The Korean Counterparts of the English Ditransitive Verb Teach

The Korean Counterparts of the English Ditransitive Verb Teach

  The English ditransitive verb teach may be interpreted as kaluchi "teach" or kaluchi-e-cwu "teach-Linker-give" in Korean. The verb cwu is spelled out on v in the sense that the lexical verb undergoes verbal suffixation to the causative morpheme on v to be a causative verb interchangeable with the verb cwu. What is particularly significant here is that the ditransitive verb kaluchi "teach" or kaluchi-e-cwu "teach-Linker-give" induces the goal to bear possession. There is an implication that the goal comes to have something in English double object constructions: for example, the ditransitive verb teach causes the indirect object (i.e., goal) to bear possession (Larson 1988, Harley 2002). In this vein, this paper argues that the Korean counterpart of the English ditransitive verb teach may be either kaluchi or kaluchi-e-cwu. If the simple transitive verb kaluchi on V undergoes verbal suffixation to CAUSE on v, the ditransitive verb kaluchi is spelled out, while if the verb kaluchi raises to cwu on v, the compound verb kaluchi-e-cwu is spelled out.