Argument structure of eventive nominals in Korean

This on-going research builds on the findings of my first qualifying paper, which I defended in Spring 2022, under the supervision of Ivy Sichel. There is a robust set of Sino-Korean eventive roots that have a nominal distribution, satisfy all descriptive generalizations of AS-nominal classification (Grimshaw 1990, Borer 2003) and lack any morphological residue that could indicate verbal origin. Given that these eventive roots are able to license both internal and external arguments, this work suggests that argument structure (AS) can be present without a verb, and provides some exploratory direction for how AS could/should be represented in a syntactic model. These Korean nominals suggest that the ability to realize arguments is not inherently domain-specific, pointing us toward functional structure that is not inherently restricted to verbal syntax.

Processing argument (mis)alignment in nominal constructions

I recently defended my second qualifying paper in December 2023, under the supervision of Matt Wagers. This study investigated the processing of (mis)aligned thematic arguments in Korean nominal constructions, to probe the nature of prominence alignment processing advantages within nominal constructions, and how the animacy of an initial argument effects reading times of a nominal predicate in online comprehension. It does not seem to be the case from our results that animacy of an early element in the beginning of a nominal construction facilitates any processing advantage in the following regions. Slow downs in the spillover region post-predicate for constructions with an overt animate argument suggest a cost of identifying and integrating an implicit internal argument as possibly asymmetrically more difficult than identifying and integrating an implicit external argument.