The Pragmatic Scope of Indefinite Adverbs in Korean

서지정보

ㆍ발행기관 : 대한언어학회 ㆍ수록지정보 : 언어학 / 24권 / 4호
ㆍ저자명 : ( Jeong Khn Ahn )

영어 초록

This study examines pragmatic scope of some indefinite adverbs in Korean such as myechil cen (`a few days ago`), choykun (`lately`), yakkan (`a little`), cokum (`a little`), manhi (`greatly`), and emcheng (`excessively`). In order to examine age and gender differences in their pragmatic scope, 254 subjects were participated in this study. They were given a questionnaire to fill out pragmatic scope of the six indefinite adverbs in Korean. Using SPSS 12.0 the study analyzed their responses and found out that their average pragmatic scope of myechil cen is 4.3 days ago, choykun 7.1 days ago, yakkan 4.0 cm, cokum 5.6%, manhi 16.2%, and emcheng 25.5%. Paired-samples T test indicated that difference in pragmatic scope was statistically significant between myechil cen and choykun (t= -6.453, p<0.001), between yakkan and cokum (t= -4.295, p<0.001), and between manhi and emcheng (t= -4.295, p<0.001) as well. Gender difference was not found in their pragmatic scope of the indefinites, whereas age difference was found statistically significant in choykun (F= 4.102, p= .044), yakkan (F= 8.961, p= .003), cokum (F= 4.707, p= .031), and manhi (F= 4.586, p= .033) when age was divided into the two groups (under 20 vs. over 20 years of age). The findings in the study indicate that indefinites are measured pragmatically and that they are used in a certain range of scope in reality.

참고 자료

없음