Kim, Kyu-hyun. (2023). “Question Tags in Korean Conversation: Displaying and Soliciting Empathy for Managing Delicate Action”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 31(4), 149-173. From the perspective of conversation analysis, this study analyzes utterances formatted with a question tag constructed as the tag-type clause kuci, “Isn’t it?.” Based on an examination of naturally occurring talk-in-interaction, it is argued that question tags, though generally intended to be a recipiency-mobilizing resource, serve primarily as a resource for empathy display and are geared toward retroactively managing the various “delicate” actions that their host utterance implements. Formulated as post-predicate elements, their use indicates the speaker’s trust that the recipient will provide an affiliative response by sharing the empathic stance exhibited in their host utterance. The kuci-speaker’s orientation toward soliciting the recipient’s affiliative uptake is frequently reciprocated by the recipient, who registers the “delicate character” of the kuci-marked utterance’s action by producing variously “nuanced” responses, for example, in a way that is empathically other-attentive, obliquely affiliative, or mildly resistant.

In this paper analyzed the features of how native Korean speakers (K) and native Vietnamese Korean learners (VKL) organize the Apology conversation, focusing on the functional phase. Based on the discourse analysis, a role play was conducted to collect data. In order to investigate the influence of social variables (social status, intimacy), learners' mother tongues and learners' Korean proficiency, different social variables were given in role-play situations, and learners' Korean proficiency was limited to intermediate and advanced levels. The results of analyzing conversations focusing on ‘Error Checking–Apology-Apology Acceptance’, which is the intermediate phase of Apology conversation, are as follows. First, in the Error Checking Phase, K tended to make indirect or preliminary remarks. In contrast, VKL immediately presented communication purposes, and advanced VKL tended to use indirect speech and additional statement. Second, in the Apology phase, the higher social status the other party has and the lower intimacy the two speakers has, the more passive K were. Interestingly, VKL showed the same pattern. For intermediate-level VKL, it was observed that the dialogue sequences were not completed. Third, in the Apology Acceptance phase, K repeatedly expressed apologies through complex dialogue sequences. However, VKL performed a concise conversation by simple dialogue sequences, and the intermediate-level VKL expressed ‘relief’ and ‘gratitude’.

This paper aims to analyze the functions and characteristics of ‘ne/ye’ in news interviews, with specific focus on the neutrality and ambiguity of ‘ne/ye’ used by interviewers. In respect of its distribution, the interviewers used ‘ne/ye’ in the middle of the interviewees’ turn or after the interviewees completed a sentence. On the other hand, with regard to its functions, ‘ne/ye’ coming after the interviewees' completed sentences functioned as a continuer or an indicator of the interviewers' turn, while ‘ne/ye’ in the middle of the interviewees’ turn always functioned as a continuer. When used by interviewers, ‘ne/ye’ appeared ambiguous in its functions, given that ‘ne/ye’ was used consistently in the opening, Q&A sequences, and closing by the interviewers, and that ‘ne/ye’ could be used and interpreted as either a continuer or an indicator of the interviewers' turn. Based on the ambiguity of ‘ne/ye’, this paper concludes that both the interviewers and interviewees could keep interacting with each other by comprehending ‘ne/ye’ as a sign of turn-taking, thus enabling the interviewers to sustain neutrality throughout the entire talk and naturally allowing them to be loyal to their task of obtaining sufficient information from the interviewees to convey to the audience.

본 논문은 중국어 교재 및 대본을 대상으로 대화문에서 没关系와 没事을 분석하 여, 교육적 제언을 제시하는 데 목적이 있다. 2장에서는 연구방법을 제시하고, 3장과 4장에서는 중국어 교재 25권과 대본 25편을 대상으로 没关系와 没事의 사용 상황을 분석하였다. 실제 생활에서 빈도수가 높은 没事는 교재에서의 빈도수가 낮은 반면, 대본에서는 매우 높았다. 교재에서의 没关系는 출현 빈도수가 비교적 높았으나, 쓰임 이 다양하지 않았다. 5장에서는 분석을 바탕으로 교육적으로 어떻게 지도하면 좋은 지에 대해 간략하게 제시하였다.

The conversation analysis approach of using audio and video recordings of naturally occurring conversation contrasts with other methods of collecting data in the social and cognitive sciences. This paper intends to describe the ways in which conversation analysts collect their data suitable for analysis, including the steps involved in preparing to record, the recording of naturally occurring social interaction, and also the processing of recordings after they have been made. Before actually making the recordings, researchers must first choose what type of conversation they will collect and what device to use. Researchers also need to obtain consent for recording from the participants in a conversation analytic study. While making the recordings, researchers must figure out many practical issues such as who, when, how, what, how much, and where to record. After recording, researchers need to store data in audio or video formats. Researchers also archive it, using codes for identification that facilitate later finding, quoting and retrieving of any file. This paper focuses on these choices as they are made before, during, and after recordings and places specific emphasis on the effects these choices have on the recordings. It also illuminates how these techniques are closely related to the methodological and theoretical assumptions of the conversation analysis approach.

