한국어 존대법의 형태점검

The main purpose of this article is to investigate the morphological properties and check the morphological features of honorific expres- sions in Korean. The theoretical background of the analysis based on the minimalist theory of A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory(Chomsky 1992). The honorific expressions in Korean are generally classified into three types - the honorific for subject referent, the honorific for object referent and the honorific for hearer. Each of the honorific expressions has its own morpho-syntactic characteristics that shows different morphological properties of honorific features. In the minimalist theory morphological features within a checking domain of a given configuration are checked through the manifestation of the Spec-head agreement. In Korean honorific expressions morphological features within a checking domain of a β-structure are also checked through the mainfestation of the Spec-head agreement. Such grammatical features(=φ-features) as Case and honorific in Korean play a decisive role in the morphological checking or the optimal realization of honorific morphemes which are phonetically realized through inflectional, or lexical, or derivational expressions. In the honorific expressions of modern Korean syntax the morphological realization of the honorific for subject referent is derived by mainly using the nomiantive Case marker of subject 〈-kkeseo-〉(께서) and the inflectional elements of verb 〈-(eu)si-〉(-(으)시-). The morphological realization of the honorific for object referent is derived by mainly using lexical nouns and verbs which show honorific meaning for object refernt. The morphological realization of the honorific for hearer is derived by mainly using a phonetically null or empty noun that refers to the hearer(or a vocative) and inflectional elements of verb 〈-(p)ni-〉(-(ㅂ)니-). These honorific morphemes are checked through the mainfestation of the Spec-head agreement while grammatical features are checked against inflectional, or lexical, or derivational elements. As all grammatical features of functional categories in Korean are weak, these features are checked after Spell-out due to the principle of Procrastinate.