LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS 14.6:1035-1074, 2013 2013-0-014-006-000309-1 Aspectual Properties of the Korean Imperfective Constructions * Jong-Bok Kim Kyung Hee University Korean employs two types of imperfective constructions: the resultant state -A ISSTA construction and the progressive -KO ISSTA construction. Consensus has not yet been reached on the licensing conditions of these two constructions. A further complication arises from the fact that in limited cases the -KO ISSTA construction also licenses a resultant state. In this paper, we suggest that these complexities arise from the subtle properties of eventualities (in particular, achievements) and further from the tight interactions among the three perspectives of aspect: lexical, grammatical, and phasal properties of the eventuality in question. Key words: aspect, eventualities, imperfective, phase, progressive, resultant 1. Introduction In representing imperfective aspect, Korean employs two periphrastic constructions, -KO ISSTA and -A ISSTA constructions as exemplified in (1). (See also e.g. Ahn 1995, H. Lee 1991, Chung 2007, E. Lee 2008, M. Kim 2009, and J. Kim 2011a & 2011b.) 1 * An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Workshop on the Representation of Time in Asian Languages, October 26-28, 2011, at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Thanks go to the audience in the workshop for questions and discussion. I owe many thanks to Peter Sells and Suying Hsiao for detailed comments and feedback. My thanks also go to Jae-Woong Choe, Incheol Choi, Sey-Youn Cho, Jungsoo Kim, Min-joo Kim, Okgi Kim, Taeho Kim, Hyunwoo Lee, Nam-Guen Lee, Yaeshiek Lee, and Chongwon Park for discussion and suggestions. Anonymous reviewers also deserve my deep thanks for the constructive comments and suggestions, which helped reshape the paper in a much better way. Of course, all misunderstandings and short- comings of the paper are solely mine. 1 The -te aru form in Japanese covers both of the Korean aspectual constructions, though it is rather controversial what triggers the distinction between the progressive and the resultative reading. See Kudo (1995), Ogihara (1998), Shirai (2000) for discussion.