earticle

영어

This paper discusses the basic valence (or valency) orientation issue in Korean, based on crosslinguistic data proposed by Nichols et al. (2004). The study of Nichols et al. (2004) presents the basic valence of the basic verbs (animate and inanimate verbs) of the sample languages and classifies them into transitivizing, neutral, detransitivizing, indeterminate languages. This present study investigates the types of Korean basic valence and compares them with the Japanese result shown in the study of Nichols et al. (2004) while discussing issues in the Indo-European languages. According to the criteria proposed by Nichols et al. (2004), Korean basic valence orientation is transitivizing and detransitivizing for the animate and inanimate verbs, respectively, which is different from those of Japanese (transitivizing and none). This study argues that although Korean and Japanese are often classified into the same genetic affiliation and taken either one for language sample, at a closer look at the data, the two languages should be investigated respectively, especially in the study field with the language-specific concept.