Abstract
A Comparative study of English and Korean Generics
: Focused on Noun Phrases
Moon, Hye-Young
Department of English
Language and Lite...
Abstract
A Comparative study of English and Korean Generics
: Focused on Noun Phrases
Moon, Hye-Young
Department of English
Language and Literature
Graduate School
Chon-buk University
In this thesis, I deal with the genericity in English and Korean common nouns. Genericity refers to a kind of general property or a regularity with particular episode or facts. We call these sentences generic sentences or characterizing sentences. In generic sentences, noun phrases and verb phrases are two major sources of generic meaning. Noun phrases are interpreted kind-referring and object-referring. Generic NPs(noun phrases) refer to kind-referring NPs. Most countable nouns in English have ambiguity of meaning because of determiner. But, English mass nouns are uncountable, so they are regarded as kind-referring NPs. This is similar to Korean common nouns. That is, Korean common nouns and English mass nouns seem to share common features and this means Korean common nouns themselves are kind-referring. So I examine this difference in this thesis.
In the first chapter, I point out the difference between English common nouns and Korean ones. In second, I examine previous studies on generics. In chapter three, I will argue that noun phrases should be considered concept ahead of dividing the meaning of noun phrases into kinds and objects in generic sentences. That is the reason that Korean common nouns are different from English in terms of a determinerless language. Unlike English, Korean common nouns mean a kind in singular form. If Korean common nouns are numeralized, they need a numeral classifier. Obviously, this reveals the meaning of noun phrases as a kind or an object. This raises a significant question for 'concept' of generic noun phrases.
With this distinguishable characteristic, I propose Korean common nouns refer a concept or a kind like English mass nouns and this characteristic makes a sentence generic. I also propose this argument, focusing on bare plural forms in Korean and English common nouns and the topic/focus position of noun phrases.
key words : generic expressions, concept, kind-referring
，韩语毕业论文，韩语毕业论文 |
