담화표지 ‘그러니까’의 20세기 의미･화용적 변화 과정 연구

Abstract

This study examines the semantic and pragmatic evolution of the Korean discourse marker kulenikka in the 20th century, using 15,623 instances from the Yonsei 20th Century Korean Corpus. The analysis reveals that kulenikka served as a multifunctional discourse marker from its earliest documentation, suggesting it had already matured in spoken language before being used in written texts. Three distinct periods emerge from the data. The early period (1930s-1950s) is characterized by the prevalence of consequential meanings, accounting for approximately two-thirds of all instances. The middle period (1960s-1970s) shows the appearance of reformulative functions, representing about one-third of total examples. The final period (1980s-1990s) presents semantic variety, with reformulative meanings nearly equal to consequential ones in frequency, together with the appearance of corrective functions. The study identifies three important extralinguistic factors: the enmwunilchi movement and vernacular writing in the early 20th century, the expansion of new media genres (newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, etc.), and the change in education levels developing speakers’ metalinguistic capacity. Finally, this study demonstrates how discourse markers serve as indicators of broader social change, revealing the complex relationship between linguistic evolution and socio-cultural transformation in Korea.