Aspect and syntax of bare nouns

( Kyumin¸ Kim ) 한국외국어대학교 언어연구소 2022 언어와 언어학 Vol.- No.96

This paper examines the syntax of bare nouns in the aspectual domain with respect to event telicity by investigating the properties of bare nouns in Mandarin and Korean. These languages are considered as bare noun languages, but the syntax of bare nouns in the aspectual context has not been explained. The paper shows that unlike English in these languages a specified quantity meaning of a bare noun object does not play a major role in determining event telicity. It is further shown that bare nouns in these languages do not share the same aspectual structure despite their similar semantics. The paper proposes that the quantity meaning of a bare noun is grammatically represented in Korean as NumP, but not in Mandarin. The consequence of this paper supports the current view in which bare nouns are not structurally so bare. It also provides a novel account for the aspectual differences of bare nouns in these languages, which has not been previously discussed.

Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep in Cancer Patients Can Mediate the Effect of Fear of Progression on Insomnia

Insoo Kim,Kikyoung Yi,이주희,Kyumin Kim,Soyoung Youn,서수연,Jiyeon Kim,Jung mun choi,정석훈 대한수면학회 2019 sleep medicine research Vol.10 No.2

Sleep Med Res > Volume 10(2); 2019 > Article Original Article Sleep Medicine Research (SMR) 2019; 10(2): 83-89. Published online: Dec 31, 2019 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17241/smr.2019.00451 Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep in Cancer Patients Can Mediate the Effect of Fear of Progression on Insomnia Insoo Kim, MD1, Kikyoung Yi, MD2, Joohee Lee, MD1, Kyumin Kim, MD1, Soyoung Youn, MD1, Sooyeon Suh, PhD3, Jiyeon Kim, PhD4, Jung Mun Choi, BA1, Seockhoon Chung, MD, PhD1 1Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea 2Department of Psychiatry, Yongin Mental Health, Yongin, Korea 3Department of Psychology, Sungshin Women’s University, Seoul, Korea 4Department of Art Therapy, Hanyang Cyber University, Seoul, Korea Correspondence: Seockhoon Chung, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 86 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-gu, Seoul 05505, Korea, Tel +82-2-3010-3411, Fax +82-2-485-8381, E-mail schung@amc.seoul.kr Received Oct 21, 2019 Revised Nov 1, 2019 Accepted Nov 5, 2019 Copyright© 2019 The Korean Society of Sleep Medicine Abstract Background and Objective The role of the dysfunctional belief about sleep is important for the development of insomnia among cancer patients. This study intended to investigate whether dysfunctional belief about sleep mediates the relationship between fear of progression and insomnia in cancer patients. Methods Three hundred and thirty-seven cancer patients participated in our study. Dysfunctional belief about sleep, severity of insomnia, depression, fear of progression, and anxiety were measured using the following questionnaires: Cancer-related Dysfunctional Beliefs about Sleep (C-DBS); Insomnia Severity Index (ISI); Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9); Fear of Progression (FoP); and the state subcategory of State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Path analysis was used to clarify the relationships among the variables. Since C-DBS consists of two items, i.e., Q1-immune & Q2-recurrence, we implemented an additional path analysis including these variables separately. Results C-DBS mediated the effect of FoP (β = 0.36, p < 0.001) and patient sex (β = 0.13, p = 0.009) on ISI. PHQ-9 (β = 0.32, p < 0.001) and STAI (β = -0.09, p = 0.071) had a direct influence on ISI scores. In our second path analysis, Q1-immune item mediated the effect of FoP (β = 0.19, p < 0.001) on ISI, and Q2-recurrence item mediated the effect of FoP (β = 0.23, p < 0.001) and patient sex (β = 0.09, p = 0.019) on ISI. Conclusions Our path analysis model indicated that C-DBS mediates the effect of FoP and patient sex on ISI. Our second path analysis results suggested that there could be an internal process of Q1 and Q2 item. Efforts to reduce dysfunctional beliefs should be considered as well as management of fear of progression for better sleep of cancer patients.

Quantifying Events : A Case Study of Verbal Classifiers

Kim, Kyumin 한국중앙영어영문학회 2018 영어영문학연구 Vol.60 No.4

One of well known ways to quantify an event is via quantifying an object in the assumption that the quantification force of an object can be transferred to an event. Unlike this common means to quantify an event, there is another way to contribute to event quantification with a verbal classifier. A verbal classifier consists of a classifier and a numeral and it quantifies an event denoted by the VP, similar to a nominal classifier that quantifies a noun. This paper examines a verbal classifier in Mandarin in comparison to a similar type of adverbial in English, Russian, and Finnish. It is shown that verbal classifiers in Mandarin are also a means to quantify an event like adverbials in those languages. However, this paper shows that verbal classifiers in Mandarin have interesting differences from the adverbials in those languages. For example, unlike Russian or Finnish, verbal classifiers in Mandarin are not (accusative) case marked. Moreover, unlike those languages, verbal classifiers in Mandarin are associated with a particular type of an event, namely semelfactives. This paper provides evidence that verbal classifiers in Mandarin are associated with the countability of semelfactives. The consequence of this paper suggests that semlefactives can be viewed as an independent class of an event, which is not a common assumption in the literature.

Event Modifying Adverbials and Scope

Kyumin Kim 한국중원언어학회 2019 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.50

This paper compares event modifying duration or frequency adverbials in Korean and Mandarin. Although those event modifying adverbials in the two languages share similar meaning, their forms are not identical. Those in Korean surface as nominal forms which can be either nominative or accusative case marked, while those in Mandarin appear as verbal classifiers preceded by numerals. Verbal classifiers have different forms and the presence of a different form of a verbal classifier depends on the even type that it modifies. This paper proposes that despite being in different forms duration or frequency adverbials in the two languages share a similar relation to the event that they modify: each of the different forms is associated with a different scopal relation to the event. This paper also briefly compares the type of adverbials in Korean and Mandarin to similar adverbials in meaning in other languages such as Russian or Finnish. It is shown that cross-linguistically there is no one-to-one relation between a form of event modifying adverbial and the role of the adverbial with respect to the event that it modifies.

