Discourse Functions of and Gender Variations in the Use of Korean Sentence Endings ~(u)n/nun keya and ~ta

Abstract

This dissertation explores discourse functions of the two sentential endings in Korean: -(u)n/nun keya and ~ta, and discuss gender variation in use of these two endings in narrating gossips and experiences using naturally occurring spoken corpus produced by Sejong Project. Both ~(u)n/nun keya and ~ta occur frequently in narratives, not just to make statements or inform noteworthiness of proposition(s)speaker wants to convey but more so to encode speaker's stance. Analytic frameworks are adapted from interactional sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and this dissertation argues that ~(u)/nun keya has discourse functions of mirativity, assumptivity, narrativity; ~ta has demonstrative and quotative meanings when it occurs in narrative frame. Later part of the dissertation addresses gender variation in use of these two endings with the assumption that gender is socially generated and culturally diversified identity. In narrating one's experiences and/or episodes, men and women adopts different narrative strategies and many research on men's and women's narratives reports that men tend to seek separateness and engage in one-upmanship through talk, whereas women tend to seek connection and solidarity (Coates, 1996, 1997; Johnstone, 1993; Holmes, 1997). This dissertation observes the similar trends in Korean men's and women's narratives and discusses these narrative strategies in perspective of subjectivity and intersubjectivity.