KJC Korea
Journal Central

The representation of subsyllablic structure of Korean has been under ongoing dispute. There have been different sets of language behavioral data trying to support left branching, right branching, or non-hierarchial structure. The current paper approaches this issue with a new set of data focusing on rhythm in language. It is assumed that it is possible to examine how language users represent the subsyllabic structure by investigating rhyming patterns used in rap-songs. An experiment was performed in which a rappers' group and a listeners' group marked all the rhymed words they could perceive. A statistical analysis of the distributional characteristics of perceived rhyme parts is provided to determine which subsyllabic structure is more frequently used in rap-song rhyming. The result indicated that rappers considered both body (i.e., onset plus nucleus) and rime (i.e., nucleus plus coda) equally as rhyme constituents, while listeners who are less accustomed to detecting rap-song rhymes perceived rimes better than bodies. The findings will be discussed in terms of their implications for the substructure of Korean syllables.

The purpose of this study is to investigate current status of Korean teenagers' language use regarding expletives, teenage slangs, and buzz-words, by employing a questionnaire survey. We have obtained a sample of 2418 teenage students from elementary, middle, and high schools in Seoul and Gyeonggi areas. For data analysis, we performed frequency, mean, chi-square test, and Spearman's correlation analysis. Our results indicate that expletives, teenage slangs, and buzz-words tend to be widely used in daily life with almost no sense of guilt or shame and that frequency of expletives highly increase from middle school age. Negative result of expletives is an increase in physical and verbal aggression as well as in passive aggression. Some of the questioned replied that they feel estrangement and inconvenience about teenage slangs and buzz-words. Additionally, we found that elements of family conversation, parental propensity to control, school education, leisure activity, self-control, and empathy ability correlate closely with frequency of expletives in teenage students.

The purpose of this study is to examine the change type and patterns in which a verb acquires a new meaning to indicate the action related to the computer upon the influx of computer media. When new concept arises upon the social and cultural exchanges with other countries, a new word representing the new concept is needed. However, a new word made from borrowing from foreign languages or synthesis or derivation is limited to a noun. But, since a verb is more limited in synthesis or derivation of new word compared to a noun, we usually use the existing verbs to represent the action or the behavior associated to a noun of new media. As it comes to the 21st century, the whole world experienced the rapid change caused by IT (Information Technology) revolution as much as Industrial revolution. As a result, huge amounts of IT-related words from influx of foreign languages have come or lots of new words have been created, respectively. In this process, there are many words different from the existing actions that we have done when using the hardware or software of IT-related equipments. The results brought considerable changes to the existing verbs. Therefore, this study focused on the meaning change patterns of verbs according to the behavior or action associated to the usage of computers representing the IT media. In this study, the patterns of meaning change were largely categorized into three as follows. (1) No meaning change, (2) Keep the selectional restrictions, (3) Break selectional restrictions. (1) This case is that a verb combines with a new noun upon the influx of computers and a situation can be inferred based on the primary meaning of a verb. (2) The action to use the computer is not existed, but a noun associated with it is used metaphorically. So, it seems to keep the selectional restrictions. (3)Since a verb acquires a totally different meaning, it seems to violate the selectional restrictions with noun argument.

This study examines and compares the address terms in Korean textbooks and questionnaires, which are aimed at married migrant women. The results of the study show that among the eight major Korean address terms, the frequent uses of the kin and kinship address terms are founded in the Korean textbooks and married migrant women. Because they are bound by marriage, married migrant women talk more frequently with their husbands, parents-in-law, and relatives than the others. Moreover, due to their recent migration to Korea, they do not only connect with others but also cannot converse well in Korean. The results also illustrate that a few terms of address exist in Korean textbooks. While all address terms in Korean textbooks coincide with standard speech, some address terms revealed in questionnaires are not appropriate for standard speech. “obba” and “name (married migrant women)” are most frequently used between married migrant women and their husbands. Further, “ya, eo-i” is more frequently used by parents-in-law and relatives for addressing married migrant women. The address terms such as “obba,” “name,” and “ya, eo-i” are incorrect address terms for expressing the relationship between a husband and a wife—family. Both parties concerned with Korean textbooks and Korean education must devote considerable space, and time to teaching the address terms so that they can be used efficiently by married migrant women.

