Seungho Nam | Seoul National University (original) (raw)

Papers by Seungho Nam

UMI Dissertation Services eBooks, 1995

Korean Journal of Linguistics, Sep 1, 2009

This paper argues that the basic modes of spatial cognition can be best identified in terms of ar... more This paper argues that the basic modes of spatial cognition can be best identified in terms of argument/participant location, and shows that natural language uses ‘simple’ types of semantic denotations to encode spatial cognition, and further notes that spatial expressions should be interpreted not as locating an event/state as a whole but as locating arguments/participants of the event. The ways of locating events/states are identified in terms of ARGUMENT ORIENTATION(AO), which indicates semantic patterns of linking locatives to specific arguments. Four patterns of argument orientation described here reveal substantial modes of spatial cognition, and the AO patterns are mostly determined by the semantic classes of English verbs combining with locative expressions, i.e., by the event type of the predicate. As for the denotational constraint of locatives, the paper concludes that semantic denotations of locative PPs are restricted to the INTERSECTING functions mapping relations to r...

This paper proposes a syntax-semantics correspondence of locative expressions: This proposal is b... more This paper proposes a syntax-semantics correspondence of locative expressions: This proposal is based on the syntactic hierarchy among three locative structures (PPs, VPs, and verbal affixes) and the semantic hierarchy among four locative arguments (Goal, Source, Symmetric Path, Stative Location). As for the syntactic hierarchy, the verbal affixes are closer to the head verb than the locative/path verbs are, and the locative/path verbs than the locative PPs. As for the semantic hierarchy, the following four arguments form a hierarchy due to their semantic closeness to the motion event: Goal > S-Path > Source > St-Location. (cf. Nam 1995, 2004) We argue for this correspondence claim by identifying some crucial typological implications holding between the syntactic/semantic hierarchies.

Second Language Research, 2000

This paper, based on Nam's (1995) logic of space, proposes a compositional semantics of event... more This paper, based on Nam's (1995) logic of space, proposes a compositional semantics of event structures in terms of eventuality type of predicates and the semantics of locatives. The paper proposes the following typology of English locatives: (i) Stative locatives, (ii) Symmetric locatives, (iii) Telic locatives, and (iv) Atelic locatives. Extending the version of Pustejovskys (1995) Event Structure, the paper further identifies five classes of eventualities: (i) e1[state], (ii) e1[process], (iii) e1*[process]+e2[state], (iv) e1[process]+e2*[state], and (v) e1*[process]+e2*[state]. It is claimed that the following patterns of telicity shifting arise in semantic composition of predicates and locatives: (i) e1[process] → e1[process]+e2*[state], e.g., run into the room, and (ii) e1*[process]+e2[state] → e1*[process]+e2*[state], e.g., load the hay on the truck. Defining paths as sequences of regions and orientations as directed rays, the paper accounts for the contrast between teli...

This chapter deals with the lexicon-syntax interface, which is particularly interesting in Korean... more This chapter deals with the lexicon-syntax interface, which is particularly interesting in Korean and currently attracting much attention in cross-linguistic studies. Theories on the lexicon-syntax interface, linking rules in particular, call for a lexicalist hypothesis such that various syntactic aspects of a sentence be determined by the lexical properties of the predicate, just as in Chomsky’s (1981, 1986) Projection Principle. Thus, this chapter aims to characterize the semantic aspects of argument realization patterns – linking rules in Korean. (Jackendoff 1990; Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1995; Pustejovsky 1995; Croft 2012, etc.) Furthermore, this chapter is devoted to identifying the semantic components of alternating predicates in Korean which are relevant to their ability to realize multiple argument structures. The verb classes dealt with in this chapter include psych predicates, verbs of change of location/state, and several verb classes involving causative alternation in K...

