• Language and Information
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2006

We can distinguish two different groups of 'fusion expressions' depending on whether the verb (-ko) ha- 'do' can be recovered from the contracted expression concerned or not: recoverable and unrecoverable fusion expressions. Many expressions belonging to the former group show alternations between the [da]-type and the [dae]-type: e.g., o-nta-nta and o-ntae-nta '...says... is coming.' On the other hand, some expressions like ka-ntae can only be realized as the [dae]-type. The main purpose of this paper is to account for these [dae]-type expressions. First, we assume that they have an inaudible/invisible quotation $verb\;{\phi}-$, which takes as its complement a verb phrase with a neutral speech-level ending. This quotation verb is derived from the quotation verb ha-. Second, we assume that the quotation $verbs\;{\phi}-$ and ha- have the [j] sound as their stem-final element, which means that these verbs are actually represented as ${\phi}-j-$ and ha-j-, respectively. In this system, the [tae]-type expressions come out naturally from the behavior of the [j] sound. We do not employ any ad hoc phonological rules to derive the [dae]-type expressions from the corresponding [da]-type expressions.