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This paper investigates the verbal inflections in the aspectual field in the clause. Under Chomsky’s lexicalist-minimalist account, the tense and agreement verbal inflection is believed to be syntactically autonomous. In a similar vein, other verbal inflections like aspectual and passive forms are also treated as independent functional head. In the case of complex auxiliary constructions, the verbal inflection of auxiliary verbs consistently determines their distribution and position in the varied constructions including existential constructions, VP ellipsis, and clauses with floating quantifiers or a certain class of adverbs. Usually, a specific type of auxiliary verb does not condition its distribution and position. All the nonfinite forms of auxiliary verbs do not behave in a uniform manner. More division of the aspectual field may be a viable option on the basis of irrefutable differences between the -en form been and the -ing form being in their distribution in relation to adverbs and the possibility of ellipsis.

이 논문은 중세⋅근대 국어 계사 구문 연구의 쟁점과 연구 성과에 대해 논의한 것이다. 첫째, 계사 ‘이’의 문법적 범주 규정에 대한 논의를 살펴보았는데, 특히 이현희(1991, 1994), 한재영(1996)에서 ‘서술격조사’로 규정한 것에 대해 중세 국어 명사문의 특징을 토대로 자세히 논의하였다. 둘째 계사 ‘이’의 기원형에 대해 이기문(1972), 김정대(2005)를 중심으로 후행하는 어미들의 교체 현상을 토대로 살펴보았다. 셋째 ‘이다’와 밀접한 관련성을 맺는 ‘아니다’에 대해 부정의 관점에서 논의하였다. 중세 국어에서부터 이미 용언으로 재구조화된 ‘아니다’를 부사 ‘안’이 후행하는 ‘이다’를 수식하는, 소위 단형 부정으로 분석할 수 없다는 것을 확인하였다. 넷째 외형적으로 명확히 확인이 가능한 계사 구문과 연계된 통사적 관점의 구문, ‘무주어문, 분열문’에 대한 연구 성과를 주로 살펴보고 다만 의미적 관점의 구문으로는 주요 중세⋅근대 국어 계사 구문 연구에서 반복적으로 제시된 ‘소유 구문, 존재 구문’에 대해 살펴보았다. 다섯째 계사 선행 요소로 의존명사나 연결어미 형태가 올 수 있음을 제시하였는데, 이는 중세⋅근대 국어에서 일반적으로 나타나는 현상으로 중세⋅근대 국어에서도 계사에 다양한 부류가 선행하는 것을 확인하였다. 여섯째 ‘이다’에 후행하는 형태에 대해 ‘이다’ 활용형으로 볼지, 아니면 조사로 볼지에 대해서는 두 부류의 논의가 있음을 보이고 통일해서 단일하게 처리해야 한다는 부류와 일정한 기준으로 분류해야 한다는 부류로 나누어 소개하였다.

The purpose of this study is to examine the issues and research performances on the copular construction in the Middle and Modern Korean. First, the grammatical category establishment of ‘이’ is examined, in particular, the grammatical status of ‘이’ as the predicative case marker is discussed from the characteristics of the NP-sentence in Middle Korean. Second, the prototype of copula is investigated focused on the alternation of ‘이’ following endings. Third, ‘아니다’ which had been reconstructed as predicates from Middle Korean cannot be analysed as ‘안+이다’(short negation form of ‘이다’). Fourth, the research performances of constructions related with the copular construction in the Middle and Modern Korean are examined such as subjectless sentence, cleft construction from the syntax and possessive construction, existential construction from the semantics. Fifth, ‘이’ preceding elements such as dependence noun or connecting ending in the Middle and Modern Korean are demonstrated. Sixth, two viewpoints on the category of ‘이’ following elements, (i) ‘이’ conjugated forms or (ii) grammaticalized particle are exhibited.

