Evidentiality in Korean

AbstractThis chapter investigates the grammatical phenomenon of evidentiality in Korean. While referring to the diverse proposals on Korean evidentiality, it is proposed that the Korean evidential system consists of three grammatically and semantically distinct subclasses: perceptual, quotative/reported, and inferential, each of which has two or more member evidentials. The three subclasses are syntagmatically related, occurring in the order of inferential, perceptual, and quotative/reported. As inflectional suffixes, all evidentials occur optionally in pre-final or final slots in predicate constructions. It is also proposed that Korean evidentials are distinguished from TAM suffixes; when they occur together in predicate constructions, evidentials are always preceded by TAM elements. A further proposal is that all Korean evidentials have developed from non-evidential suffixes, phrases, or bi-clausal constructions via subjectification in grammaticalization.