Susan Strauss

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.

This, that, and it in spoken American English: a demonstrative system of gradient focus☆

This paper provides an alternative analysis for the demonstrative system of reference in spontaneous oral discourse. The alternative model is based on interaction between and among participants and is intended to replace the traditional proximal/distal distinction which statistically centers around the speaker as the primary locus of information. In a move away from the static view of language which traditionalists seem to embrace by concentrating on a single participant orientation (in this case, the speaker) the model being proposed here takes into account additional factors such as the hearer, the relationships between speaker and hearer, as well as the continuum of information status vis a vis the referent, i.e., new(er) vs. (more) shared information, more important vs. less important information, and so forth. The paper proposes that these factors are crucial for an analysis which accounts for speaker choice of demonstrative reference terms, especially in oral discourse. It will be shown through various distributional tendencies, that the motivating factors underlying speaker choice of demonstrative has much to do with the concept of FOCUS, and that by using demonstrative markers in various ways, speakers are indexing hints of their personal stance with regard not only to their interlocutors, but to the referents being talked about as well.

Indexicality and honorific speech level choice in Korean

Abstract The use of Korean honorifics is generally dependent upon such social factors as age, profession, socioeconomic status, and so forth. Traditional accounts of the two Korean honorific verbal suffixes, namely, the deferential and the polite forms, explain the use of each on the basis of relative status: the deferential is the more formal of the two, used when addressing persons of higher social status; the polite form is used when addressing persons of equal or higher status, but not so high as to require the deferential form. However, cursory examination of naturally produced oral discourse reveals that speakers often alternate between the two forms within the same stretch of talk and while addressing the same interlocutor. Using a database of approximately eight hours of naturally occurring speech from a variety of discourse genres, this article proposes an alternative analysis of the two honorific speech levels. Rather than the static, relative status account put forth by traditional linguistic and sociolinguistic views, we propose instead that these forms differ in terms of the semantic feature of + / − BOUNDARY vis à vis speaker and interlocutor and their respective domains of cognition and/or experience. That is, when speakers use the deferential form ( + BOUNDARY), they index a stance of EXCLUSION with the interlocutor, such that the interlocutor is positioned as outside the sphere of the speaker’s cognitive and/or experiential domains; discourse marked with the deferential form is thus framed as detached, objective, and authoritative. In contrast, when speakers use the polite form ( − BOUNDARY), they index a stance of INCLUSION. Essentially, then, the deferential form creates bounded distance between speaker and addressee, while the polite form establishes and/or reinforces common ground.

Distinctions in completives: The relevance of resistance in Korean V-a/e pelita and V-ko malta and Japanese V-te shimau

Abstract This study will provide an in-depth examination and analysis of the use of the Korean auxiliary constructions V-a/e pelita and V-ko malta as markers of completive aspect and will point out the semantic and pragmatic overlap of both with the Japanese completive marker V-te shimau. The fact that all three constructions are markers of completive aspect in two seemingly related languages allows us to critically examine the similarities and differences in how these constructions are used by native speakers of each language. It will be shown that, while typologically very similar, Japanese and Korean can actually pattern quite differently from each other, particularly with respect to how the various processes and circumstances leading up to the completion of a particular event are perceived and expressed in each language. Moreover, by analyzing these three auxiliary constructions, we will be able to gain new insight into the interface between temporal aspect, event perception, emotion, and cognition and how these are encoded in language.

A cognitive account of the Korean morpheme –se

Abstract Traditional treatments of Modern Korean consider the morpheme -se as strictly a clause combining element, similar in function to the coordinating conjunction ‘and’ and the adverbial conjunctives ‘and then’ or ‘because’ in English. However, the morpheme also appears in a number of postpositional opposition pairs such as ey ‘to’ and eyse ‘from,’ myen ‘if/when’ and myense ‘while, at the same time,’ ulo ‘toward’ and ulose ‘as, in the capacity of.’ And it is here that traditionalists do not recognize this instance of -se as meaningful in and of itself. That is, traditional views consider such opposition pairs as ey ‘to’ and eyse ‘from’ as simply opposite notions of goal and source, respectively, with the second member constituting a full ‘chunk,’ not distinctly analyzable into two separate morphemes, i.e., ey+se. This paper proposes a unified analysis of -se, both as a clausal connector as well as a bound morpheme in postpositional opposition pairs. All instances of -se will be analyzed as one and the same signal, the basic meaning of which is “groundedness.” Specifically, we will demonstrate that -se with its meaning of ‘groundedness,’ functions to establish inclusiveness and thus to link entities to each other, to link entities to locations and/or events, and to link events to other events. Through this signal–meaning–function approach, it will be shown throughout this paper that the addition of -se, by virtue of its meaning of groundedness, serves to transfer entities and events from the domain of IRREALIS to the domain of REALIS. As such, far from being a non-existent morpheme beyond its clause-combining function, it will be shown that -se actually carries powerful semantic meaning.

Beyond alef, be, pe: the socialisation of incipient ideology through literacy practices in an Iranian first-grade classroom

This article examines the interrelationship between literacy and the socialisation of incipient ideology. We focus on one first-grade classroom in Tehran, Iran, as students and teacher engage in a complex literacy event centering on a lesson from the national reader, bekhaanim (Lets Read). In the course of this textually driven meaning-making activity, we observe how participants explore and respond to elements of school-based language use as it unfolds explicitly and implicitly. The three-part structure of the IRF (teacher initiation–student response–teacher feedback) serves as the primary vehicle through which explicit teaching of content and behavior occurs. However, it is also this structure that serves as the primary vehicle for implicitly constituted school-situated dynamics where first-grade Iranian boys are socialised into values of their society – values of respect and reverence for authority, friendship, brotherhood, and solidarity – while experiencing their first exposure to the literacy practices of spelling, reading, and writing.