From middle to passive: a diachronic analysis of Korean -"eci" constructions

• Mikyung Ahn ^[1] ; Foong Ha Yap ^[2]
  1. [1] Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

     Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

     Corea del Sur

     
  2. [2] Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen/Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Localización: Diachronica: International Journal for Historical Linguistics = Revue Internationale pour la Linguistique Historique = Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Sprachwissenschaft, ISSN 0176-4225, Vol. 34, Nº 4, 2017, págs. 437-469
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1075/dia.16037.ahn
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• Resumen

  • This paper examines the relationship between middle and passive voice constructions in Korean, in particular how they have come to share the same grammatical marker -eci. Based on diachronic data from the UNICONC (Korean historical) database, spanning Old, Middle and Modern Korean (15th to 20th century), our analysis reveals that -eci was initially used as a middle voice marker for spontaneous and inchoative events, with change-of-state as their common feature, then extended to transitive contexts, giving rise to passive voice usage. More recently, -eci has developed into a marker of facilitative middle constructions as well. These semantic extensions involve shifts in aspectual focus from change-of-state to resultative-state, and further to potential aspect and mood. This analysis contributes to our understanding of the diachrony of voice markers beyond the causative-to-passive pathway commonly seen in Northeast Asia to include the middle-to-passive pathway, with typological implications.