derivational affix and that [kongpwu ha-] and [kongpwu-lul ha-] are realizations of the same syntactic structure. The Japanese counterpart of the Korean ha- is suru. The unit of verbal noun plus suru is also regarded as a word by most Japanese linguists. However, this is very dubious. a) bengkyou-bakari/wa/... suru study -only/Contr do b) ??bengkyou yoku/nagaku/... suru well/long time c) [bengkyou-to undou]-bakari/wa/... suru -and exercise Although it is not very natural for such independent words as yoku and nagaku to come between the two elements, as we can see in (b), delimiters like -bakari and -wa are allowed as in (a). In addition, the verbal noun before suru can be conjoined, as we can see in (c). These facts show that bengkyou-suru is not a word but a phrase (and, hence, such expressions should not be registered as head words in dictionaries). PACLIC-27 505 Copyright 2013 by Hee-Rahk Chae 27th Pacific Asia Conference on Language, Information and Computation pages 505－511 morpho-syntactic status of a dependent element, whether it is a derivational affix, an inflectional affix or …

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