Korean causal markers ‑ese and ‑nikka in clause-initial and final positions in relation to the sequence of Mandarin Chinese yinwei

Abstract

Abstract Korean causal markers ‑ese, ‑nikka and Mandarin Chinese yinwei are used most widely in their respective languages to denote causality. Due to the syntactic structure of the adjunct-preceding-main order in both languages, ‑ese and ‑nikka are considered to be clause-initial connectives. However, in both languages, because-clauses also occur frequently in final position. By examining the behavioral patterns of ‑ese and ‑nikka in clause-initial and -final positions in relation to the sequence of yinwei through the original Korean texts translated to Mandarin Chinese and the Korean texts translated from the original Mandarin Chinese texts, this paper aims to show: (1) ese-tokens correspond more to the preposed yinwei and other Mandarin Chinese result causal markers that strengthen the “cause-consequence” construction, as ‑ese mainly expresses forward logical reasoning, whereas nikka-tokens correspond more to the postposed yinwei, as ‑nikka expresses epistemic inference and elaboration; (2) these logical relations are more explicitly expressed by ‑ese and ‑nikka, whereas Mandarin Chinese relies more on zero-marking when expressing a strong sense of sequential logic or an utterance of elaboration.