Semantics of Delimiters

Abstract

One of the characteristics which drastically distinguish Korean (and Japanese) from 'English (and other languages) is the phenomenon of Korean (and Japanese) delimiters, the counterpart of which is almost lacking in many languages. When a speaker communicates with an addressee, the speaker may report the message to the addressee from a neutral point of view, or he may add his own evaluation and/or intention and/or focus to the neutrally transmittable message in a discourse setting such as situation and context.