Distal Demonstratives as Fillers

Abstract

The current study has analyzed the interactional use of the Korean distal demonstratives, ku and ce in spontaneous oral discourse with special reference to their functions as fillers. Ku and ce as filers occur at a point in a discourse where the speaker is hesitating temporarily due to a lack of proper formulation. An examination of the data shows that each demonstrative reveals distinct interactional patterns; ku as a filler is mainly used to search for a particular word in repair sites, where the hearer's involvement in searching for the referent is actively solicited. In contrast, ce is opted for as a means of recalling relevant information that is demonstrably located beyond the hearer's domain of knowledge or experience. The ce-term is also commonly used in contexts where is prefaces some disjunctive actions such as starting a conversation/new turn, or initiating a new topic, or performing certain kinds of speech acts. These distinctive interactional patterns are claimed to be compatible with and derived from their meaning; the demonstrative ku marks the speaker's desire to anchor interpersonal involvement between him/herself and the addressee by evoking a prior interactional and discourse history shared between the speaker and the hearer. Ce is employed when the speaker asserts his/her own knowledge, which is beyond the hearer's sphere of information (Suh & Hong 1999).