Cover not available

Article In: Journal of Historical Pragmatics: Online-First Articles

Functional affinity between conjunction and disjunction

Historical crossover from ‘and’ to ‘or’ in Korean

ORCiD logo with link | Claremont McKenna College
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
Using diachronic and synchronic corpus data and employing the theoretical approach of grammaticalisation, this study examines the unique crossover of the Korean connective ttonun from conjunction to disjunction. Ttonun, consisting of tto (‘also’) and topic marker nun, initially denoted ‘also’ and ‘and’ but became ‘or’ in the early twentieth century. This study proposes that ttonun denoting ‘also’ collocated with disjunctive connectives and conjectural questions, which list possibilities and possible examples, to enhance their connection. Frequent use in these collocations led the change of ttonun from conjunctive to disjunctive. The study also explores affinities between conjunction and disjunction in Korean, and extends previous discussions on their lack of differentiation. Lastly, the study examines possible influence from Japanese on the change in question during the colonial period.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Grammaticalisation
    • 2.2Previous studies
  • 3.Early conjunctive use of ttonun
  • 4.Frequency changes in the use of ttonun
  • 5.Transition: Collocations with disjunctives and conjectural questions
    • 5.1Precedent cases with tto (‘also’)
    • 5.2Collocation of ttonun with disjunctives
      • 5.2.1Presenting possibilities and possible examples
      • 5.2.2Quotative and disjunctive
      • 5.2.3Conjunctive ‘or’
    • 5.3Collocation of ttonun with conjectural questions
  • 6.Affinity between conjunction and disjunction
  • 7.Further discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (36)
References
Ariel, Mira and Caterina Mauri. 2018. “Why Use Or?” Linguistics 56 (5): 939–993. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “An ‘Alternative’ Core for Or”. Journal of Pragmatics 1491: 40–59. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2025. “‘Or’ Cycles”. In Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Richard Waltereit (eds), Cyclic Change in Grammar and Discourse, 220–246. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bardenstein, Ruti and Mira Ariel. 2024. “From Location to Conjunction, Disjunction, Partition, Exemplification and Association: Hebrew Bein Constructions”. Linguistics 621: 1301–1338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berk, Lynn M. 1999. English Syntax: From Word to Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowler, Margit. 2014. “Conjunction and Disjunction in a Language without ‘And’”. In Todd Snider, Sarah D’Antonio and Mia Weigand (eds), Proceedings of the 24th Semantics and Linguistic Theory Conference, 137–155. New York. 30 May to 1 June 2014. Linguistic Society of America.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro. 2013. Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidson, Kathryn. 2013. “‘And’ or ‘Or’: General Use Coordination in ASL”. Semantics and Pragmatics 61: 1–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1977. Text and Context: Explorations in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Discourse. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giacalone Ramat, Anna and Caterina Mauri. 2011. “The Grammaticalization of Coordinating Interclausal Connectives”. In Heiko Narrog and Bernd Heine (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization, 656–667. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gil, David. 1991. “Aristotle Goes to Arizona and Finds a Language without ‘and’”. In Dietmar Zaefferer (ed.), Semantic Universals and Universal Semantics, 96–130. Berlin: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1989. Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd, Ulrike Claudi and Friederike Hünnemeyer. 1991. Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. 1991. “On Some Principles of Grammaticalization”. In Elizabeth C. Traugott and Bernd Heine (eds), Approaches to Grammaticalization, 17–35. (Volume 11.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. and Elizabeth C. Traugott. 2003 (1993). Grammaticalization. (Second edition.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horn, Laurence R. 1972. On the Semantic Properties of the Logical Operators in English. (Unpublished PhD thesis.) Los Angeles, California: University of California Los Angeles.
Jennings, Ray E. 1994. The Genealogy of Disjunction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kamp, Hans. 1973. “Free Choice Permission”. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 741: 57–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Minju. 2015. “From Choice to Counter-Expectation: Semantic-Pragmatic Connections of the Korean Disjunctive, Concessive, and Scalar Focus Particle -na”. Journal of Pragmatics 801: 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “The Story of Two Connectives: Korean Tunci ‘Or’ and Kena ‘Or’”. Discourse Studies 23 (4): 497–518. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog and Seongha Rhee. 2019. World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. (Second edition.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Long, Haiping, Bo Hong, Feng Gu and Xiaoping Xiao. 2012. Translations of World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Beijing: Beijing World Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Samuel. 1992. A Reference Grammar of Korean. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. Coordination Relations in the Languages of Europe and Beyond. (Volume 421.) Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mithun, Marianne. 1988. “The Grammaticization of Coordination”. In John Haiman and Sandra A. Thompson (eds), Clause Combining in Grammar and Discourse, 331–359. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko and Bernd Heine. 2021. Grammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ohori, Toshio. 2004. “Coordination in Mentales”. In Martin Haspelmath (ed.), Coordinating Constructions, 41–66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Posner, Roland. 1980. “Semantics and Pragmatics of Sentence Connectives in Natural Language”. In John Searle, Ferenc Kiefer and Manfred Bierwisch (eds), Pragmatics and Speech Act Theory, 87–122. Dordrecht: Reidel. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rhee, Seongha. 1996. Semantics of Verbs and Grammaticalization: The Development in Korean from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Seoul: Hankwuk Mwunhwasa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah. 1986. “Functions of And in Discourse”. Journal of Pragmatics 10 (1): 41–66. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C. and Robert B. Dasher. 2002. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C. and Ekkehard König. 1991. “The Semantics-Pragmatics of Grammaticalization Revisited”. In Elizabeth C. Traugott and Bernd Heine (eds), Approaches to Grammaticalization, 189–218. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Treis, Yvonne. 2000. “NP Coordination in Khwe (Central Khoisan)”. AAP (Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere) 631: 63–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue