This paper claims that particles and endings in Korean should be independent syntactic units from a typological perspective. And through the examination of the grammatical status of particles this paper shows that the concept of ‘nominative case’ and that of syntactic function ‘subject’ have been much entangled in Korean grammar. One of the problems derived from the conceptual entanglement is the so-called ‘predicate clause’. The main objective of this paper is to clarify the origin of the misconception of ‘predicate clause’. This paper uses three diagnoses to verify the misconception of predicate clause. The first one is a diagnosis through ‘do-so test’. The second one is a diagnosis related to ‘equi-subject constraint’. The last one is a diagnosis on the basis of ‘valency’. These diagnoses lead us to the conclusion that the so-called ‘micro subject’ kho-ka ‘nose-Nom’ and holangi-ka ‘tiger-Nom’ in double subject constructions such as Khokkili-nun kho-ka kil-ta ‘Elephants have a long nose’ and Na-nun holangi-ka mwusep-ta ‘I’m afraid of tigers’ is no more subject, but a sort of object and that the real subject is the ‘macro subject’ Khokkili-nun ‘elephant-Top’ and Na-nun ‘I-Top’ in above-mentioned examples.

• 목정수(서울시립대학교)