This paper on language learner strategies utilizes a little used quantitative, datamining technique called cluster analysis to investigate characteristics of groups of South Korean learners of English. After 71 students in three first-year university liberal arts English conversation courses completed the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), and the number of learning strategies was reduced from 50 to 26 based on standard deviation (SD) results, the non-hierarchical (K-means) 3-cluster procedure was applied to the self-reported data. Following statistical analysis, each of the three cluster groups could be profiled according to achievement scores. At this point, six items emerged as particularly meaningful with regard to the latter, including direct strategies (a memory one and a cognitive one) and indirect strategies (two affective and two metacognitive). These strategies and their significance with reference to the local context as well as results previously reported in the literature are discussed. Finally, limitations of the study and implications for future research using cluster analysis are reported.

Park, Jae-Eun. 2017. “On Replacing”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(3). 139~164. This study examines a reparative operation that occurs in the same turn: replacing. Based on about 100 instances of replacing in Korean conversation, the paper mainly focuses on specifying what replacing achieves. The analysis shows that replacing is largely classified into two functional categories: correcting and adjusting. Correcting handles a wide range of ‘innocent’ errors, from slips of the tongue to those that reflect momentary failing in various cognitive activities. Adjusting, on the other hand, targets a non-error, conveying various interactional import within the particularities of each different context. After a brief presentation of correcting, this paper focuses on showing three main adjustment types, namely perspective, scope, and degree adjustments. It also raises the possibility that adjusting may fail to achieve the goal that it has set out to.

Kim, Kyu-hyun. 2016. “The Topic Marker -Nun as an Interactional Resource: Domain Shifting as Stance-Managing Practice”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 24(3). 65~94. From the conversation-analytic perspective, this paper examines the interactional meaning of -nun with reference to its constitutive role of organizing assessment activities in naturally occurring conversations. -Nun is analyzed as a grammatical resource deployed for ‘shifting’ the domain whose relevancies are transiently invoked as a new assessable being brought up, or as delimiting the scope of valency to be accorded the assessable. The domain-shifting makes relevant a new set of stance-taking possibilities, which is done in an ‘other-attentive’ way; the shift is made either towards minimizing stance difference and promoting rapport among the participants in the context of disagreement, or towards further elaborating stance alignment what agreement is already in place. The ‘other-attentive’ orientation that the nun-speaker displays in managing his/her stance vis-à-vis the other’s is countervailed by his/her epistemic claim about the invoked domain, whose valency is additionally modulated by sentence-ending suffixes (SESs). The domain-shifting practice, mediated by -nun, draws upon membership categorization work as its organizational basis. Tied to the categories or category-bound features invoked in the prior context, different aspects or types of the assessable, marked by -nun, are transiently brought up as part of a contrastive device. This practice furnishes the speaker with a resource for formulating his/her action as an ‘affiliative’ (though not necessarily ‘aligning’) move geared towards managing stance and face as a collaborative interactional business.

In conversation analysis (CA), wh‐questions are treated as invoking a claim that questioners have no knowledge about the information being solicited. This paper examines a particular form of wh‐questions that indexes an epistemic claim incongruent with such a claim of no knowledge. In particular, it examines wh‐questions that are marked with a committal suffix in Korean conversation, in which the committal suffix indicates that the speaker should have the information at hand. Using the method of CA, this paper shows that these wh‐questions indexing incongruent knowledge claims are used in contexts in which questioners know or should know about the information being solicited. First, they are commonly used to seek a particular piece of information questioners already know about, or should already know about, by reference to prior talk or shared knowledge with recipients. Second, wh‐questions marked with committal endings can be used as word searches. In these cases, they do not seek the other partyʹs active participation in finding solutions to the missing word(s) and thus are self‐directed. The analysis will suggest that wh‐questions with committal endings can serve to avoid a potential trouble or accountability in interaction.

The purpose of the present study is to learn about English conversation instructors, in particular, to find out (1) who they are; (2) how they cooperate with English teachers at schools; and (3) what needs they have to serve better as English teaching staff at schools. An online survey was administered to all English conversation instructors at elementary and secondary schools in Korea. Around 4,630 English conversation instructors- 2,920 at elementary schools and 1,710 at secondary schools- participated in the study. The collected data were analyzed: (1) to describe the characteristics of English conversation instructors; (2) to examine how they are sharing teaching duties with English teachers; and (3) to assess the needs for their competency development. The needs of English conversation instructors were analyzed by calculating the gap between the current competence and the expected competence. The difference of English conversation instructors competence development needs at the elementary level and at the secondary level were then further analyzed through Analysis of Variance. The results of this study can be used as basic data to establish the training system for English conversation instructors’ competence development.

