여자대학생대화에 나타나는 「とか」의 사용양상－친소요인을 중심으로－

Abstract

In this study, the use of ‘toka’ in the conversation between female university students with respect to the relationship between interlocutors’ degree of intimacy, was investigated. The results were summarized as follows. The ratio of ‘toka’ was higher in the conversation between friends than between first-meeting people. For the function of ‘toka’, both of conversations between friends and between first-meeting people, the ratio of ‘mitigation’ was higher than that of ‘exemplification’, and this tendency was stronger in the conversation between friends. For the specific context of ‘mitigation’, ‘toka’ is used for overwhelmingly high frequency in the context of ‘quotation’ in the conversation between friends, whereas ‘toka’ is used in more diverse contexts in the conversation between first-meeting people. Through this study, it was empirically revealed that the factor of the degree of intimacy influences the frequency of use of ‘toka’ and the function of ‘toka’ in the conversation between university students. Moreover, it may be said that ‘toka’ functions as a language strategy to maintain smooth communication with interlocutors.