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Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface: Discourse markers and discourse-related grammatical phenomena
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Sylvie Hancil
[Studies in Language Companion Series 219] 2021
► pp. 77–100

Chapter 3
On divergent paths and functions of ‘background’-based discourse markers in Korean

| Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
| Sangmyung University

This paper analyzes two polyfunctional discourse markers (DMs) in Korean, kulssey and kuntey, which share lexical and grammatical sources, with the meaning of ‘at the time’ for kulssey and ‘at the place’ for kuntey. They denote the background of an action/event (‘in such circumstances’), which is their primary meaning when used as connective adverbs. Despite these source commonalities, when they developed into DMs, their functional differences are pronounced, only with a few shared functions. They show a certain degree of positional preferences by function, but at a more comprehensive level, left- and right-periphery do not show rigid functional dichotomy with respect to subjectification and intersubjectification, often hypothesized in the literature. Instead, the role of prosody is more crucial.

Keywords: discourse marker, pragmatic inference, divergent functions, functional network, Korean
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The development of kulssey and kuntey
  • 3.Multiple DM functions of kulssey and kuntey
    • 3.1Kulssey
      • 3.1.1Uncertainty (“Well, I’m not sure”)
      • 3.1.2Pause-filling (“Well, let’s see”)
      • 3.1.3Reluctance/Hesitance (“Well, I need time to reveal my stance”)
      • 3.1.4(Feigned) surprise (“Guess what happened!; Why on earth”)
      • 3.1.5Discontent (“I cannot understand; I’m not happy”)
      • 3.1.6Protest (“What are you doing?”)
      • 3.1.7Emphatic reassertion (“I’m telling you!; For sure!”)
      • 3.1.8Disregard for Emphasis (“No matter what!; Whatever!”)
      • 3.1.9Agreement (“You’re right!”)
    • 3.2Kuntey
      • 3.2.1Topic presentation (“So”)
      • 3.2.2Topic shift (“By the way”)
      • 3.2.3Elaboration request (“So?; Then what?”)
      • 3.2.4Preface to dispreferred information (“Well.. but”)
      • 3.2.5(Feigned) Surprise (“Guess what happened!; Why on earth”)
      • 3.2.6Discontent (“I don’t understand!”)
      • 3.2.7Protest (“What are you doing?”)
  • 4.Functional determinants
    • 4.1Functions compared
    • 4.2Syntagmatic independence
    • 4.3Semantic persistence and periphery
    • 4.4Prosody
    • 4.5Pragmatic inference and functional network
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 3 June 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.219.03rhe
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