The Rhetorical Adjunct Wh mwue(-l) ‘what’ in Korean

Abstract

The word but (for) representing the meanings of exception is often regarded as a preposition by English-English and English-Korean dictionaries. However, the exceptional but occurs in the constructions which take all kinds of components after that. According to a traditional perspective, this construction is regarded as ungrammatical. This paper examines the grammatical status of but with the meaning and function and the revised E/S/P conditions proposed by Ahn and Kim (2013), which certify the felicitous use of the correlative conjunction except. The findings show that but can be divided into but1, which satisfies the conditions, and but2, but3, and but4, which violate them. Therefore, but1 functions as a correlative conjunction, but2 as a preposition, but3 as an adverb and but4 as a coordinate conjunction. But for can also be divided into but for1, but for2, and but for3 depending on their functions and meanings. All of them violate the revised E/S/P conditions.