Negatively-Formatted Requests for Confirmation in Korean Conversation: Three Types of Verbal Negation As Interactional Resources

From a conversation-analytic perspective, this article analyzes three types of verbal negation in Korean, which shape requests for confirmation (RfCs) into distinctive interactional resources. The pre-verbal negation (an) RfC emerges in the context where the recipient is prompted to see the “fittedness” of its confirmable as referencing an “allusive” aspect of his/her situated domain, inferentially formulated by the questioner as a “negative event.” The post-verbal negation (ci anh) renders the RfC a vehicle for making mitigated assertions, seeking the recipient’s agreement in acquiescence to the questioner’s “problematizing” stance. The use of post-nominalization negation (nun-ke ani) RfC exhibits the questioner’s “conjecturing” stance, displaying norm-based deontic orientations treating the noted event at hand as deviant or counter-expectational. The target of the confirmable is formulated an “entity” assessable by the recipient as an externally-positioned co-member/evaluator. Cross-linguistic implications of the findings are discussed, in relation to English tag questions and negative interrogatives.