Mass Quantifier much in English and Quantifier dian in Chinese

Kim, Kyumin 한국중앙영어영문학회 2018 영어영문학연구 Vol.60 No.1

Much in English is identified to be a mass quantifier in that it has a mass structure. In a recent study in nominal domains (Borer (2005), a functional head, namely Div(ided), has been proposed; Div head takes a noun in its complement, and makes the noun a countable object. For example, in English, Div is realized as plural morpheme -s: without -s a noun cannot be counted as in *three cat (cf. three cat-s). Quantifier much is mass as it is not compatible with a plural marker -s that realizes Div head (e.g., *much cat-s or *much water-s). Rather, it can appear with a noun in a non-countable context where a plural maker -s is absent, as in much cat or much water. In Chinese, there is a quantifier dian that appears to be similar to much in English in its distribution. This paper examines the distribution of dian, and proposes a potential structure of the quantifier similar to that of much in English: Like much, dian does not have a functional projection of DivP, and has a NP complement that denotes mass meaning. This paper also compares dian to another quantifier, xie, in the language, known to have a similar meaning to dian. As this paper shows, dian cannot be treated in the same way as xie, as it lacks DivP.

A Preliminary Look at Event Telicity in Classifier Languages with Comparison to English

Kyumin Kim 한국중원언어학회 2020 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.54

An event denoted by the VP can be either telic having an endpoint or atelic without having an endpoint. In English, a telic event emerges when the quantity of an object of the verb is known, in contrast to an atelic event, which emerges when the quantity of an object of the verb is unknown, e.g., eat three apples vs. eat apples. This paper investigates whether telicity of an event in two classifier languages – Korean and Mandarin – shows a similar pattern to English. Unlike English, an object in these languages is quantified via a numeral classifier, which may predict that a telic event in the classifier languages is associated with a numeral classifier object. Contrary to the prediction, however, this paper reveals that in both classifier languages an event with a numeral classifier object shows no absolute telic interpretation being interpreted as either telic or atelic. Consequently, previous syntactic analysis proposed for the telicity in English cannot account for the facts regarding telicity in these classifier languages.

Sargachromenol derived from Sargassum horneri inhibit glutamate-induced oxidative stress in neuronal HT22 Cells

Kyumin Kim,Seon-Heui Cha 한국수산과학회 양식분과 2023 한국수산과학회 양식분과 학술대회 Vol.2023 No.6

Non-aspectual Case and Duration/Frequency Adverbials in Korean

Kyumin Kim 서울대학교 언어교육원 2018 語學硏究 Vol.54 No.2

Across languages, certain types of adverbials, such as duration and frequency adverbials, have been identified as being accusative case-marked just like objects. As case is canonically assigned to nominal arguments such as objects, central questions have been whether the case on these adverbials is syntactic like that on objects, and how to characterize the realization of accusative case on adverbials. In addressing these questions, this paper proposes that accusative case on adverbials is syntactic. In particular, what this paper newly proposes is that accusative case is not aspectual, and thus not licensed by an aspectual functional head (e.g., Asp), unlike in some previous studies of Korean and other languages. This paper provides a minimalist syntactic analysis in which accusative case is the result of an Agree relation between an adverbial and a functional head that introduces an external argument. In the course of executing this analysis, the paper clarifies the contribution of animacy and agency to the realization of accusative case.

Typology of Quantifiers and the Mass/Count Distinction

Kyumin Kim 서울대학교 언어교육원 2017 語學硏究 Vol.53 No.3

In a recent approach to the internal structure of nominals, all nouns across languages are proposed to be mass, and thus need to be portioned out (i.e., divided) in order to interact with the count system(Borer 2005): in syntax, division is performed via a Div(ided) head that takes mass noun as a complement, and Div is proposed to be instantiated by an English-type plural -s or a Chinese-type classifier. Once division is performed on a mass, the divided noun can be counted via a numeral that appears in a quantifying phrase (#P) projected above DivP. Assuming Borer (2005), this paper examines the morpheme xie ‘some’ in Chinese, and proposes that it is a non-counting quantifier instantiating a # head that takes DivP as its complement. The proposed account has consequences for the typology of quantifiers and the ongoing debate on the mass/count distinction: division does not necessarily force a counting function, and the mass/count distinction, if it exists at all, is a structural one, not a lexical one.

Spatial PPs in Blackfoot

Kyumin Kim 한국중원언어학회 2017 언어학연구 Vol.0 No.42

Spatial PPs have been the subject of studies on numerous languages, and various analyses have been proposed in different theoretical frameworks. This paper examines the distribution of spatial PPs - direction and locative - in Blackfoot, an endangered Algonquian language spoken in Southern Alberta and Northwestern Montana. The goal of this paper is to provide the description of spatial PPs in this language different from other well studied languages. Blakfoot has a set of prefixes, a linker and a non-linker, identical to a spatial P in English. It is shown that a direction P has a simplex structure in that it does not embed a locative PP, contrary to a well-known cross-linguistic generalization. Also, this paper discusses consequences of having a simplex direction PP with respect to motion verbs, thus contributing to the documentation of spatial PPs and their interaction with motion verbs in Blackfoot, on which data are scarce and to which less attention has been given in the literature. As such, the result of this paper will be instrumental to the understanding of cross-linguistic variation of spatial PPs.