It is well known that the existential there construction (ETC) exhibits seemingly idiosyncratic properties with respect to number-agreement and definiteness. Contrary to the views of traditional and previous generative grammars, we have found that is/was and ‘s can agree with singular and plural NPs immediately following the verb in the ETC and that the NPs can be definite or indefinite. To handle this, we claim that the use of definiteness in the ETC is pragmatically governed by the speaker’s assumption that the listener can infer the referent of the definite NP from context. Meanwhile, the sociolinguistic analysis of number-agreement suggests that the singular is/was are increasingly used to co-occur with plural NPs in spoken English and the contracted form ‘s functions as a number-neutral variant. These observations demonstrate how the ETC reflects both pragmatic reasoning and sociolinguistic changes in English usage. We implement these ideas above into a construction-based grammar: the generating system of the ETC governing (in)definite NPs and the lexicon allowing is/was to agree with plural NPs. This theory enables us to account for the peculiar properties of the ETC without positing additional rules.

이 연구의 목적은 there 존재구문의 논리 주어인 후치 명사구(post verbal NP)의 담화 기능을 주제 진행의 측면에서 제시하는 것이다. there 구문의 의미상의 주어는 정보성 위주의 설명에서는 관찰되지 않았던 담화 기능을 수행하는데, 이는 논리 주어의 정보성이나 단순한 의미 해석에 의존하는 것이 아니라 담화 흐름과 주제 응집성에 따라 그 기능을 달리한다는 것을 의미한다. 이 접근 방식은 학교 문법에서 there 구문의 의미 해석보다는 논리 주어가 후행 담화에서는 어떤 명사구로 연결되어 나타나는지를 명확히 설명하는 계기를 제공해 줄 것이다. 따라서 이 논문에서는 담화의 기본이 되는 문장과 나아가서는 담화를 구성하는 요소의 정보성, 그 요소와 선, 후행 발화와의 관련성, 그리고 화자와 청자의 상호 관계 등 담화에 관여한 모든 요소들을 고려하여 결정해야 한다는 담화 전개의 관점을 통해 there 존재구문에 나타난 후치 명사구의 담화 기능이 ‘주제 도입’임을 제시한다.

This study aims to reanalysis discourse functions of English existential there constructions, which are called marked sentence types, with the focus on topic development.’ It is argued that the discourse function of the postverbal NP (henceforth PVNP) of there constructions is ‘topic introduction.’ I have examined the discourse functions considering not only the common grammaticality of PVNPs but also the more detailed aspects such as the informational status, location of discourse,discourse processing and connections of the PVNPs in there constructions. In ‘topic development,’the topic is introduced by types of definite NPs and indefinite NPs. It candinues as formed co-referential NP, deletion and anaphoric expressions, and when the different topical elements are introduced in discourse, then topic re-identification occurs. Also, the topics are realized as forming a ‘topic coherence chain.’ Based on these assumptions, I have proposed the discourse functions of PVNPs for there existential constructions The findings of this study suggest that discourse functions in English marked constructions apply not only to the word expressions of natural language in general but also to their discourse coherence, topic-chain and discourse topic management. Furthermore, topic-chain, it is helpful for students (readers) to identify pronouns, referring expressions in the discourse and to give logical thinking for the effective writings.

Park, Kee-Tae. “The Semantic-Pragmatic Analysis in the Existential There-Construction: focused on the Specificity Effect.” Studies in English Language & Literature 41.3 (2015): 135-152. There are some issues on inconsistent phenomena between practical language use and grammatical theory within the existential there-construction in English. Therefore, in this study, the aim is to point out the unsettled issues of "the definiteness effect" claiming that all associate NPs must be as indefinite expressions in many studies so far, and to prove that, as an alternative to settle down the issues, the theoretical adequacy of "the specificity effect" in Enç(1991) is more acceptable than that of the definiteness effect within the existential there-construction in English. In various comments, it has been broadly known that the definiteness effect prevents definite expressions from being as associate NPs after the predicative verb. In order to review several previous issues with the above remark from semantic-pragmatic perspectives, the fact that the definiteness effect may have the pragmatic nature will be discussed. With respect to this point, introducing “the specificity effect” which is counter to the definiteness effect, I discuss that all associate NPs must be interpreted as new information regardless of their definiteness. Thereby, I also discuss that the definite associates are reinterpreted, which is an inherent function different from that of the indefinite associates. In other words, the definite associates have the dual meanings (the dual functions) at the time of utterance. Thus, as one way to settle down the previous issues suggested in the existential construction with the definiteness effect, the role of "the specificity effect" must be very important to prove its theoretical pragmatic adequacy in the existential there-construction which asserts the existence of the postverbal entity of NP. (Konyang University)

This paper proposes that in addition to the typical “out-of-the-blue” existential construction, a kind of contextualized existential construction exists in Mandarin Chinese. This form does not exhibit the predicate restriction observed in typical existential constructions cross-linguistically. It is argued that this type of existential construction involves a topic-comment structure and functions as a subtype of the Existential Coda Construction discussed by Zhang (2007, 2008). The current analysis also explains the apparent lack of a definiteness restriction for specific Mandarin Chinese existential constructions.

