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In:Emancipatory Pragmatics: Innovative approaches to pragmatics incorporating the concept of “ba”
Edited by Yoko Fujii, William F. Hanks, Sachiko Ide, Scott Saft and Kishiko Ueno
[Culture and Language Use 24] 2025
► pp. 120–143

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The neutral -ta style in Korean

(Inter)subjectivity and ba theory

 | Hanyang University, ERICA
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 2 December 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.24.05kim
Abstract
This study explores the development of -ta from a basic non-honorific sentence ender in written Korean to its multifaceted (inter)subjective functions in spoken interactions through ba theory. Based on task-based conversations involving 40 professor-student pairs who collaboratively constructed stories from 15 pictures, the study identifies four primary functions of -ta: (1) storytelling, (2) conveying momentarily perceived information or emotions, (3) marking echo questions, and (4) serving as backchannel responses. The concepts of subjectivity and intersubjectivity are employed in analyzing the semantic extension of neutral style -ta in Korean. However, the results suggest that ba theory offers a more comprehensive framework to explain its semantic shift toward subjectification and intersubjectification.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.(Inter)subjectivity and (inter)subjectification
  • 3.Data: EKO-Corpus
  • 4.The use of -ta in conversation
    • 4.1Distribution of -ta in conversation
    • 4.2Functions of -ta in conversation
      • 4.2.1When used independently
      • 4.2.2When occurring in response turns
        • i.Echo questions
        • ii.Backchannel responses
  • 5.Reexamination of (inter)subjectivity through ba theory
    • 5.1A critique of Traugott’s approach to (inter)subjectivity
    • 5.2Emancipatory pragmatics and ba theory
    • 5.3(Inter)subjectivity in terms of ba theory
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (62)
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