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Three uses of the Korean ending “-tani”

  • Korean Semantics
  • 2020, 69(), pp.219-251
  • DOI : 10.19033/sks.2020.9.69.219
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Semantics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : August 20, 2020
  • Accepted : September 14, 2020
  • Published : September 30, 2020

Kang Kyu-Young 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper shows that there are three different uses of the Korean ending “-tani”; as an exclamative ending, as an echo question ending, and as a rhetorical question ending. These can be distinguished from one another in three ways. First, they are grammaticalized from different reported speech constructions. Second, different kinds of endings and particles can be used with each usage. Finally, unlike the exclamative or rhetorical question usage, as an echo question ending, it does not guarantee the factuality of the proposition—alternatively, the speaker of –tani echo questions requires more information about the prior utterance before they can judge whether the proposition is true or not. Furthermore, while -tani has been suggested as a mirative marker, it expresses different kinds of mirative meanings according to its type. The exclamative and rhetorical question uses express a range of mirative meanings, such as counterexpectation or new information. The echo question ending use, however, only expresses the speaker’s unprepared mind towards the prior utterance.

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