Functional and Semantic Attribution of the Future Tense Grammatical Markers in The Korean Language

Abstract

The article discusses functional and semantic status of Future Tense grammatical markers of the Korean language. Despite the fact that discussions on this issue have been going on for more than a dozen years, still among researchers, there is no consensus on how many grammemes make up the category of Tense in Korean, whether it contains an independent Future Tense grammeme, and if so, which markers should be relevant to it. Due to the relevance of the problem, the authors aim to give a brief overview of the opinions on the issue, dividing them into two groups - asserting the presence of the Future Tense grammeme in Korean or denying it, as well as to justify personal position on the status of grammatical markers with prospective semantics. As research material, various Korean grammar researches and Korean grammar (connective and finite endings and constructions with - (으)ㄹ Korean Future Tense participle marker) are used. The result of the study shows that Korean Tense category has no specific Future Tense forms as opposed to the Present and Past Tense forms. All markers with prospective semantics are modal, which means that the Futurum category in Korean implements itself in the functional and semantic field of modality rather than temporality. Authors argue statement that -(으)ㄹ 것이다 Korean construction has the ability to act as neutral non-modal Future Tense marker. According to the point of view of a systemically oriented approach to the grammatical units analysis, presented in the article, the conclusion about Korean -(으)ㄹ 것이다s modal status is made.