Is –keyss Really a Future Tense Marker?

I argue in this paper that -keyss which is traditionally treated as future tense marker in Korean linguistics is an epistemic modal marker. The marker-keyss occurs with speech-time-oriented adverbials and the past tense marker -ess. Furthermore, the interpretation of -keyss involves the speaker s presumption, not anybody else . These facts argue against the treatment of -keyss as a future tense marker. The speaker s presumption of an eventuality under the scope of -keyss seems to result from the nature of the conversational background, which is parallel to what Kratzer notes in English modal verbs. The incorporation of Kratzer s modal semantics into the analysis of -keyss may assist in allowing an improved understanding of its semantic nature more accurately than has previously been suggested.