Grammaticalization in Korean: The Evolution of the Existential Verb

Cross-linguistically, verbs denoting existence have been one of the most fertile sources for the development of grammatical markers (eg, English 'be'). In the history of the Korean language as well, the verb is(i)- (the old form of iss-) has participated in the emergence of eleven different grammatical markers, including past tense/anterior -ess-, progressive -ko iss-, resultative -e iss-, connectives -ese 'and,' 'since,' -kose 'and,' and -myense 'while,' subject marker -kkeyse and four locative particles ('at,' 'from'). This book analyzes diachronic and synchronic corpus data of Korean, and investigates the multiple developmental pathways of the Korean existential verb is(i)- with cross-linguistic perspectives. This is the first book on Korean grammaticalization written in English.