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In:Acquisition of Korean: The state of the art
Edited by Soonja Choi
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 36] 2026
► pp. 117–153

Chapter 4
Development of clause chaining and interclausal semantics in Korean children

 | San Diego State University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
This chapter presents the developmental trajectory of clause chaining construction in Korean using longitudinal mother-child interaction data (ages 2–5 years) and cross-sectional description data (ages 3–10 years, and adults). Starting from 2 years of age, Korean children connect clauses using appropriate medial suffixes (e.g., ‑ko, -ese) that express temporal, causal, and contrastive relations between events. By 4 years of age, Korean children’s clause chains are quite adult-like in their use of medial suffix forms and functions and of the morphological and syntactic features of clause chains. Further development occurs over several years — with a milestone at 10 years — in the frequency and the length of clause chains. The chapter highlights special characteristics of Korean acquisition of clause chaining and places the Korean data in the context of clause chaining studies in other languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Characteristic features of the clause chaining construction in Korean
    • 2.1Medial suffixes and interclausal semantics
    • 2.2Clause chain length
    • 2.3Non-canonical position and uses of medial clauses
    • 2.4Topic continuity and subject marking
  • 3.Acquisition of clause chaining in Korean
    • 3.1Data base
    • 3.2Clause chain development compared with other complex sentence types
    • 3.3Development of interclausal semantics: Medial suffix forms and functions
      • 3.3.1Early-acquired interclausal semantics: From 2;0 to 2;6
        • 3.3.1.1-ko for additive/listing, manner, sequential and contrastive functions
        • 3.3.1.2-ese, expressing cause, sequence, and manner
        • 3.3.1.3-nuntey expressing circumstance and contrast
        • 3.3.1.4-ekaciko expressing sequence and cause
        • 3.3.1.5-nikka expressing epistemic reason
        • 3.3.1.6‑myen expressing condition
        • 3.3.1.7Summary of early acquired interclausal semantics
      • 3.3.2Later acquired interclausal semantics: From 2;7 to 4;0
      • 3.3.3Early development of interclausal semantics: Cognitive factors and child-directed speech
    • 3.4‘Non-canonical’ medial clauses and their pragmatics
    • 3.5Developments in clause chaining into adulthood: Clause chain length and topic continuity
      • 3.5.1Clause chain length and token frequency of medial suffixes per utterance
      • 3.5.2Topic continuity, subject markers and referential choices in clause chains
  • 4.Summary and discussion
    • 4.1Summary
    • 4.2Discussion
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (50)
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