Grammar
다만
Meaning
Intermediatedaman
Opens a sentence that qualifies what was just said without overturning it — 'that said', 'except that'. It is weaker than 그러나: what follows is a reservation, not a reversal, so the previous statement still stands. This is why news writing uses it to bring in the one unfavourable figure after a run of favourable ones, and why regulations use it to attach an exception to a rule they have just laid down.
Form
다만 is a conjunctive adverb, not an ending, so it needs a full sentence break in front of it and then stands at the head of the next sentence. News writing often runs it straight into the subject with no comma (다만 취업자 수는…), while official and legal text conventionally writes 다만, with a comma before the proviso it introduces. It attaches to nothing and never changes shape.
Examples
다만 취업자 수는 11만 명 늘어나는 데 그칠 것으로 예상했습니다.
That said, it expects the number of people in work to rise by only 110,000.
Common mistakes & nuance
Because 다만 opens a sentence rather than joining clauses, it cannot be hung off the end of the previous one the way -지만 attaches to a stem — 전망치보다 높습니다 다만 취업자 수는… needs a full stop before 다만. Keep it apart, too, from the ordinary adverb 다만 meaning 'only, merely', which usually turns up with 뿐: 다만 조금 늦었을 뿐입니다, 'it was merely a little late'.
Similar grammar
- 그러나
그러나 turns the argument around: what follows replaces the direction the previous sentence was heading in. 다만 leaves that direction intact and carves out an exception inside it, so a paragraph that says growth was revised up can add 다만 about employment without taking the good news back.
- -지만
-지만 is an ending and keeps the concession inside one sentence (높지만 …). 다만 is an adverb that gives the concession a sentence of its own. When the reservation needs figures and a source of its own, news writing breaks the sentence and switches to 다만.