earticle

영어

Modern Korean has four adnominal forms: '-(u)l', '-(u)n', '-nun' and '-ten'. The aim of this paper is to clarify the functional meanings of four adnominal forms. The conclusions we have reached are as follows: (1) '-(u)l', '-(u)n', '-nun' are the adnominal forms which consist of one morpheme. Whereas '-ten' is adnominal forms which consists of two morphemes: '-te-' and '-(u)n'. (2) '-te-' is the pre-final ending and belongs to a category of mode. It has the function that shows 'evidentiality' related to events or states of propositions what the speaker realizes. '-te-' is marked form of the evidential mode. When it does not appear, the epistemic mode which has the function that shows speaker's judgements about the events or states of propositions is shown. So the epistemic mode is unmarked in modern Korean. (3) '-te-' has a function to switch a scene. Therefore, the scene which a verb or an adjective combined with '-te-' shows is different from a scene at the time of the utterance by all means. (4) We consider the adnominal endings to prescribe domains. “The domains” that we speak here are the place where a speaker recognizes description contents (propositions). '-nun' has the function to show the domain handling realized events surely, whereas '-(u)n' has the function to show the domain to treat events that were already realized. '-nun' and '-(u)n' are similar to show 'realis'. However '-(u)l' has the function to treat events that are not yet realized and to do not understand whether they were realized in, so '-(u)l' is different from '-nun' and '-(u)n' in its point to show 'irrealis'.