This study aims to investigate connection in Korean spontaneous speech, redefining them not as formal linkages restricted to specific grammatical categories, but as core mechanisms for organizing real-time discourse. While traditional research has pri...
This study aims to investigate connection in Korean spontaneous speech, redefining them not as formal linkages restricted to specific grammatical categories, but as core mechanisms for organizing real-time discourse. While traditional research has primarily focused on sentence-internal syntactic structures or the semantic description of individual connectives, this study highlights the dynamic connection between explicit linguistic units and non-verbal resources—such as facial expressions, gaze, and gestures—as well as situational contexts. To this end, the study analyzes transcribed data from the reality program Single’s Inferno and employs a multilingual parallel corpus (Korean, English, and Japanese) to examine the subtle discursive functions of Korean connection.
The major findings are as follows:
First, the unit of connection is expanded to encompass the entire range of discourse resources. Connection transcends the simple joining of clauses or sentences, incorporating non-clausal linguistic units, the utterances of interlocutors, and even non-verbal contexts. This suggests that connection is a dynamic process through which speakers construct communicative integrity by linking all available discourse resources.
Second, non-standard forms in spoken language are redefined as strategic products of the speaker. Connection without a main clause is not a grammatical deficiency but a proactive choice by the speaker to maximize communicative efficiency by leveraging shared ground and context. In particular, the existence of ‘asyndetic connection’—verified through parallel corpus analysis—demonstrates that the essence of connection lies in cognitive inference rather than formal markers. This necessitates a shift in connection research from a formal-centered to a cognitive-strategy-centered perspective.
Third, based on Online Syntax and Relevance Theory, connection is identified as a gradual process in which speakers and listeners co-construct meaning while pursuing optimal relevance within a linear temporal flow. Notably, the study focuses on the function of prospectivity, whereby speakers control the listener’s cognitive inference path by signaling the direction of subsequent discourse.
Fourth, by categorizing connection into content, epistemic, and speech act domains, the study reveals that higher-layer connective clauses no longer function as subordinate clauses but as independent discourse units. This provides a theoretical rationale for expanding the unit of analysis in connection research from individual sentences to macro-discourse levels.
In conclusion, this research captures the unique production principles of Korean spontaneous speech through usage-based corpus analysis and proposes a new methodological horizon for Discourse Grammar research.