In the 21st century of globalization, nations create and manage their nation brand images strategically. As one way to promote the nation images, nation brand slogans are used. Since 2002 World Cup in Korea, the Korea Tourism Organization has employed three slogans to present the dynamic image of Korea and to promote the image of developing Korea: “Dynamic Korea”, “Korea Sparkling”, “Korea, Be Inspired”. In order to confirm whether these slogans successfully promote Korean images or not, this paper investigated the images of the slogans from the receiver perspectives (N=38) and presented the linguistic analysis on the slogans. In addition, this paper argues that the three slogans do not successfully promote Korea nation images because of lexical and structural ambiguities of the slogans. It is also discussed in this paper that the receiver meanings of the slogans can be different from the sender meanings: “Dynamic Korea” and “Korea, Be Inspired” can evoke the image of North Korea; “Korea Sparkling” can be thought as sparkling drinks from Korea; “Korea, Be Inspired” can be interpreted as “Korea, which needs to be inspired”, not as the sender meaning “Korea, where you are inspired”. Thus, it is required to reconsider the slogans and create a new slogan that can be classified as a “Love Mark” (Park 2004) and manage it strategically.

This study is aimed at suggesting the leaner-centered education methods in the formal speech education that is one of the liberal education in the university. It is important for learners to understand their style. Their own characters and style influence their speeches. So in order to show the various speech model, we analysed the women leaders' speeches in Korea. These models help for learners to find their style and to improve their speech ability. As practices comprise a large portion of the speech education in the university, it is more important that learners prepare the speech and practice by themselves. Therefore, in this paper we present the 4 steps for speech practice. Through these steps, learners can understand their style, find their model, prepare speech and improve their speech ability. To find their model, the learners evaluate their characters, speech rate, tone, intonation, linguistic expression, gesture and face look. The method of learning suggested in this paper can help the learners overcome their fear and prepare the speech. Also, the college students that recognize the women leaders superficially will have an opportunity to aware women leaders in Korea at a new viewpoint.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the gender inequality of address terms and honorific usages in the conjugal relations and to evaluate the significance and the limits of some proposals on the improvement of related problems. First of all, this paper starts with a brief review of theoretical background such as linguistic approach, sociolinguistic approach, feministic approach, etc. Secondly, this paper makes an attempt at a comparative examination on five precedent researches and studies. And then, a survey of about 100 students of 3 university in Seoul was carried out for the purpose of comprehending their attitudes towards address terms and honorific usages in the conjugal relations. Finally, synthesizing and comparing the results of 5 precedent studies and our own survey, this paper analyzes the inequal side of address terms and honorific usages in the conjugal relations and looks at the symptom and possibility of change.

This paper contrasts different of usages of honorifics in Korean and Japanese based on the actual use of honorifics Japanese and Korean high school students. Based upon such contrast this paper elucidates the following points: First, in case of direct honorifics, the differences of ages or statuses become the first standard to determine the usage of honorifics in Korean. However, in Japanese, in addition to differences of ages or statuses, the degree of closeness/familiarity between the speaker and the listener is an important determinant. Therefore, Korean children use honorific to their parents in Korea, while Japanese children don't. Second, in case of indirect honorifics, it is widely believed that Koreans use honorific by the rule of unconditional honorific and Japaneses use it by the rule of conditional honorific. However, various factors such as the degree of familiarity or closeness between the speaker and the listener, etc. influence the usage of indirect honorifics in Korean. Therefore, the rule of honorifics for Korean and Japaneses languages is quite ambiguous. Third, in Korean honorifics, we can find conditional honorific which is also called as restrained honorific. However, it is generally not used except for in a hierarchical society such as the military.