A Note on the Structure of Korean Spatial Phrases

Abstract

This paper seeks to establish the structure of spatial phrases with -ey or -eyse in Korean. The data dealt with in this paper are mainly locative and directional PPs which have the combined expression of a place-denoting word and a suffix -ey or -eyse. The paper lays out in detail their syntactic characteristics, discusses 'decategorization' of the group of place words in line with grammaticalization, and finally presents the full-fledged structure of spatial PPs in Korean. The layered structural architecture of spatial phrases will be developed on the two discussion grounds: one is the synchronic analysis of the data relevant to genitive case marking and distribution of adjectival and adverbial modifiers; and the other is the diachronic consideration in terms of grammaticalization.