Communicative functions and pragmatic meanings of silence in conversational Korean

The primary purpose of this study is to examine various types of silences observed in Korean conversation, particularly focusing on their communicative functions. In this study, the various kinds of silence occurring in Korean are discussed, using Korean news interview video data. More specifically, it investigates under what conditions an instance of silence occurs during conversation. It also looks at pitch change, bodily gesture, and eye gaze when an instance of silence is observed, to see their relations with the use silence. This study finds out that an instance of silence may occur after a lengthened vowel, a topic marker, a question, a declarative, or a self-repair. It also suggests that the silence in Korean conversation has a variety of communicative functions such as a hesitation marker, a recognition marker, or an embarrassment marker. More importantly, it suggests that the most frequent use of silence is to mark the speaker's hesitation, and that the use of silence as a recognition marker lasts for the longest duration. (Pusan National University)