The Interplay of Prosody and Sequence of Talk: Kuleh-kwuna ‘I see’ in Korean Conversation

This study examines how Korean speakers utilize the response token kuleh-kwuna ‘I see’ not only to show comprehension and acknowledgment of new information but also to signal the character of what will be said next. This study utilizes naturally-occurring conversation data based on the Conversation Analytic approach, the corpus methodology, and the Korean intonation convention. The data show that kuleh-kwuna is frequently used for closing a sequence of Q & A or a topic. Different intonations and intensities are used in kuleh-kwuna depending on whether the response token is a sequence closer of Q &A or a topic closer. This study elucidates the use of kuleh-kwuna as a response token and the significance of its prosodic features that differentiate the sequential roles.