Expressing prediction and epistemicity with Korean -(u)l kes-i and Mandarin Chinese hui

摘要

Due to the non-factual nature of futurity, there is an ongoing ambiguity between modality and futurity. The same ambiguity persists in Korean -(u)l kes-i and Mandarin Chinese hui that both express an estimation of the likelihood that the state of affairs will be realized in the world, involving the speaker's conjecture. A conjecture can be a statement expressing a prediction about what might happen or an epistemic assumption that draws a conclusion about the past and current course of events. This paper aims to show that -(u)l kes-i can express both prediction and epistemicity whereas the use of hui is limited to prediction. The present paper argues that -(u)l kes-i encodes the reasoning process which can be reversible from cause to consequence and consequence to cause, whereas hui encodes linkage between events in a forward direction whereby cause precedes consequence.