Different Types of Kes Constructions in Korean

The word kes has been found to have diverse functions in Korean. Whereas it originates from a noun, it also appears to head a clause. This paper is designed to review and discuss three different types of constructions which include kes, what is called inverted pseudo cleft, pseudo cleft and kes cleft named so by Jhang (1994) and to make a proposal that the kes in the three constructions represent three different categories: a noun, an expletive and a complementizer. The constructions are also claimed to well manifest three stages of grammaticalization proposed by Ransom (1988). Different syntactic status of kes in the constructions is closely explored to support the proposal while examining their differences and similarities. More discussion continues especially on the syntactic behaviors and status of kes in the kes cleft construction. On the basis of the discussion, a claim is made that the kes in the construction represents a functional category.