On the novel type of subjunctive complementizer in Korean

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the novel types of subjunctive complementizer nka in Korean. Among the two types of interrogative complementizer variants of the ordinary interrogative complementizer ci and the modalized interrogative complementizer nka, we argue that nka is a lexicalized form of the epistemic subjunctive mood exponent appearing in subordinator C. Specifically, we show that the semantic function of nka creates epistemic weakening in subjective doxastic space and expresses speaker/subject’s epistemic uncertainty on the embedded question. Our claim will be further supported by corpus study by comparing different types of predicates selecting nka and/or ci. The theoretical implication of current study is two-folds: First, in Korean, interrogative can be another prerequisite of subjunctivity. Second, for the analysis of interrogative subjunctive, the inquisitive-based theory is untenable but nonveridicality can provide the general theory.