Sentence End Structure of Japanese and Korean in Discourse
Kim Jina
This study is intended to describe the existence of a sentence, that is, a style for its existence, forming a discourse of the spoken language in Japanese and Korean. In particular, this study attends to a sentence end which forms the core of the sentence and illuminates the structure of the sentence end to approach the existence style of the sentence as to how the sentence exists in the discourse.
To investigate the sentence end structure in Japanese and Korean, I analyzed the discourses of a total of 160 different persons consisting of 40 pairs each of Seoul dialect speakers (80 persons) and Tokyo dialect speakers (80 persons).
I divided the discourse data of this study into two conversation scenes: one is "conversations between strangers" and the other is "conversations between friends" and combined the conversations between men and women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. In this manner, the use of the language by a wide range of generations and sex, as well as by familiarity and alienation can be observed.
Chapter 1 outlines a concept rule of the most basic terms used in this study and the flow of linguistics in which a field of study of a "discourse analysis" forming the basis of this study has born.
Chapter 2 describes the discourse data. There are descriptions of a methodology of literation focusing on a "double-line literation system", a matter of notation between Japanese and Korean, a method of annotation, etc. to describe the actual state of a spoken language realistically.
Chapter 3 describes units of discourse. There are three units forming the discourse: (1) a sentence which is a grammatically realized body, (2) an utterance unit which is a phonetically realized body, and (3) a turn which is a continuous and static performance of utterance by one speaker. In this study, the sentence (1) has been drawn as the basic unit to form the discourse. By making the concept of the turn (3) clear, I tried to discuss the fact that an aizuti-utterance or backchannel utterance is also the turn and sentence and to properly locate in the discourse all the utterances which are physically realized among the discourses.
Chapter 4 describes a method whereby the existence style of a spoken sentence which is a major purpose of this paper is found. In this study, the sentence end is illuminated from the four viewpoints of "lexicology", "morphology", "syntax", and "semantics" using devices such as "existence or nonexistence of the predicate" and "identification of parts of speech". A sentence structure is classified into two patterns: one is a "predicate sentence" ending up with the predicate and the other is a "non-predicate sentence" ending up with factors other than the predicate, wherein each sentence is described further.
Chapter 5 reveals the results of a survey on the "total number of sentences" and the quantitative appearance of the "predicate sentence" and the "non-predicate sentence" in the total discourse data of Japanese and Korean.
There are 9,072 sentences in Japanese and 7,105 sentences in Korean and there is a difference of about 2,000 sentences between the two languages, in spite of the conversations in the same situation and in the same time period. The usage rate of the "non-predicate sentence" relative to the total number of sentences between Japanese and Korean is 58.0% in Japanese and 53.7% in Korean. The survey shows that the usage rate of the "non-predicate sentence" is higher than that of the "predicate sentence" and makes up more than half of the total discourses. It is quite important in language research to perceive the fact that almost half of the sentences in the spoken language do not end up at least with the "predicate" which is the most important element of the sentence.
Chapter 6 describes the structural pattern of the "predicate sentence". In particular, the "predicate sentence"* in Japanese which ends up with a dependent word complex pattern in which a plurality of dependent morphemes is combined with a declinable word, is a notable linguistic phenomenon.
*ex.: Kozin zyoohoo ga kyooyuu sare tyatteru kanatte iu yoona kanzi desu ne (It seems that private information has been shared).
Chapter 7 analyzes a linguistic phenomenon of which the language is, for example, on a border line between the "predicate sentence" and the "non-predicate sentence". This analysis is made to approach a real linguistic fact without making the classification itself autotelic.
As seen, for example, in "te-iu" and "mitaina" as well as "toka", "-tte", "nanka", and "nante", an element to make the "predicate sentence" the "non-predicate sentence" is referred to as a "device of non-predicate formation" in this paper, wherein a sentence ending up with such an element is described here as the "non-predicate sentence". In Korean, the sentence ending up with an adnominal form is a notable phenomenon of the non-predicate formation.
Further, in Japanese, there is a sentence consisting of only the dependent word such as "kamo" and "masen-ne" without being accompanied by an independent or autonomous word and a sentence starting with the dependent word such as "-tari surun desu kedo". Such a freewheeling linguistic phenomenon of a strong personality by the spoken language which appears only in Japanese, not in Korean, may rock the foundation of the existing study of grammar
Last, chapter 8 describes a buffering expression. An expression such as "toka", "te-iu" "mitaina" and "-ttekanzi" serving as a so-called buffer of a sentence following the sentence once ended without having any substantial meaning is referred to as a "buffering expression" in this study.
As seen in Japanese expressions such as "Haken siteru mitaina kanzi nandesu yo ne" (it seems that they are dispatching a person to ...)" and "Yokatta kana toka omottari sitendakedo" (I think it better to have done such a thing, but ...)", a complex buffering expression in which a plurality of buffers overlaps is a remarkable linguistic phenomenon. Such a buffering expression in Japanese is a noteworthy linguistic fact that is made by fusing the nature of the "dependent word complex combination pattern" of the "predicate sentence" as described in Chapter 6 with the nature of the "device of the non-predicate formation" as described in Chapter 7, and is also a surprising linguistic phenomenon unique to the Japanese language.
The buffering expression could be found even in Korean. The expression "hay kaciko", "han kes kathta", "hanun key issta", "lako kuleta", "hanta kuleta", "hako hata" have been taken up as a typical pattern of the buffering expression. Such a buffering expression in Korean is a linguistic phenomenon which has, until now, been largely ignored in the research of Korean.
This study sought to describe an image of the sentence by a spoken language by dividing the sentence end structure of a sentence forming the discourse into the "predicate sentence" and the "non-predicate sentence" and by approaching the investigation of its existence. This was also a work to find the difference between the "written language" and the "spoken language". Distribution and pattern of the "predicate sentence" and the "non-predicate sentence", the "device of non-predicate formation", "non-predicate formation of adnominal end form", "existence of a sentence consisting of the dependent word", and "buffering expression", etc. obtained from the work are very decisive factors in illuminating the difference between the "spoken language" and the "written language", and locating these factors properly is also desperately required for the study of grammar.