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In the phrase かといって or かと言って, meaning having said that, on the other hand, I'm not sure what the か and と are.

My first guess is that these are the generic particles (か+と+いって), but I couldn't find any evidence to suggest that　(or, for that matter, to refute it).

Of course, I could be over thinking this, so it could be a "that's just how it is said" kind of phrase.

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Like you say, かと言って is just か＋と＋言って.

  • か makes it into a question
  • と is the quoting particle
  • 言って is "say/called"

It can appear without any ambiguity in the middle of a sentence

家まで送ろうかと言ってくれた。
He offered to bring me home.

When it is used as a conjunction at the beginning at a sentence it works like というか, なので, だから, etc., which apply to the whole preceding sentence (or argument).

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    The ka to itte being used in your sentence and the one in this question are semantically different. The later requires a negative predicate. – Dono Mar 29 '13 at 1:41
  • @Dono I guess that's true. I wonder why, though. Maybe because かといって as a conjunction that "quotes" a whole phrase implies a stronger contrast? Then the whole preceding sentence is taken to be a positive statement and the following sentence contrasts it and must be negative...? – Earthliŋ♦ Mar 29 '13 at 1:50
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    I don't see it as a given that the か in the question's かといって is the same morpheme as the question-か. It might originally have been, but I hardly see any semantic relation anymore. The meaning is more like だからといって. – dainichi Mar 29 '13 at 8:14
  • @dainichi I see. I think of it as a shortening of そう(なの)かといって. (Similarly, the conjunction なので could be expanded to そうなので, だから to そうだから etc.) The か in そう(なのか)といって seems to be exactly the か that appears as question marker. – Earthliŋ♦ Mar 29 '13 at 15:23
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    ^ そうですね。「かといって」は、「そうかといって」とも言いますよね。（なぜ「だからといって」「そうだからといって」と同じ意味になるのか不思議です。。。ちょっとググったけどわかりませんでした） – user1016 Mar 29 '13 at 18:12

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