How do Koreans break and cut things?:

The aim of this paper is to explore the semantic properties and distributions of the various predicates involving cutting and breaking in Korean. I show that both CUT and BREAK predicates are sensitive to the characteristics of the theme entity. CUT predicates are sensitive to the theme’s texture and shape, to the prototypical zone of separation, and to its semantic domain. The BREAK predicates are sensitive to the theme’s texture and shape and to whether it is a functional artifact. In terms of morphosyntax, the CUT and BREAK predicates in Korean are lexically transitive; it is possible to express intransitive and/or inchoative semantics by using a passive marker or the anticausative marker. In the agent-focused constructions, i.e., actives, the BREAK verbs may be used with or without the causative morpheme -ttuli- (The CUT verbs are not normally marked for causativity). In the theme-focused constructions, i.e., passives and middles, either the anticausative morpheme -eci- or one of the passive morphemes must be used; the passive markers may only be used with CUT verbs, while the anticausative marker may be used with either Some of the breaking predicates contain the completive auxiliary nay-, which overtly encodes that an action has been completed – in this case, that complete separation has occurred. Some of the other predicates entail that some particular result state, i.e. some particular type of separation, has occurred.