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영어

This paper discusses the double constructions of the subject-case markers in Korean. In doing so, this paper reviews previous hypotheses and theories on this topic by introducing three major hypotheses on them. The main research questions of this paper include: 1) What are the grammatical functions of the subject-case markers in children’s earlier language development? 2) What are the developmental orders and phases of Korean subject-case markers? and 3) What is the most typical syntactic forms of Korean subject-case markers? Having discussed those major hypotheses, this paper argues for the hypothesis that the structure of ‘NP1(focus) + NP2(real subject)’ might be an original type of the double constructions of the subject-case markers. To support this argument, this paper investigates the real speech examples of two young children by analyzing their oral utterances involving subject–case markers. The discussion of this paper will shed some lights on the understanding of the double constructions of the subject-case markers in Korean and in other languages.