Genericity and Topicality: Towards Dynamic Genericity

Chungmin Lee 한국언어과학회 2011 언어과학 Vol.18 No.1

This paper argues that typical generic sentences are topic constructions crosslinguistically, supporting Lee's 1996 initial claim, but argues against Cohen et al's 2002 claim that focused bare plurals are interpreted existentially. Contrastive Topic and Contrastive Focus can apply to either generic or anti-generic/existential phrases. Therefore, contrastively focused bare plurals can be generic, not necessarily existential. PL-marking and NumCl-marking in Korean and Japanese are anti-generic (existential) and distributive in nature, interacting with information structure. Generic sentences are about generic DPs, which function as Topics as semantic definites such as a bare singular common noun with a Topic marker in Korean (a 'definitional' generic, Krifka 2009), bare plurals (or indefinite singular) in English, and definites in French, typically combined with individual-level predicates of characterizing or kind-referring nature, as in (1) Say-nun nal-n-ta 'Birds fly.' An existential sentence in Korean, on the other hand, has a NOM marker in the subject DP and is PL(ural)-marked, followed by a stage-level predicate, as in (2) Say-ka/-tul-i nal-a ka-ko iss-ta 'Birds are flying,' as opposed to the atemporal PRES predicate in (1). Focus-sensitive cases such as Even mammals lay eggs and cec-mek-i-tongmul-to al-ul nah-a (???cec-mek- i-tongmul-un al-ul nah-a) will be discussed and dynamic genericity is proposed to meet from context to context changes and existential-like generic situations

CF-reduplication in English : Dynamic Prototypes & Contrastive Focus Effects

Myounghyoun Song,Chungmin Lee 한국언어학회 2014 언어 Vol.39 No.4

Song, Myounghyoun & Lee, Chungmin. 2014. CF-reduplication in English: Dynamic Prototypes and Contrasive Focus Effects. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 39-4, 797-818. CF-reduplications refer to three different levels of a category: the prototype of a category, the subcategories in a category or a category itself. The CF-marked modifier receives the intension of a base word and produces a contingently determined denotation of CF-reduplications, on the basis of dynamic prototypes in the minds of speakers. The Contrastive Focus exhaustively selects the denotation of the CF-reduplications out of immediately relevant alternatives given in the discourse with the exclusive implication that only the denotation of the reduplicated expression is intended by speakers. CF-reduplications semantically have dynamically changing denotations and pragmatically facilitate the communication between speakers with contrastive focus effects. (Seoul National University)

상위언어적 부정의 SN 담화표지

최윤희(Choi Yoonhee),이정민(Lee Chungmin) 담화·인지언어학회 2008 담화와 인지 Vol.15 No.2

In this paper we will examine some previous studies of the PA/SN distinction and show different discourse expressions in Korean that function as SN in dialogal spoken discourse, highlighting 'kulenikka as a dialogal SN discourse marker. As C. Lee (2005) argued, PA and SN in Korean are expressed, respectively, by the connective' -ciman' and '-anird'. H. Lee (2005b) added here '-nuntey' and '-ko'. We also observed the different forms '-na', '-to', '-myenseto' for PA and '-yo' for SN. However, we found that H Lee's (2005b) SN marker '-ko' also shows PA function when correlated with CT. This means that the PA-CT and SN-CF correlations can be a crucial guideline in distinguishing PA/SN (C. Lee 2005). It is generally believed that an SN discourse marker cannot be used in dialogal discourse while PA can. We found that these have interpersonal, social causes: To refute the other's argument in his/her presence is regarded as insolent and causes him/her to lose his/her face. For this reason many languages including Korean don't have single word dialogal SN discourse markers. Lastly, we evidently argued that 'kulenikka', originally a causal connective, is adjusted and extended and now functions as a dialogal SN discourse marker in spoken dialogue.

Teaching a Foreign Literature : A Theoretical Review

Lee, Chungmin 서울大學校 語學硏究所 1975 應用 言語學 Vol.7 No.1

Compositionality Reconsidered: With Special Reference to Cognition

Lee, Chungmin Korean Society for Language and Information 2012 언어와 정보 Vol.16 No.2

The issues of compositionality, materialized ever since Frege (1982), are critically re-examined in language first mainly and then in all other possible representational systems such as thoughts, concept combination, computing, gesture, music, and animal cognition. The notion is regarded as necessary and suggested as neurologically correlated in humans, even if a weakened version is applicable because of non-articulated constituents and contextuality. Compositionality is crucially involved in all linguistically or non-linguistically meaningful expressions, dealing with at-issue content, default content, and even not-at-issue meanings such as implicatures and presuppositions in discourse. It is a constantly guiding principle to show the relation between representation and mind, still posing tantalizing research issues.