This study examines the developmental patterns of existential constructions in the interlanguage of Korean learners of English. Grounded in typological contrasts between topic-prominent and subject-prominent languages, the research investigates how Korean learners’ L1 influences their use of existential structures and how proficiency mediates this process. Ninety-six Korean university students were assigned to lower-, middle-, and upper-proficiency groups, and 20 English native speakers as a control group. Data were collected through a writing task and a discourse completion task. Quantitative analysis revealed that lower-proficiency learners predominantly relied on topic-comment and “have” type constructions, reflecting strong L1 transfer. In contrast, upper-proficiency learners demonstrated a higher frequency of target-like existential sentences, approaching native speaker patterns. Chi-square analyses confirmed significant associations between proficiency level and sentence type selection. The findings underscore the gradual acquisition of existential constructions and the enduring impact of L1 information structure. Pedagogical implications highlight the need for explicit instruction addressing both form and discourse-pragmatic functions of existential constructions.

There have been three main proposals regarding to the structure of the English existential construction: small clause, bare-NP, and ternary analysis. Each has some merits in accounting for its syntactic properties, but at the same time leaves out certain empirical issues unaccounted for. This paper critically reviews these three previous analyses and offers a hybrid analysis that allows both the bare NP as well as small clause structure for the construction. We sketch this hybrid analysis within a Construction Grammar perspective.

This study investigates Korean EFL learners’ awareness and use of the English existential there-construction by examining data collected from 54 Korean EFL learners of English by means of a pragmalinguistic judgment task and a controlled discourse completion task. The results of the judgment task reveal that lower proficiency learners rated canonical sentences and existentials with a preposed locative best in the communicative situations where the use of existentials would have been most appropriate. A comparison of the ratings by more proficient learners and native speakers shows that existentials received highest ratings by both groups where they are the most natural option, while canonical sentences received significantly higher ratings by the learners. With regard to the production data, learners tended to avoid existentials, but rather relied on canonical sentences. Existentials were rarely used by lower proficiency learners and not used productively even by more proficient learners in the situations where existentials would have been the most natural option. These results suggest that Korean learners’ difficulty with the use of existentials is not merely a product of performance limitations, but attributable to limited knowledge about existentials and their syntactic alternatives in terms of contextual appropriateness. Lower proficiency learners lack such knowledge, and more proficient learners, while showing better awareness of the use of existentials, have problems as to the placement of new information when engaging in writing tasks that place lower level of demands on attention to the information status of noun phrases compared to communicative, oral tasks.

This paper explores the formal and functional aspects of the existential there-construction (ETC) in L2 argumentative writings, focusing on the interaction with L2 proficiency. An analysis of NS and NNS written texts has revealed that the NNS produced the ETC much more frequently than the NS, possibly utilizing it as a hedge marker to render their statements less direct and more tentative. The post-modifiers of the notional subject progressed from clausal to phrasal structures, conforming to the prediction of developmental trajectory of L2 written grammar. The patterns of definiteness and animacy of the notional subject in L2 as compared to L1 texts indicate that the acquisition of subtle semantic and pragmatic features interacting with the ETC is not an easy task and requires a sufficient level of L2 proficiency. Future research with a larger corpus should complement the findings of the current study.

The main idea of this paper is that a completed A-movement does not feed any further movement. The apparent A-movement-fed A'-movement is an independent operation separate from the A-movement. This means that an element that is to move for A-related reasons should undergo the movement in question at the point where its A'-movement is executed. If an element A'-moves without the A-movement that otherwise is carried out in parallel, there is no chance for it to undergo A-movement with the relevant cycle closed. When a subject wh-element is ready to A'-move to the relevant Spec-C, while Spec-INFL is occupied by another stranger, the entire derivation will be crashed with its Case-shift (in this case, to Spec-INFL) blocked, though the subject wh-element can move to Spec-C. We will see in this paper that existential there-constructions with wh-subject provide typical examples of such a case.

