The Morphosyntax of Jejuan –ko Clause Linkages

Abstract

While clause linkage is a relatively understudied area within Koreanic linguistics, the Korean <italic>–ko</italic> clause linkage has been studied more extensively. Authors have deemed it interesting since depending on the successive/non-successive interpretation of its events, a <italic>–ko</italic> clause linkage exhibits all or no properties of what is traditionally known as coordination or subordination. Jejuan <italic>–ko</italic> clauses may look fairly similar to Korean on the surface, and exhibit a similar lack of semantic specification. This study shows that the traditional, dichotomous coordination-subordination opposition is not applicable to Jejuan <italic>–ko</italic> clauses. I propose that instead of applying a<italic>-priori</italic> categories to the exploration of clause linkage in Koreanic varieties, one should apply a multidimensional model that lets patterns emerge in an inductive way.