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A study on modal expressions during witness examination in a hearing -focusing on ‘-ji’ and ‘-jan-

  • Korean Semantics
  • 2020, 67(), pp.1-24
  • DOI : 10.19033/sks.2020.3.67.1
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Semantics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature
  • Received : November 13, 2019
  • Accepted : March 17, 2020
  • Published : March 30, 2020

HUIJAE YU 1

1연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study aims to analyze the meaning and function of epistemic forms ‘-ji’ and ‘-jan-’. This study examines their semantics in terms of epistemic modality and shows how they function in a witness examination process. The first part of this study shows that both ‘-ji’ and ‘-jan-’ have an epistemic property which dictates that both the speaker and the listener have a knowledge the information. I further suggest that the difference between ’-ji’ and ‘-jan-’ does not come from the epistemic state of the listener but the property of assimilation about the listener; ‘-ji’ assumes that the listener has a knowledge about the information, but ‘-jan-’ further assumes that the listener has an ‘assimilated knowledge.’ The second part of the study suggests that both epistemic forms serve a function of ‘accusing’ during witness examination in a hearing. Since they signal that both the speaker and the listener already know about information, it puts high pressure to the listener that he/she must admit about the proposition. Therefore, they can function as a device to pressure the witnesses to admit their wrongdoing.

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