완결상 체계에 대한 한영 비교 연구

The Comparative Study on Aspect Systems of Korean and English : focusing on Present Perfect

This paper aims to study on similarities and differences of aspect systems between Korean and English focusing on present perfect aspect. The two languages have the similarity in that they consist of two grammatical terms of aspect; perfect aspect and progressive aspect. However, aspect systems of korean and English have differences in terms of the correspondences between aspect formatives and their meanings, especially in case of the present perfect. First, Korean language doesn't have independent present perfect formatives. The present perfect formative "-ess" also play the role of the past tense formative in Korean. English has the independent present perfect formative "have+p.p." of the past tense formative "-ed". Second, meanings of Korean present perfect aspect doesn't show systematic relations to meanings of past tense. When the formative "-ess" in Korean is used as the present perfect aspect, it represents the meaning of 'resultative state', 'ergressive/terminative', 'state leading up to the present' and 'inchoative'. On the other hand, the formative "-ess" represents the meaning of 'past state', 'past event' and 'past habit' when it play the role of the past tense. On the contrary, the meanings of the present perfect and the past in English have systematic relations each other. For example, English present perfect aspect represents 'the state, event and habit which are related to present time' while past tense expresses 'the state, event and habit which are related to the definite time in the past'. Third, Korean language has the as[ect system in which its aspectual meanings depend on accompanying adverbial expressions or contextual information, as well as on formal differences of the predicate auxiliaries. For example it has to be decided by some adverbial expressions like temporal adverbs, or special contextual information whether the formative "-ess" represents present perfect or not. In addition, the formative "-ess" can represent the past perfect aspectual meaning instead of the formative "-ess ess" in Korean. On the contrary, English doesn't permit this neutralization of formatives between the present perfect and the past perfect. Consequently, English language has the aspect system in which its aspectual meanings are represented by strict morphological devices like formal distinctions of the predicates.