Mean-Young Song (고려대학교 언어정보연구소). 1999. Korean Future Tense Marker -keyss as An Epistemic Modal (인식적 양상 표지로서의 “겠”). Language Information. Volume 3. 187-217.
I argue in this paper that -keyss which is tradtionally treated as a future tense marker in Korean linguistics is an epistemic modal marker. The marker -keyss occurs with speech-time-oriented adverbials and the past tene 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.