Ambiguities in the Korean -KO ISSTA Imperfective Construction * Jong-Bok Kim (Kyung Hee University) Kim, Jong-Bok. 2011. Ambiguities in the Korean -KO ISSTA Imperfective Construction. Korean Journal of Linguistics, 36-4, 863-885. Of the imperfective constructions in Korean, the -KO ISSTA construction is used to represent a progressive state, but the complexities arise from limited cases where the construction induces a resultant state reading. In this paper, we suggest that licensing conditions for the progressive and resultant state reading of the construction are closely related to interactions among the three perspectives of aspect: lexical, grammatical, and phrasal properties of the eventuality in question. These properties also lead us to posit different syntactic structures for each of the two possible readings. (Kyung Hee University) Key words: imperfective, progressive, resultant, eventuality, lexical aspect, grammatical aspect, culmination point 1. Introduction In representing a progressive imperfective aspect, the language employs the -ko marked main verb followed by the copula-type verb iss-ta (cf. Martin 1992, Sohn 1999, among others): (1) a. Mia-ka uyca-ey anc-ko iss-ta. (P-state) Mia-NOM chair-at sit-CONN be-DECL `Mia is sitting on the chair.' b. Mia-ka chaky-ul ilk-ko iss-ta. (P-state) Mia-NOM book-ACC read-CONN be-DECL `Mia is reading a book.' * Part of this earlier version was presented at the Workshop on the Representation of Time in Asian Languages., Oct 26 ~ Oct 28, 2011, at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. I thank the audiences there for questions and comments. My thank also goes to anonymous reviewers of this journal for helpful comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies.