Resisting the Terms of Polar Questions Through Ani (‘No’)-Prefacing in Korean Conversation

Abstract

This article reports on the conversation-analytic investigation of ani ‘no’-prefaced responses to polar questions in Korean conversation, when ani is not used as a negative response particle to negate or disconfirm the truth conditional proposition of the question. Understanding polar questions as advancing the questioner's hypothesis for confirmation, the article demonstrates that the ani-preface in the responsive turn resists (1) the polar question's presupposition that the hypothesis is confirmable and (2) the framing of the proposed hypothesis. Overall, the study rediscovers ani ‘no’ as a turn-beginning particle that indexes the respondent's resistance to responding to the question as framed and further discusses the token's “positionally sensitive” character by discussing cases of ani-prefaced turns that occur in response to wh-questions.