Abstract This paper investigates the syncretism exhibited by the Korean verbal suffix - eci . In addition to its widely known appearance in the passive construction, - eci can also be used to derive verbs expressing potentiality. In this paper, I show that two independently motivated theoretical tools — (i) the articulated verbal structure with root, verbalizer, and Voice; and (ii) the assumption that morphological identity signifies the morpheme's realization of an identical syntactic head — accurately explain the passive-potential syncretism in Korean. Specifically, I argue that - eci realizes a syntactic head that the passive and potential structures have in common: v GO , the verbalizer marking the eventuality of ‘change’. I attribute the systematic morpho-syntactic and semantic contrasts between passives and potentials to the (non)existence of Voice PASS , the projection introducing an implicit external argument. The analysis successfully captures the properties of the other constructions formed upon - eci — namely, derived change-of-state and lexical inchoative predicates.
Hyun Kyoung Jung (Fri,) studied this question.
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