Cross linguistically, verbs denoting existence have been one of the most fertile sources for the development of grammatical markers (e.g., English "be"). Throughout the history of the Korean language as well, the existential verb is(i)-ta has grammaticalized in association with diverse linguistic structures, engendering twelve different grammatical markers, which include locative particles, clausal connectives, aspectual markers, and subject markers. Analyzing corpus data from the 15th C to the present day (2.5 million words), this study investigates the morphosyntactic reduction and semantic reanalysis involved in the multiple grammaticalization of the Korean existential verb, with special focus on the roles of discourse context and frequency.; In grammaticalization, it has been commonly observed across languages that similar source items result in similar grammatical markers. In this situation, metaphoric extension, or cognitive leap, has emerged as an important explanatory tool, which can account for these universal paths of language change, independent of language specifics.; By analyzing statistical information and rich documentation of gradual language change, however, this study demonstrates that changes in grammaticalization are made possible in "local" discourse contexts in which invited inferences are gradually semanticized through frequent use (Traugott & Dasher, 2002). Furthermore, this study offers new explanations for those universal language changes that were previously explained using metaphor. Such universal paths in language change were made possible not because the source concept abstractly triggered the target concept in the abstract, but because human speakers make similar inferences from the use of the source item in similar contexts (cf. Bybee 2001).; In conclusion, this study attempts to demonstrate the importance of situating language changes in actual language use, thereby explaining these changes in terms of both cognitive and communicative mechanisms.
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