The Temporal Interpretation of the Korean '–ko' Construction: Aktionsart and Discourse Context

Abstract

The temporal interpretation of the Korean –ko construction has been given analyses that assume a construction-specific mechanism (e.g. Yoon 1993, 1994, 1997; Chung 2001, 2005). This paper presents several empirical arguments against these analyses, and develops a compositional analysis. The main point of this paper is that the temporal interpretation of the –ko construction can be accounted for in terms of an independently motivated principle regarding the effect of Aktionsart and discourse context on temporal interpretations. Given that Aktionsart and discourse context also govern the temporal interpretation of Korean simple sentences in discourse, I conclude that no construction-specific mechanism is required for the temporal interpretation of the –ko construction.