An Alternative Analysis of “Case-stacking” Phenomena

This paper examines the phenomenon of “case-stacking” in Korean, following Chae’s(2023) argument that -i/ka and -ul/lul are not case markers but delimiters, which have the function of modifying the elements preceding them. By analyzing empirical corpus data (compiled by AI-HUB and National Institute of the Korean Language), we explore whether these elements can be classified as delimiters. Our analysis is based on Chae’s(2020) classification of lexical categories, which introduces clitics as a distinct linguistic unit in Korean. According to the findings of this study, “case-stacking” is just the combination of a postposition and a delimiter. Although “case stacking” appears in various constructions, these constructions are actually those containing PPs that happen to be modified by the delimiter ‘-i/ka’ or ‘-ul/lul’. The distribution of these delimiters, which exhibit a complementary pattern, can be naturally explained within the framework proposed by Chae(2023). Hence, this study contributes to challenging the prevailing view that -i/ka serves as a nominative case marker and –ul/lul as an accusative case marker.