This paper inquires the event structures of experienced/psych predicates in Korean, which reveal ... more This paper inquires the event structures of experienced/psych predicates in Korean, which reveal the causal, temporal, and focal relations among the sub-events of the experienced event. We focus on two classes of intransitive psych predicates: (i) Agentive experiencer predicates [AEP], whose Experiencer plays a role of Agent in the experiential causing sub-event, and (ii) Patientive experiencer predicates [PEP], whose Experiencer does not play a role of Agent but plays a role of Patient or Theme in the causing sub-event. We propose two event templates: “Agentive Experienced Causation” for AEPs, and “Patientive Experienced Causation” for PEPs. The two classes of psych predicates share the same case-frames but show apparent asymmetry in their event structure and argument structure. Their semantic/syntactic asymmetry will be accounted for by the structural differences in their event structures and the argument structures. Our proposal explains away two argument alternation patterns of ...

A Study on the Interface between Syntactic and Prosodic Structure with special reference to the m... more A Study on the Interface between Syntactic and Prosodic Structure with special reference to the modes of ambiguity resolution Jae-il Kwon, Youn-Han Kim, Yang-Soo Moon, Seungho Nam, Jongho Jun This paper aims to characterize the interface between syntactic structure and prosodic structure, with special reference to the modes of ambiguity resolution in Korean. Specifically, the paper deals with data involving structural ambiguity, some of which can be naturally described as syntactic ambiguity, but others which we claim should be properly accounted for in terms of discourse-pragmatic ambiguity. Different types of scope ambiguities are illustrated and special attention is paid to negated sentences with quantificational expressions and those in conjoined sentences. This paper identifies prosodic patterns which resolve scope ambiguity in negated sentences in Korean and further characterizes the prosodic pattern as a reflect of structure of the sentences. This account is supported by the ...

Korean Journal of Linguistics, 2009

Brown/The Handbook of Korean Linguistics, 2015

Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2004

Introduction This paper investigates the syntactic and semantic difference between two types of d... more Introduction This paper investigates the syntactic and semantic difference between two types of directional PPs-(i) Goal locatives (e.g., into the store) and (ii) Source locatives (e.g., from the store). Their contrastive syntactic behavior is identified in various constructions, and we account for the contrast by assigning them two distinct underlying base positions. Further, we argue that their systematic semantic differences are predicted by their semantic scope in event structure. Jackendoff (1983, 1990) does not take thematic roles like Source and Goal as grammatical primitives, and the notions are defined in his lexical conceptual structure of event. Thus in Jackendoff (1990), Goal and Source are defined as the arguments of Path-functions, [ Path TO ([ Place … ])] and [ Path FROM ([ Place … ])], respectively. Prepositions like to, into and onto typically take a Goal argument, and from, from under, from behind, and off can take a Source argument. The paper is organized as follows: Section 1 illustrates the Goal-Source asymmetry in syntax, specifically in the structures of Preposition Incorporation, Prepositional/Pseudo Passives, PP-dislocation and locative alternations. Section 2 shows the semantic contrast between Goal and Source PPs with respect to adverbial modification and aspectual composition. Section 3 proposes two distinct underlying base positions of Goal and Source locatives, and accounts for the syntactic and semantic contrast in terms of more fine-grained event structure. Further, we propose a set of mapping rules which link the locative PPs in event structure with their syntactic positions. 1

2011 IEEE Fifth International Conference on Semantic Computing, 2011

The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) the paper aims to characterize unique semantics of so call... more The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) the paper aims to characterize unique semantics of so called "symmetric" locatives like across the street-this will provide a guiding semantics for annotating a variety of paths; and (ii) the paper claims that we need "symmetric" paths to give a unified account of the various semantic effects of symmetric locatives. The paper illustrates several semantic effects induced by symmetric locatives: (i) symmetric underspecification, (ii) path-/event-quantification, (iii) static symmetric relations, and (iv) the symmetric inference by the adverb back. The paper defines the semantic class of symmetric locatives, and accounts for the symmetry effects in terms of properties and relations of Path Structure proposed by [1].

