What Part Are You Talking about? A Study of How Vague Expressions with Pubun (“Part”) Enhance Intersubjectivity in Korean Political Discourse

This study explores indexical meanings and pragmatic functions of the Korean noun pubun (“part”), especially when it is used as a bound noun to construct demonstrative pronoun structures. From a perspective of indexicality, our analysis shows that a major function of pubun is to avoid interpersonal conflicts by making it possible to construct and negotiate the meaning of what is being referred to. We also present how pubun functions contextually when the speaker expresses his/her opinion or thought in a mitigated way. In contrast to the view of pubun as a source of vagueness in discourse, our analysis demonstrates the function of pubun that regulates a speaker’s epistemic stance in collaborating with other interlocutors.