Thematic relations and transitivity in English, Japanese and Korean
The thesis presents a syntactic and semantic analysis of selected problems in the analysis of transitivity in English, Japanese and Korean in terms of a system of 'thematic relations' adapted from the work of Gruber and Jackendoff. The system is introduced in Chapter One. One way in which it differs from those of Gruber and Jackendoff is that their ambiguous notion of Theme is replaced by two separate notions - Theme and semantic subject. Verbs are classified into 'univalent verbs', which have a single set of thematic relations, and 'ambivalent verbs', which have more than one set of thematic relations. It is claimed that syntactic alternations such as that between 'spray x on y' and 'spray y with x' are a reflection of the ambivalence of the verbs in question. Chapter Two reviews discourse approaches and semantic approaches to Dative-shift. On the basis of a comparison of English and Korean it argues that Dative-shift in these two languages is clearly a semantic process rather than pragmatically motivated. Moreover, like the 'spray' type alternation, Dative-shift is shown to be a reflection of the ambivalence of verbs expressing a change in possession. Chapter Three is devoted to double-nominative constructions
Song, Nam-Sun
Dative-shift; Double nominative; Passive
Thematic relations and transitivity in English, Japanese and Korean. The thesis presents a syntactic and semantic analysis of selected problems in the analysis of transitivity in English, Japanese and Korean in terms of a system of 'thematic relations' adapted from the work of Gruber and Jackendoff. The system is introduced in Chapter One. One way in which it differs from those of Gruber and Jackendoff is that their ambiguous notion of Theme is replaced by two separate notions - Theme and semantic subject. Verbs are classified into 'univalent verbs', which have a single set of thematic relations, and 'ambivalent verbs', which have more than one set of thematic relations. It is claimed that syntactic alternations such as that between 'spray x on y' and 'spray y with x' are a reflection of the ambivalence of the verbs in question. Chapter Two reviews discourse approaches and semantic approaches to Dative-shift. On the basis of a comparison of English and Korean it argues that Dative-shift in these two languages is clearly a semantic process rather than pragmatically motivated. Moreover, like the 'spray' type alternation, Dative-shift is shown to be a reflection of the ambivalence of verbs expressing a change in possession. Chapter Three is devoted to double-nominative constructions
thematic relation transitivity english japanese korean present syntactic_semantic analysis_select problem analysis transitivity english japanese korean term system thematic relation adapt work jackendoff system introduce one_way differs jackendoff ambiguous notion theme replace two_separate notion theme semantic subject verbs classify verb single set thematic relation ambivalent verb set thematic relation claim syntactic alternation reflection ambivalence verbs question review discourse approach semantic approach dative shift basis comparison english korean argue dative shift two_language clearly semantic process rather pragmatically motivate moreover like type alternation dative shift show reflection ambivalence verbs express change possession devote double nominative construction