관형 명사 ‘완전’의 부사적 용법

The Study on the Modifier Noun ‘Wancen’ as a Degree Modifier

The primary objective of this study is to investigate the syntactic-semantic role of the modifier noun wancen ‘complete’ in the Korean language. The crucial puzzle lies in the fact that wancen modifies a noun phrase while its meaning aligns with the maximizer “completely.” Challenging the findings of prior research, which suggested that wancen functions as a speaker-oriented adverb, we propose that wancen indeed operates as a typical degree modifier, akin to the adjective completa 'complete' combining with property concept nouns in Spanish. To demonstrate this, we employ the MEAS operator as a null functional head, revealing that the noun combined with wancen can encompass semantics including degrees. As a result, wancen targets the interrelation between degrees and individuals, ultimately fixing the degree at the maximum point on the scale. Such an analysis strengthens the parallelism between the adjectival and nominal domains from a cross-linguistic perspective, thus contributing significantly to our comprehension of scalarity.