The Semantics of Amu N-to/-ilato/-ina in Korean: Arbitrary Choice and Concession

( Chungmin Lee ),( Seungho Nam ),( Daeho Chung ) 한국언어정보학회 2000 언어와 정보 Vol.4 No.2

This paper reports the syntactic distribution of amu-N-to/-ilato/-ina phrases, which are representative polarity sensitive intems (PSIs) in Korean, and accounts for their semantic characteristics in terms of “arbitrary choice quantification” and “concession.” In the first section, we extensively illustrate the distributional behavior of the PSIs in various constructions and roughly generalize the distribution in terms of “(anti/non-) verdicality.” Section 2 claims amu denotes an arbitrary choice quantifier, and the particles -to//ilato/-ina as “Concessive” markers, so the compounds denote a special element in a pragmatic scale determined by context/situation. Section 3, based on the pragmatics of scalar implicature, accounts for the apparent ambiguity of PSIs between “universal” and “existential” readings, and further characterizes the difference among the concessive markers -to/-ilato/-ina in terms of “quantity/quality scale.”

Factivity Alternation of the Verb ‘Know’ in Korean, Turkish and Hungarian

Chungmin Lee,Daeho Chung 현대문법학회 2018 현대문법연구 Vol.100 No.-

Chungmin Lee and Daeho Chung. 2018. Factivity Alternation of the Verb ‘Know’ in Korean, Turkish and Hungarian. Studies in Modern Grammar 100, 1-40. The cognitive attitude verb KNOW in most languages typically selects for a factive complement (Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1970). It is noted in the literature (Lee 1978, 1999; Kiefer 1978, Őzyildiz 2017, a.o.), however, that KNOW in some languages may take various forms of complements and that factivity varies depending on the complement types. An obvious generalization made is that nominalized complements tend to convey a factive reading, while non-nominal ones tend not to (Kastner 2015). This work makes it clear that for a clause selected by KNOW to have a factive reading, it not only bears a nominal feature but also carries a structural case. This paper additionally points out the following three issues and discusses their theoretical implications as to the syntax and semantics of attitudinal predicate constructions: (i)Cognitive attitude verbs may simultaneously take a nominalized clause and a predicational clause; (ii) The non-factive KNOW in the three languages commonly displays neg-raising and naturally anti-rogativity, siding with doxastic (belief) verbs; (iii) Lexically negated forms of these verbs select only for a nominalized (factive) clause.

Changes in the pattern and disease burden of acute viral respiratory infections before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Chungmin Park,Donghan Lee,Bryan Inho Kim,Sujin Park,Gyehee Lee,Sangwoo Tak 질병관리본부 2022 Osong Public Health and Research Persptectives Vol.13 No.3

Objectives: We conducted a comparative analysis of the differences in the incidence of 8 acute respiratory viruses and the changes in their patterns before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Methods: Three sentinel surveillance systems of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency and data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service were analyzed. The average numbers of reported cases and the related hospital admissions and outpatient data were compared between April 2018–2019 and 2020–2021. Changes in the disease burden and medical expenditures between these 2 time periods were evaluated.Results: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of reported cases of all acute viral respiratory infections, except for human bocavirus, decreased significantly. Data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service also showed decreases in the actual amount of medical service usage and a marked reduction in medical expenditures.Conclusion: Non-pharmacological interventions in response to COVID-19 showed preventive effects on the transmission of other respiratory viruses, as well as COVID-19. Although COVID-19 had a tremendous impact on society as a whole, with high social costs, there were also positive effects, such as a reduction in the incidence of acute viral respiratory infections.

Aspects of Aspect in Korean

Chungmin Lee 한국언어학회 1982 언어 Vol.7 No.2

Factivity Alternation of Attitude ‘know’ in Korean, Mongolian, Uyghur, Manchu, Azeri, etc. and Content Clausal Nominals

( Chungmin Lee ) 서울대학교 인지과학연구소 2019 Journal of Cognitive Science Vol.20 No.4

It was discovered in the literature (Lee 1978, 1999; Kiefer 1978, Őzyildiz 2017, Lee 2017) that the epistemic attitude report ‘know’ in Korean, Turkish, and Hungarian reveal factivity alternation and this rare phenomenon has been recently investigated also in such Altaic languages as Mongolian, Uyghur, Manchurian, and Azerbaijan, as first reported here. The attitude report ‘know’ in most languages so far known typically selects for a factive complement (Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1970, Hintikka 1975 a.o.). One generalization made is that nominalized complements tend to convey a factive reading, while non-nominal ones tend not to (Kastner 2015, Moulton 2015 a.o.). This work demonstrates that for a clause selected by a cognitive epistemic attitude verb to have a factive reading, it bears a nominal (D) feature with a structural case, whereas a clause for a non-factive reading, it does not, in alternation languages and possibly beyond. This work shows that a nominalized clause with the internal type ‘pro-fact’ noun -(u)n kes in Korean (and in Japanese as well with koto), witness-based, is factively presupposed by itself and contradicted if predicated by negated veracious adjectives in a veridicality test. It is embedded also by a doxastic verb such as mit- ‘believe.’ The non-factive alternants of ‘know’ in all the languages logically belong to the doxastic category of ‘believe’, though with implication of evidential justification in distinction with the real ‘believe,’ undergoing neg-raising, revealing their anti-rogativity. Thus, more weight is given to complements typing than to attitude reports typing.