Between honorifics and non-honorifics

A study of the Korean semi-honorific style and a comparison with Japanese

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5965632
AutoresMinju Kim (0000-0002-3097-2164, Claremont McKenna College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen25
Número5
Páginas664-691
Fecha de publicación2023-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDiscourse Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1461-4456 • E-ISSN: 1461-7080
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/14614456231184090
OpenAlexW4385420411
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas24

Korean possesses a highly intricate honorific system with six speech styles, each indicating a different degree of respect, intimacy, and formality. While the two styles at the honorific level and the two at the non-honorific level are in daily use, the two styles at the middle level of the six have mostly disappeared due to the shift toward a less hierarchical and less formal society. In this study, using both diachronic and synchronic corpus data, I demonstrate that a new speech style, which I call the “semi-honorific style,” has emerged, partially filling the void created by the two disappearing ones, and I propose the mechanism of the new style’s grammaticalization. Constructed by combining honorific and non-honorific markers in a single sentence, the “semi-honorific style” occupies the space between the honorific and non-honorific levels. I compare this with the Japanese “semi-polite” form, whose rise has been noted by recent studies

Art · Formality · Honorific · Linguistics · Literature · Politeness · Communication · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Philosophy · Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism