Research on the Active Response Functions of ‘en(嗯)’ in Chinese Dialogues with a Focus on the Current Situation and Layouts of Chinese-teaching Textbooks in South Korea

Abstract

When people learn a second foreign language, they always try to explore rules. If there was a universal golden key, it would save a lot of time and energy on learning methods. The author finds one word among some often used words to respond when watching TV and communicating with others. It is such an inclusive word that people can use to answer in a short time without thinking too hard about the word choice. Through the investigation of the first season of “Ode to Joy”, there seems to be no “en(嗯)” in the subtitle at the bottom of the screen, yet there is quite a high appearance rate in the actual dialogues between the protagonists. Through prior study, it has been discovered that there seems to be very little research on “en” perhaps because the word is too colloquial. Although the probability of discussion in essays is not very high, “en” is indeed necessary for discussion and research from the perspective of the actual usage rate. Based on the research of previous scholars, this research has summarized four types of active response functions of “en”. When replaced with the well-known “shi(是)”, “hao(好)”, “dui(对)”, and “xing(行)”, “en” has been confirmed to be able to replace the above four within the frame of the four active response functions and sometimes bear the brunt. Moreover, the author has sorted and analyzed the three Chinese-teaching textbooks currently used in South Korea, finding that the word “en” rarely appears. Even if it does, it still acts as one of the four functions and there is no explanation about it. It can be considered a pity that such an inclusive response word has not emerged in Chinese-teaching textbooks. It may be more helpful to learners if “en” could be mentioned more.