Korean Evidential -te- Inference from Direct Evidence

Abstract

Korean evidential marker -te- introduces difference presuppositions depending on the presence or absence of tense markers. When there is no overt tense, it may introduce the presupposition that the speaker’s assertion is based on her direct perceptive evidence when it is used without any overt tense (direct evidential presupposition). However, when used with other tense markers, it introduces the presupposition that the speaker’s assertion is based on inference from her direct perception of some eventuality (inferential evidential presupposition). Furthermore, without any tense marker, the proposition embedded under the scope of -te- may refer to the eventuality which occurred before the utterance time. To solve this puzzle, I propose that -te- always introduce the inferential evidential presupposition, and the direct evidential presupposition is a special instance of the inferential evidential presupposition based on tautological reasoning. I also propose that -te- introduces a salient time interval t before the utterance time, and explain the past reading triggered by -te- with the absence of tense markers by making the additional assumption that when there is no overt tense is used a covert anaphoric tense is inserted instead.