构式演变过程中语义因素起着决定性的作用。“为动”、“使动”、“与动”、“工具”等所谓的双宾结构脱离了双宾构式的原型义，表义明晰性的要求使构式将它们从结构中压制出去；存在句语义比较单一，表义丰富性的要求使构式将一些非宾格动词、非作格动词及及物动词吸纳进构式里边来。表达明晰性和丰富性的平衡点是构式的原型义。

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본고는 존현구문과 소유자-대상구문이 구문문법에서의 구문이라는 가정 아래, 구문문법이론의 상속연결을 통해 존현구문과 소유자-대상구문의 관계에 대해 고찰하였다. 다수의 연구에서 소유자-대상구문을 존현구문의 확장으로 보고 있다. 그러나 본고에서 살펴본 바와 같이 존현구문과 소유자-대상구문은 통사적으로 구분된다. 또한 소유자-대상구문은 존현구문에 비해 제약성이 더 크다. 하지만 이 두 구문은 의미적으로 서로 연결되어 있음을 볼 수 있었다. 따라서 본고는 존현구문과 소유자-대상구문이 각각 하나의 구문이지만 서로 상속관계를 가지는 것으로 보는 것이 타당하다고 본다. 두 구문이 상속관계를 가지는 것으로 이해하면 두 구문의 통사적 차이, 의미적 관련성, 그리고 소유자-대상구문이 존현구문에 비해 더 큰 제약성을 가지는 이유를 체계적으로 설명할 수 있다.

A lot of studies claim that ‘possessor-subject possessee-object’ construction is based on existential construction, in other words, ‘possessor-subject possessee-object’ construction is an extension of existential construction. Both constructions are obviously associated in the meaning. But there is a formal difference between existential construction and ‘possessor-subject possessee-object’ construction. And ‘possessor-subject possessee-object’ construction has more constraint than existential construction. Therefore, we say that existential construction and ‘possessor-subject possessee-object’ construction are different construction, and these constructions are related by inheritance links. We can easily explain syntactic, semantic difference between both constructions through inheritance links of constructions. Also, we can account for the reason that ‘possessor-subject possessee-object’ construction has more constraints than existential construction.

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The existential construction consists of a verb and issta, where the verb is a complement of issta. Previous studies have proposed several conditions on the complement verb: i) It describes a telic situation, ii) it has a result state reading, iii) it describes an achievement situation, or iv) it is not a transitive verb. However, the studies face three types of problematic data. One is the construction where the complement verb describes an existential state that is neither telic, a result state, nor an achievement. The other is the construction that has a transitive verb. The third type is a new type of data, the construction where the complement of issta is a serial verb construction. A serial verb construction has a complex argument structure and a complex event structure. The present study proposes a lexical approach where the lexical semantics, argument structure and event structure of the existential verb issta play key roles. And the study shows that this approach can not only account for problematic data for the previous studies, but it can also explain the existential construction of serial verbs. A big advantage of this approach is that it doesn’t require any grammatical conditions other than the lexical properties of the existential verb.

In this paper, we discussed two problems. First problem is that we regard the dynamic existential construction which implies dynamic state as the existential construction which implies static state, what does it make possible? First mechanism is the construction coercion. The construction coerces dynamic state of dynamic existential construction and strengthen the meaning of existential construction which is that there is something in a place. Second mechanism is the summary scanning. We cognize the dynamic existential construction as static scene through summary scanning. Second problem is that both constructions, static existential construction and dynamic existential construction, are same or not. We claim that there is an inheritance relation between these constructions. They are parts of existential construction's category, but they are also each individual constructions. They form their own categories, and they have extended structures internally. We can account for how are these constructions connected by understanding them based on inheritance links. Also, we can grasp static existential construction and dynamic existential construction multidirectionally.