By using the methodological framework of conversation analysis, this study combines a grounded study of interactional linguistics focusing on L2 speakers' interactional competence in the use of Korean sentence-ending suffix -ketun. Based on the previous studies which examined the use of -ketun in L1 Korean speakers’ conversation, this study analyzes data taken from different levels of Korean language classroom interactions, with close attention to the learner's usage of the target suffix in formulating a dispreferred response. The findings of the study demonstrate that the L2 advanced students' use of -ketun is much closer to that for L1 speakers in constituting a dispreferred response while claiming epistemic primacy. On the other hand, extremely low frequency in the use of -ketun is a distinctive linguistic-pragmatic features that characterizes use of -ketun by L2 speakers at lower levels of competence. The advanced students' diversification may be an indicator of their more adaptive, context-sensitive conduct, suggesting an increased interactional competence. Close scrutiny of the use of -ketun in this study aids to reveal whether and to what extent its interactional use by L2 speakers of different proficiency levels approaches that of L1 speakers.

Park Jae-eun. 2013. On prolonging in Korean conversation. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 21(3). This paper explores the systematic retardation of turn progression in Korean conversation, focusing on the phenomenon of prolonging. Prolonging is defined as a practice whereby speakers suspend the progression of a turn toward a possible completion particularly by drawing on sound stretches as a primary resource. The analysis of data shows that prolonging, observed at a point where the action is more or less recognizable, is used to reinforce the speaker's epistemic or affective stance as well as to project dispreferredness in a way that delays the arrival of a transition-relevance place. I argue that prolonging can be employed at any word boundary as long as the emergent action is recognizable and that it serves as a basis for understanding how readily a turn can be manipulated in the service of practical social actions in Korean conversation. (137 words)

This paper explores the dynamic construction of expert and novice identities in language-exchange conversations between Korean students learning English and American students learning Korean. Drawing on recent view on identity as performance (Butler, 1990), this study employs video- and audio-recordings of language-exchange interactions to examine the dialogic interaction between three language-exchange pairs. Adopting a conversation analytic perspective, the study examines whether and how participants of language-exchange interactions orient to their assumed roles as peer-teacher and peer-learner during language-exchange through micro-analysis of the interaction. The findings demonstrate that participant roles as linguistic expert and novice are not invoked in language-exchange interactions unless they arc treated as relevant in the interaction; rather than foregrounded by the situational arrangements of language-exchange, the expert-novice relationship in language-exchange dialogues is interactionally constituted by the local practices of the participants. Data analysis also shows that the construction of expert and novice identities in language-exchange interaction is a jointly constructed achievement and that participant roles as language expert and novice arc not given but ‘achieved’ as language-exchange participants ratify or reject the identity their partners display in the course of unfolding interaction.

This study examines the use of kulay(yo) as a response token in spontaneous Korean conversation. The data for the study include approximately five hours of Korean casual conversation and the analytic framework is conversation analysis. Based on its cooccurring prosody patterns, the use of kulay(yo) is divided into two types: the one with falling or continuing intonation and the other with upward intonation. The former type mainly occurs in acknowledgements, the identification and recognition sequence of phone openings, and phone preclosings and closings. The latter type is found in contexts such as informings, counterinformings, and interactionally delicate action sequences mainly as news receipts. The results show that kulay(yo) is used in various interactional contexts, reflecting how the recipient of the prior turn's talk deals with delicate actions and carefully marks his/her stance with it.

Kim, Kyu-hyun. 2004. A Conversation Analysis of Korean Sentence-Ending Modal Suffixes -ney, -kwun(a), and -ta: Noticing as a Social Action. Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(1). Drawing upon H. S. Lee's (1993) cognitively-oriented research on the functions of three sentence-ending modal suffixes in Korean that are used to express newly perceived information, -ney, -kwun(a), and -ta, this study analyzes the distinct meanings of these suffixes from a conversation-analytic perspective (Sacks et al. 1974). The suffix -ney is used in the context in which the speaker notices a referent/event and makes an assessment on the spot in such a way that the speaker's stance displayed through the action is formulated as something that is to be immediately oriented to and contingently taken up by the hearer. In contrast, the suffix -kwun(a) is used when the speaker is mainly oriented to displaying a stance congruent with the prior talk. The action it organizes is often limited to acknowledging a point of the prior talk or having the hearer acknowledge the speaker's observation, often with a salient topic-curtailing and sequence-terminating import. The suffix -ta tends to orient the hearer to the next stage of the speaker's action (e.g., suggestion, warning, offer, etc.) to whose directive force the hearer is variably implicated as a beneficiary/facilitator. The interactional account offered in this paper is shown to complement Lee's cognitive account, with emphasis placed on examining the ways in which these suffixes are used as resources for organizing distinct types of social action.