Lucien Brown

Korean Honorifics and Politeness in Second Language Learning

This book investigates the ways that advanced speakers of Korean as a second language perceive, use and learn the complexities of the Korean honorifics system. Despite their advanced proficiency in Korean, the study shows that the honorifics use of these speakers diverges in crucial ways from native speaker norms. It is argued that, rather than reflecting the language competence of these speakers as such, this usage is linked to questions of the identity of “language learners” and “foreigners” in Korean society. In addition, it shows the influence of conflicting ideologies regarding the “meaning” of “politeness”. This argument is backed up by rich data collected through mixed methods (discourse completion tests, role-plays, natural interactions, introspective interviews), allowing for a detailed picture of how the honorifics use of second language speakers emerges in context. The book concludes by discussing the implications of the study for politeness research, interlanguage pragmatics and language pedagogy.

“Mind your own esteemed business”: Sarcastic honorifics use and impoliteness in Korean TV dramas

Abstract Honorifics have traditionally been analyzed as markers of “deference” and have been connected with positive values such as “respect”, “dignity” and “elegance”. However, in this paper, I demonstrate that these readings only apply to normative and stereotypical patterns of honorifics use. When applied in other contexts, where their use is not normally expected, honorifics take on different social meanings, including sarcasm. Through the analysis of Korean television dramas, I show that sarcastic applications of honorifics may be applied both for “mock” impoliteness and “genuine” face-threatening impoliteness. Although these sarcastic usages occur most frequently between intimates (i.e., where the use of honorifics is marked), there also exist devices for being sarcastic towards adult strangers (even though in such contexts honorifics may be considered unmarked and normative). Crucially, my examples demonstrate that honorifics may communicate sarcasm in and of themselves. This sarcastic meaning is strongest when honorifics are applied in ways that remains “relevant”; in other words, when they make reference to knowledge or social norms shared by the community of practice. The findings confirm once and for all that honorifics are not “deferential” in an absolute sense. More broadly, the paper clarifies the position of sarcasm and irony within impoliteness theory.

Teaching "Casual" and/or "Impolite" Language through Multimedia: The Case of Non-Honorific Panmal Speech Styles in Korean.

This article reports on the design, implementation and evaluation of an activity used to teach non-honorific speech styles through multimedia to a class of intermediate learners at a university in Europe. Although much emphasis has been placed in Korean language learning and teaching on the importance of honorific styles, my article reveals that this at times has come at the expense of ignoring the other side of the coin: non-honorific language. Indeed, Korean language teaching materials delay the teaching of non-honorific language to intermediate level and then only deal with them in a perfunctory way. This is unfortunate as the pragmatics of non-honorific styles can be complex and learners frequently encounter these styles outside of class, even when their Korean level is rudimentary. I argue that this lack of emphasis on non-honorific language is not limited to Korean but represents a common tendency within language pedagogy to avoid language that is considered ‘casual’ or ‘impolite’. With traditional teaching materials doing a poor job at representing these facets of language use, the solution I put forward is the use of multimedia activities. These activities are designed specifically to raise consciousness of the pragmatic factors influencing the use of non-honorific styles.

Korean Honorifics and ‘Revealed’, ‘Ignored’ and ‘Suppressed’ Aspects of Korean Culture and Politeness

Korean is well known for possessing one of the most elaborate honorifics systems observed in the world’s languages. Through the addition of verb endings and vocabulary substitutions the speaker is able to express subtle degrees of deference towards the hearer or sentence referents. At times, this results in sentences of identical referential meaning being rendered in altogether different ways depending on whether the speaker is addressing (or referring to) a status superior (as in 1a) or status equal/ subordinate (1b):1

Questions of appropriateness and authenticity in the representation of Korean honorifics in textbooks for second language learners

This paper explores the representation of honorifics in the teaching of Korean as a second language through the analysis of three leading series of textbooks published in Seoul. Despite the fact that Korean is a language with a highly developed honorifics system, these textbooks at times under-emphasize the importance of honorifics and focus around one particular ‘level’ of honorification. If learners were to apply this ‘level’ to real-world encounters, it would be ‘too deferential’ for use towards intimates and also ‘not deferential enough’ for addressing superiors. Textbook designers may contend that the choice of this level is influenced by a need to simplify the presentation of honorifics and to provide learners with a register that is ‘safe’ but conversational. However, I argue that this often leads to a presentation of honorifics that is inauthentic, limited in terms of appropriateness and which betrays preconceptions regarding the abilities and social roles of ‘foreign’ language learners. In effect, the treatment of honorifics in the dialogues appears to be based not so much on an explicit pedagogy as it is on the kind of ‘interlanguage’ or ‘foreigner talk’ that native speakers of Korean would intuitively use with learners of the language in order to make it easier for them. Although the problems discussed in this paper are specific to Korean, the wider problem of deciding what registers of language are ‘appropriate’ for L2 learners is of wider import. This paper sets out to problematize ideologies that may influence language educators in choosing ‘authentic’ and ‘appropriate’ textbook language.

