The Interaction of Resultative and Progressive Constructions in Korean

Abstract

This study investigates the syntax and semantics of Korean -ko/e iss-constructions, focusing on the distinction between progressive (PG) and resultant state (RS) readings. Tracing the historical development from Middle Korean -ko/e is-, this study demonstrates how grammaticalization led to the modern flexibility of -ko/e iss- in expressing both progressive and resultative meanings. Syntactic diagnostics, including adverb insertion, selectional restrictions, and negation, indicate that iss- in both PG and RS readings functions as an auxiliary rather than as a main verb. The RS reading is argued to arise not from the auxiliary iss- but from the verbal connectives -ko(sequentiality) and -e(completion). The thematic shift of the subject from Agent to Patient/Undergoer is analyzed within a VoiceP framework, consistent with cross-linguistic patterns in resultative constructions. Rejecting Ogihara’s (2020) thematic-role-driven temporal alignment, this study argues that aspectual interpretations in Korean emerge compositionally from predicate types and verbal connectives, thereby supporting a lexical-syntactic approach grounded in event semantics.