‘약간’의 어휘적 의미 연구

초록

This study aims to provide a detailed description of the lexical meanings of the Korean word ‘yakgan’, which functions as both a noun and an adverb, and to examine how these lexical meanings relate to its discourse functions. Korean dictionaries and previous studies have described the meaning of ‘yakgan’ as “a small amount or degree,” but this description is insufficient to capture its differences from the near-synonym ‘jogeum’ and fails to account for the full range of its actual usage. Accordingly, this study identifies and describes five lexical meanings of ‘yakgan’: ① “small amount,” ② “low degree,” ③ “weakened inference,” ④ “low utterance certainty,” and ⑤ “partial identity, approximate rather than exact match, roughly.” It is confirmed that in meanings ① and ②, ‘yakgan’ is generally interchangeable with ‘jogeum’, though the use of ‘jogeum’ is dispreferred or awkward in adnominal positions; in meanings ③ through ⑤, substitution with ‘jogeum’ is difficult. Furthermore, the discourse functions of ‘yakgan’ proposed in previous studies are reexamined, and it is argued that all five lexical meanings underlie the functions of reducing the assertiveness of an utterance and of buying time when speech is hesitant, while meaning ⑤ primarily underlies the functions of organizing discourse content and buying time when an appropriate expression cannot be readily found.

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