Object Honorification in Korean Verbs

Abstract

This thesis investigates the morphosyntactic mechanism behind the realization of the honorification of direct and indirect objects on verbs in Korean. Unlike subject honorifics, object-honorific verbs do not have a designated inflectional affix for honorification, and the honorific objects are not in a position that c-commands the verb. I propose a syntactic agreement operation on the phase-defining Voice head that establishes the configuration for object honorification in transitive verbs as well as the unaccusative verbs for ‘be’ and ‘die’. I apply this proposal to all three types of verb constructions that can express object honorifics: simple (non-serial) verbs, ‘see’-compounds, and ‘give’-compounds. I also propose contextual conditions for the insertion of object-honorific verbs different from those of subject-honorific verbs. Finally, I briefly explore alternative ways to interpret object honorification compositionally.