Chapter 8. On the development of discourse markers from elliptical structures

Abstract

Korean has a group of DMs that developed from sentential fragments through ellipsis (EDMs), i.e., those that were morpho-syntactically incapable of standing alone. They carry diverse functions across discourse domains. In particular, they tend to mark the speaker’s affect, and this development is largely due to their lexical and structural characteristics. A diachronic analysis shows that their development is closely tied to semantic generalization, scope extension, and movement to non-licensed positions. The functions of EDMs are often correlated with their characteristic prosody rather than with their forms. All EDMs involve either deictic expressions or interrogatives which are related to indexicality and vagueness that play a significant role in the development of EDM functions.