Politeness and second language learning: The case of Korean speech styles

Abstract This paper puts forward a model for the study of politeness in second language learning and applies this approach to data collected pertaining to the use of speech styles by advanced learners of Korean from “Western” backgrounds. The learning of politeness in a second language is conceptualized as a process of “re-framing”; in other words, of re-analyzing and enriching existing frames regarding the kind of (linguistic) behavior that normally occurs in given context. This process is complicated by different ideological loadings regarding what it means to “speak politely” in different cultures and also by the instability of “face” in L1-L2 encounters. The data shows that the more egalitarian way that L2 speakers use Korean speech styles does not just result from a lack of knowledge regarding the “frames” in which different styles are usually applied, but also from ideological opposition to using these forms for the overt marking of age-rank relationships. However, rather than being evaluated as “impolite”, the salient modes of honorifics use appearing in L1-L2 encounters were rendered appropriate to some extent by the relationships emerging in such contexts. Ultimately, “face” and “politeness” in interactions involving L2 learners are established through interaction and are intrinsically dynamic and discursive.

(Im)politeness: Prosody and Gesture

This chapter looks at how (Im)politeness is communicated through non-verbal means, including prosody and gesture. Brown and Prieto show that multiple acoustic features pattern with politeness- and impoliteness-related meanings, including fundamental frequency (pitch), duration (length), intensity (loudness) and various aspects of voice quality, including breathiness. Despite claims that there is a frequency code by which high pitch is universally associated with politeness, the authors demonstrate that cross-linguistic research does not always support such claims. Various co-speech gestures and other non-verbal features also interact closely with prosody in the communication of politeness, including manual gestures, facial expressions and bodily orientation. Discussions in this chapter show (Im)politeness to be a complex phenomenon communicated through multiple modalities.

Perceiving politeness from speech acoustics alone: A cross-linguistic study on Korean and English

Politeness is a crucial aspect of everyday speech communication; however, there are to date only few acoustic studies on this topic. Winter and Grawunder (2012) showed that for Korean speakers, politeness is reflected in pitch, intensity, voice quality and speaking rate. Here, we extend this production study by investigating whether Korean and English listeners can perceive the intended politeness of short Korean utterances based on speech acoustics alone. In two experiments with a total of 47 English and 30 Korean listeners, we found that both groups can detect the intended politeness purely based on the phonetic qualities of speech. In one experiment, accuracy was low (Korean: 58%, English: 53%) because speakers heard multiple voices in a randomized fashion, not allowing them to familiarize with any particular voice. In a design that was blocked by speaker voice, accuracy was higher (Korean: 70%, English: 58%), showing that vocal politeness can be used as a cue when the voice is known. This shows that p...

Loudness trumps pitch in politeness judgments: Evidence from Korean

Politeness is a vital aspect of everyday life that is receiving increased attention in sociophonetic research. The current study investigated how deferential and intimate stances, examples of politeness-related expressions, are conveyed by phonetic cues in Korean. Previously, we found that Korean listeners can distinguish these stances based on speech acoustics alone. The current study manipulated fundamental frequency (F0) and intensity of spoken Korean utterances to investigate the specific role of these cues in politeness judgments. Across three experiments with a total of 63 Korean listeners, we found that intensity reliably influenced politeness judgments, but F0 did not. An examination of individual differences revealed that all listeners interpreted deferential stances to be associated with low intensity: quiet utterances were perceived as deferential. On the other hand, the interpretation of F0 varied across listeners: some perceived high-pitched utterances as deferential and others perceived low-...

Gender Identity in a Second Language: The Use of First Person Pronouns by Male Learners of Japanese

ABSTRACT This is a qualitative sociocultural study examining how five advanced-level learners of Japanese from the United States use gendered first person pronouns to negotiate their identities. Japanese does not have a ubiquitous pronoun such as English I. Instead, the language contains forms that are marked for formality and gender, including watashi (formal/feminine), ore (informal/masculine) and boku (neutral/boyish). We collected recordings of the learners speaking with four different native-speaker interlocutors (female friend, male friend, female stranger, male stranger) and conducted retrospective interviews. The analysis shows that these learners were actively involved in choosing pronouns that indexed their identities as men, although these masculine identities were not always ratified by their Japanese interlocutors. One reason for this was that the male identities expressed by the learners were at times closer to American than to Japanese masculinities. Learners also used pronouns as a resource to index their identities as proficient speakers of Japanese.