Futuristic Questions in our Thinking: The Case of Apprehensionals in Korean

Abstract

Korean has a large inventory of apprehen- sionals, the grammatical markers of fear. This study analyzes six apprehensionals that developed from Future and Question, i.e., -lkka, -lkkapwa(se), -lkkamwusewe(se), -lkkatwulyewe(se), -lkkamolla(se), and -lkkasiphe(se), all involving the future marker -l and the question marker -kka. Lexical forms serving the grammaticalization source constructions are the verbs of perception, cognition and emotion, e.g. po- ‘see’, mwusep- ‘be afraid’, twulyep- 'be afraid', molu- ‘not know’, and siph- ‘think’. It is particularly intriguing that there is no logical necessity that the notions such as ‘future’, ‘question’, ‘thinking’, ‘not knowing’, etc. should engender the notion of fear. This strongly suggests that the emergence of the 'fear'-meaning is the result of interaction among the source components, i.e., indeterminacy from the future, lack of confidence from the question, and self-oriented contemplation from the cogitation, among others. In this respect the development exhibits ‘subjectification’ of meaning.