Interpretation of Relative Tenses in Korean Time Adverbials
Jae-Hak Yoon · The Knowledge Bank (The Ohio State University) · 1996
Korean is a relative tense language in the sense that the -tense may inherit its l.ocus from a point other than the moment of speech.For instance in a complement clause, the same form Mary-ka ttena-ess in (I) -(3) refers to different times depending on the clause into which it is embedded: it refers to some.time in the past prior to the time of John's feeling in (I), some time in the past in (2), and some time in the future in (3): 1 • (I) John-un Mary-ka ttena-ess-tako nukki-ess-ta.John-Top Mary-Norn leave-Compl-Comp feel-Compl-Dec 'John felt that Mary had left ..' (2) John-un Mary-ka ttena-ess-tako nukki-nun-ta.John-Top Mary-Norn leave-Compl-Comp feel-Incom-Dec 'JohnJeels that Mary left/has left.' (3) John-un nayil Mary-ka ttena-ess-tako nukki-keyss-ta.John-Top tomorrow Mary-Norn leave-Compl-Comp feel-Fut-Dec 'John will feel tomorrow that Mary has left.' ' I wish to thank Craige Roberts for many valuable comments that have shaped this paper in a large part.Also I thank