A Study on the Discourse Function of ‘Inja’: Focusing on Gwangju’s Daily Language

Abstract

This study aims to reveal what kind of discourse function the discourse marker ‘Inja’ frequently used in Gwangju’s daily language performs. Unlike previous studies on ‘Inja’, this study attempted to systematically analyze discourse functions from microscopic, macroscopic perspectives and even functions related to emotions. As for the analysis data, transcription data and video data obtained through interviews with merchants in the Gwangju market were targeted. As a result of analyzing this data, a total of 13 functions were identified as the discourse function of ‘Inja’, which appears frequently in Gwangju’s daily language. Macroscopic functions include ‘topic switching function’, ‘topic induction function’, ‘topic focus function’, ‘topic closing function’, ‘topic addition function’, and microscopic functions ‘time-earning function’, ‘information supplement function’, ‘utterance closing function’, ‘utterance access function’, ‘hesitation’, ‘pause function’, ‘citation sign function’, ‘filling blanks in information’ were used. Among these functions, this study newly presented ‘topic closing function’, ‘sentence closing function’, ‘hesitation’, ‘pause function’, ‘citation sign function’, and ‘filling blanks in information’ as functions that have not been mentioned in previous studies. As such, the realization of ‘Inja’ used in various possibilities was confirmed in the analysis data. Finally, as a result of network analysis to confirm the relationship between the use of ‘Ije’ and ‘Inje’, which show similar use of ‘Inja’, it was revealed that only ‘Inja’ has ‘citation sign function’ and ‘filling blanks in information’.