' - 구 - ' 계열 어미와 확인법

Abstract

The objective of this essay is to explore the morphological and functional properties of the `-ku-`class endings with reference to evidentiality. These endings often occur in colloquial discourse and are presented as the marker of effective communication models. The term, `-ku-` class endings, has been introduced in Ko(1989), and includes `-kuna`, `-kun`, `-kuman`, and `-kuly◎`. In the previous studies, it has been proposed that the `-ku-` class endings mark the exclamation according to differing levels of honorification in the order of `-kuna`, `-kum◎n`, and `-kuly◎`. And `-kun` is a free variant. It is argued here, however, that there usage is determined not by the level of honorification but by the speaker`s awareness of the addressee in the ascending order of `-kun`, `-kum◎n`, `-kuna`, and `-kuly◎`. The `-ku-` class endings have functions of speaker-orientedness and evidentiality. The speaker-orientedness function gives little illocutionary force to the statement, and thus mitigates the burdens of the hearer. The `-ku-` class endings mark evidentiality in Korean. Evidentiality is a cross-linguistic"category of epistemic encoding that the speaker has certain evidence for a proposition. The `-ku-` class endings carry such evidentiality function as a immediate evidentials, suggesting the speaker`s first hand conformation of the proposition concerned. The evidentiality function has little informative powers, which makes it possible for the speaker to use it when speaking to him /herself. This function also minimizes the cost of the hearer. These functions satisfy the politeness principle, and makes `-ku-` class endings an appropriate marker of effective communication models.