KJC Korea
Journal Central

This study, using the variationist framework, investigates Korean speakers' usage of haeyo and hapsyo styles on the basis of movie and TV drama scripts. One linguistic constraint (sentence type) and six extra-linguistic constraints (gender, formulaicness, age group, intimacy, dialogue scene, hierarchical relationship) were chosen as potential factors influencing variation between haeyo and hapsyo styles. The seven potential constraints were all analyzed by a multivariate analysis using Goldvarb as affecting the variation examined. Gender was among the top four factors constraining the variation along with formulaicness, dialogue scene, and sentence type. The percentages of the hapsyo and haeyo usage of male characters were 16.1 and 83.9, respectively, while those of females were 6.3 and 93.7. Some (but not significant) degree of group-internal variation was observed in both gender groups. A quantitative analysis was also conducted of eight haeyo-style expressions proposed by previous research as occurring especially often in women's speech. In the data examined, five of them were found to occur significantly more often in female characters' data; one was observed more in men's, while the remaining two were rarely found in both gender groups' data. An attempt is also made to explain the gender difference in the usage of haeyo and hapsyo styles using the (sub-culture) difference approach.

There are many studies which have investigated biases hidden in ELT materials, particularly reading texts. But English grammar books haven't received much attention regarding the issue because their contents are considered as instruments for explaining grammar points. This paper thoroughly examines biases in an English grammar book, Grammar in Use Intermediate(GIUI), with regard to the following two aspects: idealization of the culture of native speakers of English, and gender bias. The findings show that materialism tends to be considered as a norm putting so much emphasis on money. With regard to gender bias, there are mixed results. Males are more dominant than females with respect to appearing as main characters, initiating conversations, and being mentioned ahead of the other gender. Males and females are treated equally in participating at active sports and pursuing various occupations. On the other hand, unethical or unlawful acts are alloted to males overwhelmingly more often than to females. The findings of this study can be used as a list for checking hidden biases in English teaching materials.

The English language does not possess a 3rd person singular epicene pronoun normally used in a sex-indefinite or gender-neutral context, so the masculine 3rd person singular “he” has taken the role for over centuries. However, many researchers have indicated that generic he is not exclusively sex-neutral in that it evokes masculine imagery. For this reason, in English speaking countries, singular they has successfully evolved as an alternative to generic he. Nevertheless, in the Korean EFL setting, where the importance of English education has been emphasized, the actual use and perception of the English epicene pronoun has rarely been considered. In this context, this study investigated Korean EFL learners’ use and perception of the 3rd person epicene pronoun in sex-neutral contexts. The research observed that generic he was the learners’ most preferred choice of pronoun though it indeed evoked masculine images, whereas singular they was neither widely accepted, nor often used. The present study also determined to what extent the use and perception of epicene pronouns were related to and affected by linguistic and biographical variables. It was also demonstrated that simplicity in epicene pronoun use could have assumed priority over nonsexist expression among some Korean EFL learners. The present study has implications in that it contributes to epicene pronoun education in Korean EFL settings, and to build awareness in Korean EFL learners regarding the issue of sex bias in language.

This paper discusses the rationale for establishing the interval from the Gabo Reforms (1895) to the liberation from Japan (1945) as the modern Korean language period for teaching the history of Korean language or the life history of Korean language. Such setting of this period arose from the critical awareness regarding the school grammar curriculum which defines modern Korean language as the language developed during the era between the Imjin War and the end of the Gaehwa period. The issue of differentiating by period the history of Korean language in the school grammar curriculum is seen as a problem that arose from a simplistic use of the term “modern” as it is applied in the life history of Korean language. To properly establish the modern period of Korean language, a balanced perspective is required regarding the concept of history which is affected by opposing approaches, such as those of positivist and relativist historical views and micro and macro histories. In addition, since the modernity in modern history has freedom and equality language life inequality in the history of language should become the key perspective. From this standpoint, the establishment of modern Korean language must be looked at of the human agent as its basic attributes, the overcoming of contradictions such as from the basis of written language rather than spoken, and the identity of spoken and written language which holds the issue of equality in language life should become the key yardstick for establishing the period of modern Korean language. Hence the Gabo-Reforms which occasioned King Gojong’s Royal Decree on Korean Language (1895) and the publication of the DoknipShinmun(1896) should be set as the starting point of modern Korean language .Moreover, since Koreans fully became the principal agents of Korean language and the Hangeul-only Law was enacted in the wake of the liberation from Japan(1945), the liberation should be taken as the line that divides modern Korean from contemporary Korean language.

