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11.4: Korean speech style markers

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    138683
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    Korean also has the same two types of honorifics as Japanese, argument honorifics vs. addressee honorifics.13 As part of the addressee honorific system, Korean distinguishes grammatically six levels of politeness, often referred to as speech styles: formal, semiformal, polite, familiar, intimate, and plain.14 A seventh level, “super-polite”, was used for addressing kings and queens; it is now considered archaic, and is used mostly in prayers. The choice of speech style marking depends on “(i) the relationship between speaker and addressee (e.g., intimacy, politeness), and (ii) the formality of the situation”.15 The uses of these styles, as described by Pak (2008: 120), are summarized in Table 11.1.

    Speech style is marked grammatically by a verbal suffix referred to as the “sentence ender”. Since Korean is an SOV language, the main clause verb typically occurs at the end of the sentence and hosts the sentence ender. The sentence ender is actually a portmanteau suffix which encodes three distinct grammatical features: (a) speech style (i.e. politeness); (b) “special mood” (not discussed here); and (c) sentence type (i.e. speech act; this corresponds to the major mood category in other languages).16 Korean has an unusually rich inventory of speech act markers. The exact number is a topic of controversy; Sohn (1999) lists four major sentence types (declarative, interrogative, imperative, and “propositive” or hortative); plus several minor types including admonitive (warning), promissive, exclamatory, and apperceptive (new or currently perceived information?). Combinations of four of the speech styles with two sentence types (declarative and imperative) are illustrated in Table 11.2; the sentence enders are italicized.17

    Like Japanese honorifics, the Korean speech style markers contribute information about the current speech act, specifically the relationship between speaker and hearer, rather than contributing to the at-issue propositional content of the utterance. Use of the wrong speech style marker in a particular situation would not cause a statement to be considered false, but would be felt to be inappropriate. A speaker who committed such an error would probably be corrected quickly and emphatically. Moreover, the information contributed by the speech style markers cannot be negated or questioned. The negative statement in (22b) and the question in (22c) are felt to be just as polite as the corresponding positive statement in (22a), and would be appropriate in the same range of situations.18

    Table 11.1: Use of Korean speech styles following Pak (2008: 120)
    Table 11.2: Declaratives and imperatives in Korean

    (22) a. Pi=ka w-ayo.

    rain=nom come-decl.pol

    ‘It is raining.’ (polite)

    b. Pi=ka an-w-ayo

    rain=nom neg-come-decl.pol

    ‘It is not raining.’ (polite)

    c. Pi=ka w-ayo?

    rain=nom come-decl.pol

    ‘Is it raining?’ (polite) [Sohn 1999: 269–270]


    13 Kim & Sells (2007)

    14 S. E. Martin (1992), Pak (2008), Sohn (1999)

    15 Pak et al. (2013)

    16 Sohn (1999), Pak (2008).

    17 These examples are taken from Pak et al. (2013).

    18 Thanks to Shin-Ja Hwang for very helpful discussion of these issues.


    This page titled 11.4: Korean speech style markers is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Paul Kroeger (Language Library Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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