The intersection of the perfective and imperfective domains: A corpus-based study of the grammaticalization of Korean aspectual markers

Using diachronic corpus data, this article examines the grammaticalization of three Korean aspectual markers, progressive ‑ko iss‑, resultative ‑e iss‑, and anterior ‑ess‑. It demonstrates that the three Korean aspectual markers emerged from the same source ‑e is(i)‑, which in the 15th C expressed both resultative and progressive meanings. This finding goes against Bybee, Perkins, and Pagliuca’s (1994) proposition that perfective and imperfective markers follow separate grammaticalization paths. In addition, the finding confirms that Shirai’s (1998) proposal about the murky distinction between perfective and imperfective domains also holds true in the diachronic development of aspectual markers.