Language: Korean (Spoken Korean as used in and around Seoul)
Contributors: Soung-U Kim
References: O'Grady 1991.0; Yeon 2003.0; Lee and Ramsey 2000.0; Yi 2010.0; Park 2010.0; Song 2012.0; Seo 2012.0; NIKL nd; Kim 2010.0; Kroeger 2004.0; Kim 2012.0; Sohn 1999.0; Evans 2010.0; Haspelmath 1995.0; Brown et al. 2012.0; Song 2005.0; Comrie 1981.0; Creissels 2010.0; Creissels 2013.0; Shibatani 1994.0; Plank 1995.0; Moseley 2010.0; King 2006.0; Lee and Thompson 1989.0; Kim 2008.0; Maling 1989.0; Kim and Maling 1993.0; Kang 2007.0; Lee 2008.0; Evans 2007.0; Schütze 2001.0
Simplex verb
Verb meaning: HUG [hug]
Comment: The English meaning HUG has multiple lexical counterparts in Korean. Instead of just using anda when describing someone hugging someone else (ex. 57), in Korean one commonly specifies the manner of which the action of hugging is carried out. Thus kki-eo an-da 'jam-CONV hug-DECL' is used when somebody hugs somebody else intensely (ex. 214, 25), whereas gamssa an-da 'embrace.CONV hug-DECL' (ex. 215) puts an emphasis on the action of embracing someone to make him or her feel safe and secure, and kkeul-eo an-da 'pull-CONV hug-DECL' means 'hug someone by pulling him or her towards himself' (ex. 216). Another possibility is budungki-eo an-da 'clutch-CONV hug-DECL' which is not easy to describe, it somewhat like a hugging movement, but there the movement is similar to catching or carrying something (with hands slightly upwards), and one holds someone else tightly in one's arms (cf. ex. 217; for those who are interested, a few more verbs can be found in folk linguistic sources such as here: http://blog.daum.net/70sunbee/484 [accessed 2014-02-21]). There are two interesting questions arising from this variety of different predicates. Firstly, the question is whether there are differences between these verbs in the first place, and whether my quest of trying to semantically distinguish them rather neglects their actual usage where verbs may be used interchangeably. A second question has to do with the nature of possibly complex predication going on in some of the verbs above: As shown in the examples, for some verbs such as budungki-eo an-da a reciprocal version could be found where a NOM-ACC case pattern alternates with a NOM-COM case pattern. The question is whether the semantic nature of some verbs such as kkeul-eo an-da, which emphasises the (possibly unilateral) action of pulling someone, actually has its reflexes in syntax so that a reciprocal alternation cannot apply. If that was the case, then one could obviously not subsume all these predicates under this entry. Furthermore, this verb often co-occurs with juda, as most notably an-a ju-da, hug-CONV give-DECL', for example, but here no dative argument is added to the valency of the verb, and the difference in usage and meaning seems somewhat obscure, although it seems to be that it is implied that one does it especially for the benefit of someone else, or because someone requested it (ex. 123, 12). Passive and Causative forms exist for anda, although I do not know whether for this applies to the complex predicate forms discussed above as well. Note that similarly to what has been mentioned with SHOW, the causative form might be used much more often than in literary language with juda in spoken language. All of these questions have not been thoroughly investigated yet, and as for most of the data here, a more detailed and controlled study with a greater number of consultants is yet to be anticipated.
