Syntactic Causatives in Korean : Clause Union or Not?

Language, Information and Computation(PACLIC 11)1996, 83-92 Syntactic Causatives in Korean: Clause Union or Not? Keon Soo Lee Kyung Hee University kslee@nms.kyunghee.ac.kr Abstract Clause Union Laws require causee nominals to assume the relation of direct object or indirect object depending on the transitivity of corresponding non-causative constructions (Perlmutter & Postal 1974) or in accordance with the language specific rules (Gibson & Raposo 1986) in forming causative constructions. However, the causee nominals in Korean syntactic causatives are nominatively, accusatively or datively marked regardless of the transitivity of corresponding non-causative constructions. This paper argues that this intriguing case marker alternation is due to the interaction of the subcategorization of the verb ha with Subject-to-Object Raising, not the reflection of causative unions as argued in Gerdts (1990) and Kim (1990). 1. Introduction One of the major syntactic differences between non-causative and causative constructions is the increased valency of the latter. A more interesting phenomenon is that the increased argument usually takes either a relation of direct object or a relation of indirect object, which is different from the one assumed in corresponding non-causative constructions. To explicate this phenomenon, clause union analyses have been suggested within the framework of Relational Grammar, supposing that causative constructions are universally biclausal at the initial stratum but monoclausal at the final stratum. Perlmutter & Postal (1974) propose that the intransitive downstairs subject is revalued as an upstairs direct object whereas the transitive downstairs subject is revalued as an upstairs indirect object. Gibson (1980) and Gibson & Raposo (1986), however, claim that the revaluation of downstairs subject is parametrized in accordance with language particular rules. On the other hand, Rosen (1983) contends that Italian allows another type of clause union in which the downstairs subject undergoes no revaluation. Korean syntactic causative constructions below reveal more intriguing phenomena with respect to the revaluation of the downstairs subject:1) (1) a. Chelswu-ka Swuni-ka/-lul/-eykey ttena-key ha-yess-ta. -N� leave-Cmp do-Pst thelswu made Swuni leave.' b. Chelswu-ka Swuni-kai-luli-eykey chayk-ul ilk-key� ha-yess-ta. -N� -N/-A/-D� book-A read-Cmp do-Pst `Chelswu made Swuni read a book.' As illustrated, the downstairs subject is marked nominatively, accusatively, or datively, regardless of the transitivity of the downstairs clause. To account for this, Gerdts (1990) and Kim (1990) propose a clause union analysis, partly adopting P & P, G & R, and Rosen (1983). However, this paper claims that the constructions in (1) are finally as well as initially biclausal due to the subcategorizational features of the verb ha, not instances of clause union. This paper argues against Gerdts and Kim's 83 analyses and discusses the theoretical inadequacies of the clause union analyses. On the other hand, this paper demonstrates that the biclausal analysis is empirically valid in that it can provide correct predictions in connection with clause boundary sensitive phenomena. 2. Clause Union Laws Assuming that causative constructions are taken to consist of two clauses in the initial stratum which collapse into one clause at a subsequent stratum, P & P (1974) propose the Union Laws below!) (2) a. The intransitive downstairs 1 …

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