Ho-min Sohn

Japanese/Korean Linguistics

Japanese and Korean are typologically quite similar, so a linguistic phenomenon in one language often has a counterpart in the other. The papers in this volume are intended to further collective and collaborative research in both languages. The contributors discuss aspects of language acquisition, discourse, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, phonology, morphology, typology, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. The papers were presented at the Southern California Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference in September 1991. Contributors to this volume are Patricia M. Clancy, Seiko Yamaguchi Fujii, Shoichi Iwasaki, Kyu-hyun Kim, Yoshiko Matsumoto, Shigeko Okamoto, Sung-Ock S. Sohn, Kyung-Hee Suh, Eunjoo Han, Jongho Jun, Ongmi Kang, David James Silva, Noriko Akatsuka, Shoji Azuma, Soonja Choi, Bruce L. Derwing, Yeo Bom Yoon, Sook Whan Cho, Tsuyoshi Ono, Hiroko Yamashita, Laurie Stowe, Mineharu Nakayama, Ruriko Kawashima, Masanori Nakamaura, Shin Watanabe, Dong-In Cho, Stanley Dubinsky, Hiroto Hoshi, Yasua Ishii, Hisatsugu Kitahara, Masatoshi Koizumi, Jae Hong Lee, Sookhee Lee, Young-Suk Lee, and Shigeo Tonoike.

Cross‐cultural patterns of honorifics and sociolinguistic sensitivity to honorific variables: Evidence from English, Japanese, and Korean

Abstract In this paper are presented both paradigmatic and syntagmatic patterns of honorifics that compare American English, Japanese, and Korean. A set of cross‐cultural variables of power and solidarity is proposed and discussed in relation to the usages of honorific expressions. Of the three languages in comparison, American English is the least sensitive to all the power variables and group solidarity, to which Japanese and Korean are highly susceptible. In their sociolinguistic behavior, Americans appear to render the greatest relative importance to the intimacy variable, Japanese to groupness, and Koreans to age.

Power and solidarity in the Korean language

Abstract This paper reveals the structural and sociolinguistic changes of Korean speech styles, relating them to the fact that in Korean society ‘power’ and formality have been giving way to ‘solidarity’ and informality. A sociolinguistically revealing analysis of the structure and usage of the Korean speech styles (or levels) is proposed, as against the traditional, one‐dimensional and purely linguistic analysis. Finally, the paper claims that the present Korean society is a mixture of a traditional vertical social structure with a Western horizontal structure superimposed, as reflected in the Korean sociolinguistic dynamic.

The State of the Art in the Historical-Comparative Studies of Japanese and Korean

Encompassing most relevant works that have appeared to date, this article examines and evaluates as objectively as possible various old and new hypotheses regarding the genetic affiliation of Japanese and Korean. The first part of the article (sections 1-6) concerns the works that relate the two languages to Altaic or Austronesian, touching briefly on the Tamil substratum hypothesis at the end. It is observed that the Altaic hypothesis is the most persuasive in view of the data presently available. The second part (sections 7-8) reviews the works dealing with the relationship between Japanese and Korean. It appears undeniable that the two languages are genetically related sister languages. The article closes with some brief suggestions for future research.