Examples: see at the bottom
Schema: 1-nom 2-acc V
| # | Microrole | Coding set | Argument type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | hugger | NP-nom | A |
| 2 | huggee | NP-acc | P |
| (57) |
어머니가 아이를 안았다. Eomeoniga aireul anassda. eomeoni-ga mother-NOM ai-reul child-ACC an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL The mother took the child in her arms. / The mother hugged her child. |
| Alternation | Derived coding frame | Occurs | Comment | # Ex. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (122) |
엄마가 아이를 껴안았다. Eommaga aireul kkyeoanatta. eomma-ga mother-NOM ai-reul child-ACC kki-eo jam-CONV an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL The mother hugged [her] child. Comment: Whether the kki- is identical with kki- 'jam' in independent usage cannot be said for sure. Evans (2010: 176f.) describes the meaning of this verb as 'move into a tight-fitting configuration with something else' which would also apply to this context. See Evans 2010.0 |
| (123) |
날 안아줘. Nal anajwo! na-l 1SG-ACC an-a hug-CONV ju-eo give-PLAIN Hug me! |
| (124) |
안나와 토마스가 서로를 껴안았다. Annawa tomasseuga seororeul kkyeoanatta. anna-wa Anna-COM tomaseu-ga Thomas-NOM seoro-reul RECP-ACC kki-eo jam-CONV an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL Anna and Thomas hugged each other. Comment: Although superficially one might assume that this looks like a reciprocal alternation, a detailed look might reveal that this is not the case here. The reciprocal seoro in Korean behaves similarly to a noun in that it can take various case markers, and although it denotes semantic reciprocity, I am not sure whether this holds syntactically, since the above case pattern is still NOM-ACC, and it would not sound grammatical to leave seororeul out here (although this needs to be tested on a corpus given that in Korean NPs can be dropped). Moreover, switching the order of anna-wa 'Anna-COM' and tomaseu-ga 'Thomas-NOM' as in a 'true' reciprocal alternation sentences results in ungrammaticality (*Thomaseuga Annawa seororeul kkyeoanatta, compare with ex. 213). This shows that the nominative case marker has its scope over the comitaitve marked NP, and the latter seems to be embedded in an NP headed by the noun tomaseu. Thus what I am trying to say here is that probably this construction, although semantically reciprocal, syntactically exhibits a 'normal', transitive NOM-ACC coding pattern. |
| (211) |
어머니가 아이가 계속 안아 달라 해서 아이를 안아 줬다. Eommaga [aiga gyesok ana dalla haeseo] aireul ana jwotta. eomma-ga mother-NOM ai-ga child-NOM gyesog continuously an-a hug-CONV dal-la give.IMP.REFL-IMP ha-seo do-CONV ai-reul child-ACC an-a hug-CONV ju-eoss-da give-PST-DECL The mother, with her child constantly begging for a hug, gave the child a hug. Comment: This is an example as it is commonly used in colloquial usage. The verb anda is commonly used together with the verb juda without affecting the verb's valency. The embedded clause is included here to provide a context where it is made clear that the action of hugging is carried out for the benefit of someone else, and as a help, syntactic brackets have been given here. The element dal- which has been glossed as give.IMP.REFL is a peculiar case where the verb stem of ju- 'give' seems to be suppleted by a diachronically unrelated verb stem dal- (or da- in some cases), for which Sohn (1999:384/ 385) uses the term 'reflexive benefactive auxiliary'. It is used in requests where the participant requesting some benefactory action is semantically coreferential with the beneficiary participant, hence the gloss REFL. I cannot think of a corresponding independent form of this verb in Korean, and since I do not know why it sometimes occurs as dal- and sometimes as da-, I just followed Sohn's analysis of the stem as dal- (Sohn 1999: 385, Sohn himself does not explain the diachronic background of this construction). Note that ha-seo do-CONV means 'say' here. |
| (214) |
토마스가 안나를 껴안았다. Tomaseuga Annareul kkyeoanatta. tomaseu-ga Thomas-NOM anna-reul Anna-ACC kki-eo jam-CONV an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL Thomas hugged Anna. |
| (215) |
토마스가 안나를 감싸 안았다. Tomaseuga annareul gamssa anatta. tomaseu-ga Thomas-NOM anna-reul Anna-ACC gamssa embrace.CONV an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL Thomas embraced Anna. |
| (216) |
토마스가 안나를 끌어안았다. Tomaseuga Annareul kkeureo anatta. tomaseu-ga Thomas-NOM anna-reul Anna-ACC kkeul-eo pull-CONV an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL Thomas hugged Anna by dragging her towards him. |
| (217) |
엄마는 내게 달려와 나를 부둥켜 안았다. Eommaneun naege dallyeowa nareul budungkyeo anatta. eomma-neun mother-TOP na-ege 1SG-DAT dalli-eo tun-CONV o-a come-CONV na-reul 1SG-ACC budungki-eo clutch-CONV an-ass-da hug-PST-DECL Mother ran towards me and hugged me with her whole body. |
