Japanese/Korean Linguistics

This paper investigates resultative constructions with intransitive verbs in Korean. It presents novel empirical evidence that unergative and unaccusative resultatives differ in the distribution of result predicates, as shown by their divergent behavior with respect to fronting, right dislocation, and omission. This paper argues that both unergative and unaccusative resultatives involve a small clause as the result clause, yet are best analyzed as having distinct internal structures. The asymmetry is attributed to the presence or absence of a null subject in the small clause: unergative resultatives contain an overt subject, whereas unaccusative resultatives contain a null subject. This study refines the typology of Korean small clauses by providing novel empirical evidence from intransitive resultatives and, on the theoretical side, lends support to cyclic Spell-out and the linearization of small clauses.