Prosody in Spoken Korean (구어 연구와 운율: 소리를 담은 의미·통사론, 의미를 담은 음성학·음운론 연구를 위한 제언)

Shin, Jiyoung (신지영)

Prosody in Spoken Korean

Korean Semantics
2014, 44(), pp.119-139
Publisher : The Society Of Korean Semantics
Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

Shin, Jiyoung ¹

¹고려대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The previous studies on semantics and syntax are mainly based on written language. As a result, semanticians and syntacticians do not seriously consider the prosodic aspects of language, which is not visible in written texts. However, as the prosodic aspects of language play an important role in spoken language, researchers who are interested in the spoken grammar, have to take account of the prosodic structure of the speech data. This paper aims to show how prosodic account can help to find some plausible answers to semantic and syntactic problems based on some empirical evidences by analysing the 46,529 entries of dictionary, spontaneous speech over 400,000 syllables, and 446 proverbs. The average number of intonational phrase is 7.2 syllables, which reflects working memory proposed by Miller(1994). Strikingly similar statistical results between spontaneous speech and proverbs are obtained. In addition, asymmetric use between short negation and long negation is observed by comparing the frequency of occurrence of negative sentence in casual dialogue, formal presentation, and a written report. Long negation tends to be more used in formal speech than in casual speech and more used in writing than in speaking. The reason why short negation is more used in speaking than in writing, appears to be related to the disambiguation of a negative sentence by prosody of speech.

KEYWORDS

운율(prosody) 구어(spoken language), 문어(written language), 운율 단위(prosodic unit), 운율 구조(prosodic structure), 속담(proverb), 부정문(negative sentence), 중의성(ambiguity), 장형 부정(long negation), 단형 부정(short negation), 비대칭성(asymmetry)

KJCKorea
Journal Central

Korean Semantics 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.11