Types of Sentence-final ‘-tako’ and Reported Evidentiality
Sookhee Chae · Studies in Linguistics · 2019
This paper aims to identify reported evidentials among various types of "-tako"s that occur in sentence final position in spoken Korean. "-Tako"s have been treated as sentence final endings and can be classified into five types: "emphasis", "negative assertion", "verification of wrong prediction", "confirmative question", and "repeated answer". Careful examination reveals that only those of "emphasis" and "confirmative question" are sentence final endings of which grammaticalization has completed. In the aspect of reported evidentiality, "-tako"s that function as "emphasis" are not reported evidentials because they do not convey the meaning of speech report. "-Tako"s of "confirmative question" can be divided into two types according to source of information: one from the hearer"s speech and the other from the third person"s speech. Of these two types, "-tako"s that are used to verify information from the third person are identified as sentence final endings that convey the meaning of speech report. In conclusion, "-tako"s that are qualified as reported evidentials are of "confirmative question" whose source comes from the third person.