UMI Dissertation Services eBooks, 1995

Korean Journal of Linguistics, Sep 1, 2009

This paper argues that the basic modes of spatial cognition can be best identified in terms of ar... more This paper argues that the basic modes of spatial cognition can be best identified in terms of argument/participant location, and shows that natural language uses ‘simple’ types of semantic denotations to encode spatial cognition, and further notes that spatial expressions should be interpreted not as locating an event/state as a whole but as locating arguments/participants of the event. The ways of locating events/states are identified in terms of ARGUMENT ORIENTATION(AO), which indicates semantic patterns of linking locatives to specific arguments. Four patterns of argument orientation described here reveal substantial modes of spatial cognition, and the AO patterns are mostly determined by the semantic classes of English verbs combining with locative expressions, i.e., by the event type of the predicate. As for the denotational constraint of locatives, the paper concludes that semantic denotations of locative PPs are restricted to the INTERSECTING functions mapping relations to r...

This paper proposes a syntax-semantics correspondence of locative expressions: This proposal is b... more This paper proposes a syntax-semantics correspondence of locative expressions: This proposal is based on the syntactic hierarchy among three locative structures (PPs, VPs, and verbal affixes) and the semantic hierarchy among four locative arguments (Goal, Source, Symmetric Path, Stative Location). As for the syntactic hierarchy, the verbal affixes are closer to the head verb than the locative/path verbs are, and the locative/path verbs than the locative PPs. As for the semantic hierarchy, the following four arguments form a hierarchy due to their semantic closeness to the motion event: Goal > S-Path > Source > St-Location. (cf. Nam 1995, 2004) We argue for this correspondence claim by identifying some crucial typological implications holding between the syntactic/semantic hierarchies.

Second Language Research, 2000

This paper, based on Nam's (1995) logic of space, proposes a compositional semantics of event... more This paper, based on Nam's (1995) logic of space, proposes a compositional semantics of event structures in terms of eventuality type of predicates and the semantics of locatives. The paper proposes the following typology of English locatives: (i) Stative locatives, (ii) Symmetric locatives, (iii) Telic locatives, and (iv) Atelic locatives. Extending the version of Pustejovskys (1995) Event Structure, the paper further identifies five classes of eventualities: (i) e1[state], (ii) e1[process], (iii) e1*[process]+e2[state], (iv) e1[process]+e2*[state], and (v) e1*[process]+e2*[state]. It is claimed that the following patterns of telicity shifting arise in semantic composition of predicates and locatives: (i) e1[process] → e1[process]+e2*[state], e.g., run into the room, and (ii) e1*[process]+e2[state] → e1*[process]+e2*[state], e.g., load the hay on the truck. Defining paths as sequences of regions and orientations as directed rays, the paper accounts for the contrast between teli...

This chapter deals with the lexicon-syntax interface, which is particularly interesting in Korean... more This chapter deals with the lexicon-syntax interface, which is particularly interesting in Korean and currently attracting much attention in cross-linguistic studies. Theories on the lexicon-syntax interface, linking rules in particular, call for a lexicalist hypothesis such that various syntactic aspects of a sentence be determined by the lexical properties of the predicate, just as in Chomsky’s (1981, 1986) Projection Principle. Thus, this chapter aims to characterize the semantic aspects of argument realization patterns – linking rules in Korean. (Jackendoff 1990; Levin and Rappaport Hovav 1995; Pustejovsky 1995; Croft 2012, etc.) Furthermore, this chapter is devoted to identifying the semantic components of alternating predicates in Korean which are relevant to their ability to realize multiple argument structures. The verb classes dealt with in this chapter include psych predicates, verbs of change of location/state, and several verb classes involving causative alternation in K...

