earticle

영어

This paper investigates verb-object idioms in Korean and their impact on the theory of verb structure. Two novel findings are presented from the results of this study. First, examining the patterns of psych idioms in Korean, I propose that Experiencers are not introduced by Voice. Instead, I suggest that Experiencers are internal arguments, based on the inalienable relationship exhibited by the body part Theme and its Possessor, which is commonly entailed in psych idioms. Second, I offer new evidence that the domain of verb-object idioms cannot exceed the first verbalizing phrase. In deriving this conclusion, I make use of Jung(2024)’s classification of verbs suffixed with -eci into two types: root-selecting and verb-selecting. I then demonstrate that only the former class of -eci verbs form an idiom with a Theme argument. The failure of verb-selecting -eci to participate in idiom formation reveals that the domain of idiosyncratic expressions must be restricted to the first verbalizing layer.