Abstract
This paper provides a semantic analysis of the discourse particle -yo in Korean. I show that despite the apparent similarities between -yo and the so-called speech level particles, the two do not form a natural class. I argue instead that -yo is an honorific item used in a variety of syntactic and semantic contexts with the purpose of expressing the speaker’s politeness towards the addressee. I further show that -yo qualifies as an expressive and propose an analysis in terms of ‘expressive’. The analysis is developed based on the interaction between -yo and other honorific expressions.
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