This paper inquires the event structures of experienced/psych predicates in Korean, which reveal ... more This paper inquires the event structures of experienced/psych predicates in Korean, which reveal the causal, temporal, and focal relations among the sub-events of the experienced event. We focus on two classes of intransitive psych predicates: (i) Agentive experiencer predicates [AEP], whose Experiencer plays a role of Agent in the experiential causing sub-event, and (ii) Patientive experiencer predicates [PEP], whose Experiencer does not play a role of Agent but plays a role of Patient or Theme in the causing sub-event. We propose two event templates: “Agentive Experienced Causation” for AEPs, and “Patientive Experienced Causation” for PEPs. The two classes of psych predicates share the same case-frames but show apparent asymmetry in their event structure and argument structure. Their semantic/syntactic asymmetry will be accounted for by the structural differences in their event structures and the argument structures. Our proposal explains away two argument alternation patterns of ...

A Study on the Interface between Syntactic and Prosodic Structure with special reference to the m... more A Study on the Interface between Syntactic and Prosodic Structure with special reference to the modes of ambiguity resolution Jae-il Kwon, Youn-Han Kim, Yang-Soo Moon, Seungho Nam, Jongho Jun This paper aims to characterize the interface between syntactic structure and prosodic structure, with special reference to the modes of ambiguity resolution in Korean. Specifically, the paper deals with data involving structural ambiguity, some of which can be naturally described as syntactic ambiguity, but others which we claim should be properly accounted for in terms of discourse-pragmatic ambiguity. Different types of scope ambiguities are illustrated and special attention is paid to negated sentences with quantificational expressions and those in conjoined sentences. This paper identifies prosodic patterns which resolve scope ambiguity in negated sentences in Korean and further characterizes the prosodic pattern as a reflect of structure of the sentences. This account is supported by the ...

Korean Journal of Linguistics, 2009

Brown/The Handbook of Korean Linguistics, 2015

Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2004

Introduction This paper investigates the syntactic and semantic difference between two types of d... more Introduction This paper investigates the syntactic and semantic difference between two types of directional PPs-(i) Goal locatives (e.g., into the store) and (ii) Source locatives (e.g., from the store). Their contrastive syntactic behavior is identified in various constructions, and we account for the contrast by assigning them two distinct underlying base positions. Further, we argue that their systematic semantic differences are predicted by their semantic scope in event structure. Jackendoff (1983, 1990) does not take thematic roles like Source and Goal as grammatical primitives, and the notions are defined in his lexical conceptual structure of event. Thus in Jackendoff (1990), Goal and Source are defined as the arguments of Path-functions, [ Path TO ([ Place … ])] and [ Path FROM ([ Place … ])], respectively. Prepositions like to, into and onto typically take a Goal argument, and from, from under, from behind, and off can take a Source argument. The paper is organized as follows: Section 1 illustrates the Goal-Source asymmetry in syntax, specifically in the structures of Preposition Incorporation, Prepositional/Pseudo Passives, PP-dislocation and locative alternations. Section 2 shows the semantic contrast between Goal and Source PPs with respect to adverbial modification and aspectual composition. Section 3 proposes two distinct underlying base positions of Goal and Source locatives, and accounts for the syntactic and semantic contrast in terms of more fine-grained event structure. Further, we propose a set of mapping rules which link the locative PPs in event structure with their syntactic positions. 1

2011 IEEE Fifth International Conference on Semantic Computing, 2011

The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) the paper aims to characterize unique semantics of so call... more The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) the paper aims to characterize unique semantics of so called "symmetric" locatives like across the street-this will provide a guiding semantics for annotating a variety of paths; and (ii) the paper claims that we need "symmetric" paths to give a unified account of the various semantic effects of symmetric locatives. The paper illustrates several semantic effects induced by symmetric locatives: (i) symmetric underspecification, (ii) path-/event-quantification, (iii) static symmetric relations, and (iv) the symmetric inference by the adverb back. The paper defines the semantic class of symmetric locatives, and accounts for the symmetry effects in terms of properties and relations of Path Structure proposed by [1].