韓国人日本語学習者の作文に現れた疑問文について -［デスカ/マスカ］で終止する疑問文を中心に-

Abstract

This article considers the characteristic features of interrogative sentences appearing in essays written by Korean students of the Japanese language (hereafter, “KR”). This article examines 84 essays by KR students to carry out a qualitative and quantitative analysis of interrogative sentences ending in “-desu ka” or “-masu ka.” Incorporating the concept of Writer/Reader visibility (“W/R visibility”), comparisons were made with essays written by Chinese students of Japanese (“CN”) and native Japanese essays in Japanese (“JP”) based on previous research to determine how interrogatives were used in KR essays. W/R visibility is defined as “the degree to which the presence of a writer or reader is shown in linguistic representation in a written passage” (Takahashi / Ijuin (2006: 80)). The results show that there were 67 interrogative sentences in the 84 target essays, 14 of which ended with “-desu ka” or “-masu ka.” All these interrogative sentences were used unnaturally, showing that the writers were treating the conclusion of the proposition in a negative sense. Comparing interrogatives in essays written by CN and JP students with those written by KR students, the degree of W/R visibility was CN > KR > JP. In other words, the characteristics of interrogatives in essays by KR students were the same as those by both CN students and by JP students. We were not able to clarify why the interrogative sentences ending in “-desu ka” or “-masu ka” were used in this way. This point remains for future investigations.