This paper explored the semantic analyses of the predicates in existential constructions, in particular the analyses of existential verbs’ internal stages in event structures. The non self-sufficiency of verbs’ meaning is a prevailing phenomenon in languages, which could be proven by the action meaning of verbs and the existential meaning of the integration with participating elements in existential constructions in Chinese. Therefore, this paper used ‘V-zhe’ as the predicates in existential constructions, and analyzed the existential verbs via the six stages of event process by Lakoff & Johnson (1999), which could not only reduce the deviation of the predicates in constructions, but also purify the analyses of the predicates. Grammar was introduced to the event analyses, and shared similar holism with constructive grammar. The main investigation of this paper can be divided into three parts, and the main results are shown below:Firstly, the interactions between the semantic construction and event process of ‘V-zhe’ were analyzed. Lakoff and Johnson (1999) claimed that a complete event should include preparing stage, initial stage, middle stage, final stage, and ending stage or resulting state. We believe that in the internal stages of event constructions, ‘V-zhe’ belongs to the middle stage/process, whether it is active or static. In fact, the differentiation of active or static depends on the meaning of the verb. Action verbs are mostly continuous. The continuity of the verb and the double internal construction of the ‘zhe’ represented the continuity and process of the event, which is the continuity of resulting states and behavioral actions and the integration of participating elements (the realization of expressing the existential meaning and existential ways). Second, in order to clarify the classification, verbs were divided as transitive and intransitive. Intransitive verbs include ‘posture verbs’, ‘movement verbs’, and ‘non-movement verbs’; transitive verbs include ‘placement verbs’, ‘accomplishment verbs’, ‘food-processing verbs’, ‘holding verbs’, ‘dressing verbs’, ‘purposefully acting verbs’, and ‘growing verbs’. They all have common forming and semantic characteristics. In the stages of observing events, it is inevitably compared to ‘V-le’. It can be concluded that ‘V-le’ is the predicate of statement while ‘V-zhe’ is the predicate of descriptive. If they both represent the continuity of completing actions, they are interchangeable in static existential constructions. However, by observing the internal stages of events, there exist causal relationship and implying relationship between them. The existence of the sequential continuity in the time continuum, probably because certain action leads to certain results. For example, ‘someone put a book on the table’ caused there is a book on the table.’ The latter is the result of the former, and also implies the continuity of the event. Third, because the focus on the semantic analysis, this paper adopted a simple view of the ‘V-zhe’ principle in the static existential construction (also known as agent deletion principle). Existential construction describes the continuity of completing actions and spatial state of event processes, and hence there is no agent in the sentence. Even if there is an agent, it can be viewed as the subject of existential state rather than the agent of the action verbs.

One of the most common verbs in Spanish is HABER that use different ways from the other Spanish verbs in various aspects. One peculiarity of the existential verb HABER is that it has a unique conjugated form (in the 3 singular) HAY (the present tense conjugation of the verb HABER) that means both "there is" and "there are." Compared with other Spanish verbs (existential), the verb HABER only uses the morpheme Y in the present. Like the existential construction in French, the verb HABER does not agree with the Associate. According to Hornstein, Rosen & Uriagereka (1994), in these constructions exist the semantic ambiguity. However, the constructions with the verb ESTAR in Spanish do not show this ambiguity. The purpose of this paper is to descriptively analyze the typical properties of sentences with the verb HABER, and to suggest a revised analysis of the constructions mentioned. In this study, I propose that the existential verb HABER and the copula SER are derived from the same construction. And I suppose that the difference between the verb HABER and the copula SER lies in the properties of the Predicate. In the concrete, the existential verb HABER contains the process of the incorporation (of the morpheme Y) to the head Cop(ula).

In this paper, we discussed the relationship between the existential construction and its related constructions based on the concept of construction in the construction grammar. There are some problems with the traditional view about existential sentence. The main cause of these problems is the different ways in which they are defined. Some people are trying to apprehend the existential sentence based on the meaning of ‘existence’, some people place the form above the meaning. But this problem does not arise if we try to apprehend it based on construction grammar. The construction is a set of form and meaning, we can distinguish existential construction and non-existential construction by formal sameness and relations of meaning. We discussed that the existential construction and its related constructions -VP+NP construction, NL+NP construction, NP+Vi+NP construction, and PP+VP+NP construction- are different. If we regard these as separate constructions, their individual characteristics can be fully understood. In addition, we can capture the relationship which exists between these through construction inheritance.