The present study investigates kkunhe(yo) in telephone conversation closings in Korean. After laying down the theoretical foundations on the canonical telephone conversation closings and the termination vs. leave-taking views that Clark and French (1981) propose, it revisits previous studies on Korean telephone conversation closings and illustrates that some group all terminal exchanges together under leave-taking in spite of their apparent contact termination view. It then advocates for the termination view of kkunhe(yo) rather than the leave-taking view in light of the fact that it provides better explanations for the focus of kkunhe(yo) on the contact termination as a speech-act pair even when the second-pair part is filled in with a silent act of a hang-up. In so doing, the study also demonstrates that the termination view adequately differentiates kkunhe(yo) from other terminal exchanges (in particular, leave-taking exchanges such as annyeng).

• Ki-tae Kim(Keimyung University)