EC: Ending_connecting (연결 어미)

Definition

EC refers to an ending of a predicate that connects clauses or phrases, linking them without final termination and indicating logical relationships between clauses.

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Characteristics

• EC represents various relationships between clauses, including conditional, contrastive, purposive, causal, and coordinate relations, among others.
• Examples:
  • 도착하면 호텔에 갈 겁니다.
  • 등산이 힘들었지만 풍경이 아름다웠습니다.
  • 친구들과 만나려고 놀이터에 가요.

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Boundary cases and clarifications

Differences with related tags

• EC vs. EF (Ending_closing, 종결 어미):
  • EC connects clauses, while EF ends a sentence and indicates its modality.
    • EC: 비가 와서 우산을 챙긴다.
    • EF: 비가 온다. 우산을 챙긴다.

Special cases

1. Clause endings and sentence completion
   • Specific endings like ‘-ㄴ/는지’ and ‘-ㄹ/을지’ can be tagged as either EC or EF depending on the context. If the ending completes a sentence, it is tagged as EF. Otherwise, when it functions within a clause, it is consistently tagged as EC.
   • 그가 언제 오는지(EC) 궁금하다.
   • 그가 언제 오는지(EF).
2. Morphological variations
   • In Korean, the form of an EC changes depending on the final syllable of the verb stem. If the final vowel of the verb stem is ‘ㅏ’ or ‘ㅗ’, the ending takes the form ‘아’. For all other vowels, the ending is ‘어’.
   • Some verbs and adjectives have exceptions that alter the ending’s form. For example, when the verb ‘하다’ combines with the EC ‘아’, the resulting form is ‘여’ instead of ‘하아’. However, in the Korean-GSD corpus, ‘하여(해)’ is analyzed as ‘하+아’, preserving the original ending structure and following the standard rule.
   • 학교를 가서: 가 + 아서(EC)
   • 음악을 들어서: 듣 + 어서(EC)
   • 수영을 해서: 하 + 아서(EC)

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Examples

• 도착하면 호텔에 갈 겁니다.
• 어려운 상황이 오더라도 포기하지 않겠다.
• 등산이 힘들었지만 풍경이 아름다웠습니다.
• 친구들과 만나려고 놀이터에 가요.
• 비가 와서 우산을 챙긴다.
• 음식을 먹고 재미있게 놀 겁니다.

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References

Center for teaching and learning Korean