Morpho-semantic Problems of Generics in English and Korean

Abstract

Kwak, Eun-Joo. 2003. Morpho-semantic Problems of Generics in English and Korean. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 28-4, 547-570. Genericity and plurality have been considered major issues in semantics on independent grounds and not frequently combined in a single topic. However, a few studies on the relations between these two areas show that generic interpretations in English are affected by the number of a generic term. Based on this, I move to Korean generics and observe that singular NPs are easily construed as kind-referring expressions. To account for the opposite preferences of English and Korean kind terms, I adopt the ambiguity of plural terms, namely 'sum' and 'group' readings, and show that the number specification of kind and group terms is checked in different levels in English and Korean. (Sejong University)