The Interactional Uses of Response Tokens in Korean Conversation: As Resources for Managing Turns, Sequences, and Stances
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2023
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Abstract
This dissertation examines a wide range of the interactional functions that response tokens serve in Korean talk-in-interaction. Prior research studies have demonstrated that response tokens serve various roles and functions in social interaction, however, not many studies on Korean response tokens have identified and analyzed their uses from an interactional perspective. This dissertation fills this gap by using interactional linguistic methodologies to identify how recipients of a turn deploy particular response tokens to manage a turn-at-talk or sequence, or to express stances. Among the various response tokens in the Korean language, this study provides a qualitative analysis of the following eight verbal response tokens: ung, e, ney, yey, kulay, kulehci, kulenikka, and maca, produced in naturally occurring conversation. The first four ‘yes’-type response tokens (i.e., ung, e, ney, and yey) are translated as ‘yes, yeah,’ while the others (i.e., kulay, kulehci, kulenikka, and maca) can be translated roughly as ‘(that’s/you’re) right’ in English. In this study’s data, the four ‘yes’-type tokens and kulay recurrently occur within an already initiated sequence, serving as devices for encouraging the primary speaker to continue talking, yielding a turn, repairing a trouble source turn, and closing the sequence. In addition, in a responsive turn to an informing or assertion, e, kulehci, and maca, are regularly deployed not only to acknowledge the just-provided information or opinion but also to convey the producer’s state of knowledge to varying degrees. Lastly, kulehci and kulenikka serve in a responsive turn to an assessment, and each token expresses its producer’s affiliation toward the prior turn’s assessment in a distinctive way. This study aspires to contribute to further research in Korean response tokens and to provide pedagogical implications for its findings.
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Linguistics, affiliative stance, epistemic stance, interactional linguistics, Korean response tokens, organization of turn-taking or sequence
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