This investigation aims to identify the roles of the discourse marker ja in home shopping discourse. In 12 excerpts of home s hopping d iscourse, ja h as been f ound 8 6 times, u sed as a marker o f adding more information, changing a subject, starting a new topic, focusing and suggesting. The analysis showed that the adding more information function, which is the most frequently used one (35 times), and the suggesting one were newly found in this type of discourse and directly related to the characteristic of the discourse: show hosts tend to provide as much information about the product as possible and to justify the consumption by suggesting various reasons. In addition, cases in which ja was used more than two times by one speaker were often found, which is connected to the fact that it is necessary to keep consumers' attention for the purpose of selling products. Also, guests who occasionally appear to help the hosts never used ja, which is because only show hosts have the power to control the discourse. In the process of switching the topic (e.g. price, composition, product features, or rushing comments), ja was used as a subject-changing marker second most frequently (29 times), especially when making rushing comments. These findings turn out to be closely related to the distinctive features of home shopping discourse, demonstrating the importance of studying discourse markers within the context of institutional discourse.

Schiffrin (1987) defines discourse markers (henceforth DMs) as “sequentially dependent elements which bracket units of talk” (p. 276). DMs have been regarded as a signpost used by a speaker to display a certain attitude or embedded intention in a spoken discourse. However, few studies have investigated how DMs are used in a spoken discourse of English as Foreign Language (henceforth EFL) learning context. The purpose of the present study is to examine how okay is used as a DM by Korean teachers of English in their naturally-occurring discourses of EFL classes. The data for this study was obtained from recorded videos of English classes taught by six Korean teachers of English. The data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed on the basis of the Conversation Analysis framework. The multifunctional use of the DM okay deployed by the teachers can be classified as follows: (ⅰ) getting attention, (ⅱ) signaling approval and acceptance as a feedback device, and (ⅲ) working as a transition activator.

Hart, William, Suh, Kyunghee, & Oh, Yeonglim. 2017. “OK in Emergency Dispatch Encounters”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 25(2), 1~28. This paper investigates the discourse marker OK in 911 emergency calls, paying special attention to how its use is embedded in the context of the request-offer sequence through which the caller and the dispatcher display distinctive orientations in terms of goals, rights, and responsibilities. In line with previous research, it was found that the use of this marker displays multifunctionality, which for callers is manifested in the function OK not only as a response token but also as an affiliative signal of cooperation in the acknowledgment and acceptance of directives and updates on the status of the emergency response. For dispatchers, this multifunctionality is found in the activation of a bidirectional looking function of the marker which orients backward in acknowledgment of information elicited and provided in previous turns, while simultaneously orienting forward in anticipation of an impending directive, request for information, or status update in the turn that follows.

Bhark Gwang-gyu. 2016. “A Study on Singaporean's Discourse Markers: The case of hor, meh, lah”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 24(1). 115~147. This study aims to show the characteristic and use aspect of Singaporean's discourse markers such as ‘hor, mah, lah'. This study analyzes features in each type based on gender, generation, occupation, religion, race, educational background through an internet questionnaire survey. The conclusion is presented below. First, Singaporean's discourse markers are used at end of the sentences. Second, Singaporean's discourse markers and Chinese discourse marker(‘哈[ha]’) are used not only oral conversation but also in written conversation. Third, the ‘哈[ha]’ which lexicon is used as discourse marker by chinese in china is grammatized. Forth, There are not much differences based on occupation, race, educational background in the use of discourse makers. However women use discourse markers more than men and young generation use discourse markers more than old generation. Also the buddhist were found to use discourse markers more than the christian and the Roman catholic.

Suh Kyung-hee. 2015. “‘Sustainable Disagreement’: Well as a Discourse Marker in Crisis Negotiations”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 23(2). 131~160. This study investigates the discourse marker well in two transcripts of the 1993 Waco siege negotiations, paying a special attention to its discursive use as a marker of ‘sustainable disagreement’. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are carried out with a view to presenting the use of well by participant roles and the intensity of negotiations. Three functional categories are proposed, which comprise marking affiliative, disaffiliative and neutral stance. Special attention is given to the disaffiliative stance prefaced by well, which is frequently used when the involved parties are engaged in ‘sustainable disagreement’: situations in which they are confronting each other, yet are nevertheless seeking to maintain the channels of communication and prevent dialogue from breaking down. The distributive and discursive aspects of well are found to be different in the two sets of data; well is widely and variably employed on March 9th, when there is flexibility for negotiation; its use on April 18th is somewhat limited. The findings of this study will go a long way in proving more nuanced guidance to scholars and practitioners of crisis communications, and will improve our understanding of the power relations in intra- and inter-group settings. (193)

본 연구에서는 담화표지어의 사용과 관련하여 아시아권 비원어민 영어화자와 미국인 화자 사이의 차이를 알아보고자 하였다. 이를 위하여 아시아권 비원어민 영어화자의 대화를 담은 음성코퍼스에 사용된 담화표지어 well의 위치와 기능을 살펴보고 그 결과를 원어민 영어 화자를 대상으로 한 선행연구와 비교하여 사용 양상의 차이를 조사하였다. 조사된 결과를 살펴보면 아시아권 화자에게서 나타나는 특징은 다음과 같다. 첫째, 아시아권 화자는 담화표지어 well을 yeah, mhm, oh, OK 뒤에서 고빈도로 사용하였고, 담화표지어 well의 앞과 뒤에 상대적으로 잦은 쉼(pause)을 사용하였다. 둘째, 담화표지어 well의 구조적 기능을 고빈도로 사용하였지만, 상호작용적 기능은 다양하게 사용하지 못하였다. 아시아권 화자에게서 나타나는 담화표지어 well의 독특한 위치와 제한적인 상호작용적 기능 사용이 아시아권 화자 간에는 자연스럽게 수용되며 대화의 끊김이나 장애 요소가 되지 않았지만, 잦은 말차례 지연(delay), 잦은 쉼(pause)의 경우 원어민과의 소통에서는 부정적으로 작용할 수 있음을 함의하였다.