From an Interrogative to a Discourse Marker: Multifunctionality of Way in Korean

Abstract

This study investigates the multifunctionality of the discourse marker way in Present Day Korean through a corpus-based analysis of its occurrence in naturally occurring spoken discourse. Originally an interrogative adverb meaning ‘why,’ way has evolved into a versatile discourse marker with functions that extend beyond its conventional role in eliciting reasons. An alysis of the Sejong Spoken Corpus reveals at least seven primary functions of way: eliciting collective recall, seeking agreement, facilitating topic shifts, mitigating face-threatening acts, signaling defiance or resistance, filling gaps, and at times, carrying dual roles. These findings underscore way’s dual interpersonal and textual functions, aligning with grammaticalization and (inter-)subjectivity theories. The study’s corpus-based approach offers a comprehensive, empirically grounded view of way’s usage in everyday communication, diverging from most prior intuition-based analyses. Notably, way frequently co-occurs with other discourse markers and deictic elements, contributing to its fluidity and multifunctionality in conversational contexts. This research aims to enhance understanding of way and contributes broadly to discourse marker studies by highlighting the grammaticalization of interrogatives into discourse markers, a pathway commonly observed across languages.