KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study categorized question expressions produced in daily conversations in Korean and Japanese and conducted an empirical comparative analysis to inquire into how and on which position the question expressions are used in conversations. According to the results of the study, it was confirmed that <request for judgment (Yes/No)> is used with the highest frequency in the same manner both in Korean and Japanese, while similarities are observed in the position of appearance and functions of <request for judgment (Yes/No)>, <expression of emotions>, <request for confirmation>, and <request for consent>. However, the relative use frequency of question expressions turned out to be higher in Korean conversations than in Japanese conversations. In addition, in Japanese conversations, there was a high proportion of using question expressions to ask for consent from the counterpart and question expressions to express uncertainty about one's own ideas or opinions, whereas in Korean conversations, the rate of using question expressions to ask for explanations or confirmation from the counterpart was high. In the case of <request for explanation>, <expression of response>, and <expression of ideas>, differences between Korean and Japanese were observed depending on not only the position within the conversation where they were used, but also by what means they were used. It was possible to confirm that the functions vary in terms of development of conversations depending on the position within the conversation where the question expressions were used.

Questions, Question type, Functions of questions, Daily conversation, Contrastive study of Korean-Japanese