Semantic and Syntactic Characteristics of ‘-ul paey’ Construction

This study examines the ‘-ul paey’ construction by categorizing it into two distinct usages and analyzing their meanings and syntactic characteristics. The first usage, ‘-ul paey①,’ conveys that the content of the following clause is more favorable than that of the preceding clause. When the following clause describes an extreme situation, it reflects the speaker’s strong negative attitude toward the preceding clause. In contrast, ‘-ul paey②’ assumes the occurrence of the preceding clause’s situation as a fait accompli and presents the following clause as the speaker’s preferred choice among possible sub-situations derived from the preceding clause. By addressing gaps in existing research, this study aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the ‘-ul paey’ construction and lay a theoretical foundation for future research in Korean linguistics and Korean language education.