관련성 이론에 기반한 문말조사 ‘也’의 기능분석 = A Functional Analysis of the Sentence-Final Particle Ye (也)Based on Relevance Theory

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study argues that the sentence-final particle yě (也) exceeds the explanatory scope of the traditional Code Model, which reduces communication to a mechanical process of encoding and decoding. Rather than serving as a static sign that conveys fixed semantic content, yě is reconceptualized as a procedural marker that constrains the hearer's inferential trajectory and activates particular interpretive paths within discourse. Drawing on the framework of Relevance Theory, this study elucidates the pragmatic functions and information-control mechanism of yě. The main findings are as follows.
First, this study identifies the limitations of both the pluralistic modal theory and the unified modal theory, and reinterprets the core function of yě through the notion of ‘presuppositional evidentiality’. Whereas previous studies have either enumerated its uses individually—as judgment, explanation, exclamation, or interrogation—or reduced them to a single category such as assertion or affirmation, this study demonstrates that these diverse usages all operate on a shared epistemological foundation in which the speaker presents a given proposition as already-verified knowledge.
Second, the presuppositional evidentiality of yě is classified into four types according to the source of its evidence: Type I, grounded in universal properties; Type II, grounded in internalized experience; Type III, grounded in normative consequence; and Type IV, grounded in stative modality.
Third, from the perspective of Relevance Theory, yě performs a procedural encoding that intervenes directly in the hearer's inferential process rather than adding conceptual content to the proposition. Through yě, the speaker frames a given proposition not as new information requiring verification but as established knowledge whose legitimacy has already been secured; the hearer, in turn, narrows the range of open interpretive possibilities and processes the proposition within the interpretive frame the speaker has set. This procedural function manifests consistently across different sentence types, including declaratives, interrogatives, rhetorical questions, and imperatives.