‘Whatever’의 표현적 기능

The Expressive Functions of Whatever

This study aims to present a corpus-based investigation of whatever, focusing on its expressive functions in spoken English. An examination of tokens from the Michigan Corpus and US TV Talk reveals thatwhatever as a non-modifier marks the speaker's epistemic and affective stance. As a stance marker, whatever is used when the speaker expresses his/her lack of commitment to precise definition of meaning or to any particular option/set of options. As such, whatever is used as a conversation filler, filling in a necessary interactional space when the speaker encounters trouble in producing the next item due. Whatever also marks a lack of certainty by the speaker. The speaker also uses whatever to avoid explicitly labelling what s/he has in mind, presumably because this may be impolite or inappropriate to the situation. In these cases, whatever appears as a tag attached to the referent(s), i.e., as a set-marking tag carrying a textual function. Stand-alonewhatever, which is more common in everyday conversation, carries an interactional/interpersonal function; whatever as part of a responsive turn usually suggests the speaker’s reluctance to engage or argue, expressing the speaker’s impatience or scepticism; it often serves to suspend argumentation when resolution or agreement seems unlikely, carrying the negative tone by the speaker. Whatever, in such a context, allows the interaction to move on and move into less turbulent waters, which often in turn leads to a topic shift.