Auxiliary Verbs as Head-adjoined Expressives in Korean: Against the Aspectual Approach

We examine the nature of the second verb (V2) in auxiliary verb constructions in Korean, in which one clause with two verbs denotes a single event. Arguing against the previous analyses that treat the V2 as an Aspect head, we propose that the V2 is head-adjoined to the v of the first verb (V1) and marks the speaker’s commitment toward the event described in the sentence.