Japanese/Korean Linguistics

This paper investigates the sentence-final -ki in Korean, focusing on its distribution and interpretation in the root context. Although -ki has been standardly treated as a nominalizer, its distribution in both embedded and root clauses calls for a deeper analysis beyond its role as a nominalizer. In embedded contexts, it is licensed only under verbs of priority meanings, and in root contexts, it has directive readings. Based on this observation, I argue that when -ki appears in clausal environments, it functions not merely as a nominalizer but also as a mood marker, encoding comparison-based modal meaning