The main purpose of this paper is to determine refusal differences of people from different cultural backgrounds while using English. The data were collected from three groups of subjects - Americans, Koreans, and Japanese - to compare the ways they perform refusals in terms of three dimensional approaches in semantic formulas: order, semantic contents, and frequency. DCT (Discourse Completion Test) was given in conditions where the subjects had a different status such that the refuser is lower, equal, or higher to the refugee in social status. The research proved that differences in recognizing speech acts of refusals in different cultures could posit problems to L2 learners when producing speech acts in English. The result of the research shows that the refusals depending on the subjects from different cultures had a different order of semantic formula, semantic context, and frequency of apologies, excuses and thanks in refusal contexts. In conclusion, the research suggests that L2 teachers need to teach students to enhance their knowledge of the proper use of speech acts in English. Having enhanced speech acts in the target language in terms of sociolinguistic competence is necessary for avoiding communication errors as well as for establishing a productive ground for various interactions between native and non-native interlocutors of English.

This study was carried out under the premise that lack of grammatical education with overall emphasized fluency is not desirable and the grammatical education can function fully to improve the communicative competence. To support this, the studies that attempted comparative linguistics, universal language theories, and attempts of linguistic typology were examined. However, such efforts are limited in explaining the overall Korean grammatical education systematically. As a method to resolve such problems, a suggestion of actively utilizing grammatical categories were provided. The categorization by grammatical systems is quite familiar since it was applied to all languages for a long time and is a concept that can be usefully utilized in comparative linguistics or linguistic typology. In addition, the overall grammatical factors could be examined systematically. As the meanings, functions, and constraints of combinations among the grammatical factors are compared, which could not be done when examining the individual grammatical factor, the differences can be clearly recognized. This study provided an example of expressing negatives and also suggests the methods to use the grammatical categories for Korean educational grammatical system in the sites of Korean education in detail.

The present study was designed to examine the nature of hesitation phenomena in the speech of Korean college EFL learners participating in oral proficiency interviews. Looking beyond the implications of hesitations in language learners' talk as signaling their disfluency and incompetence, this study presents a qualitative analysis to provide insights into the positive aspect of hesitations as a learning opportunity. A detailed qualitative analysis of the learners' talk reveals that hesitation phenomena was abundant in the learners' talk and the underlying mechanisms for the hesitations were more than the learners' incompetence of the target language. Hesitations found in the present study were the places where the learners forestalled, detected, and repaired problems in their target language output. Hesitations were facilitative devices that the learners utilized to make trial and error for further development of their second language. This paper concludes that the hesitation phenomena in learner interactions can be seen as potential opportunities for learning where learners struggle with the target language and learn through those difficulties.

The purpose of this study is to define the problems that the public faces in regard to the public language and try to propose measures to solve them. For the objective study, we have set up the genres of the public language and its requirements. The genres of the public language includes the legal writing, press release, public notice, articles, public address and instruction. We have set up 'intelligibility' as a crucial category for the public language, the requirements to achieve that have 'politeness', 'coercive & authoritarian expression', 'discriminating expression', 'content completion', 'logicality', 'the quantity of information', 'conveying the message', 'length of sentences', 'use of terms' and 'visual convenience'. The result reveals the most dissatisfaction of requirements has been shown about the 'easy and friendly terms', followed by the 'visual convenience'. The highest dissatisfaction of genres has found on the legal writing, followed by the public notice, articles and press release. Along with these findings, the relevant studies and discussions must be continued to reduce the level of dissatisfaction on pubic language.

The purpose of this study is to describe foreign students' Korean language pragmatic competence in relation to speech exchange and communicative strategy exposed in the process by which a communicative task was effectively completed. This study designed and applied ‘information-gab tasks' like ‘picture-description tasks' for the realization of ‘referential communication' in which two speakers give and take the explanation about a specific object in a state where neither of them mutually share adequate information about it. As a result of observing the dialog data elicited by the task, it was found that learners were arriving at the co-construction of ‘identification of referent' and ‘role-taking' in various communication modes. At this point, the introductory/intermediate learners had difficulty carrying out such an interactive component in performance of the task. Even the type of feedback varied between the introductory/intermediate learners and the advanced learners. The utterance clarifying the difference in the photos was generally not revealed in a verbal sequence. The linguistic form of ‘-in geot gatda(seem to)' was frequently used with the effect of assumptive judgment strategy.

This paper is a contrastive study of Korean and Japan phone use, focusing on the act of choosing whether to use a phone call or a text-message with a cellular phone. Differentiating from previous studies which survey the actual situation separately, we investigated some factors influencing the choice both quantitatively and qualitatively. Through the analysis, we found out that the users of cellular phones use a phone call and a text-message not randomly but regularly. We confirmed honorific behavior in information behavior in regular media use. The appearance of a new form of honorific behavior, the choice of language media, is suggested. On the other hand, we can point out that the usual communication styles can be reflected in the choice. In short, by analyzing the choice in a cellular phone, we can find out that communication as a “human” user is alive in a “machine”, a cellular phone.

This study investigates apology strategies for Koreans in six offence contexts in an attempt to find out how these contexts are perceived and what apology strategies are used by them and to compare the findings of the study with other studies cross-culturally. The data of apologies in Korean were collected in a questionnaire in which 175 native speakers of Korean who were participated in the study evaluated socio-pragmatic factors and completed dialogs which were related with each offence situation. As general apology strategies, IFIDs (Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices) and responsibility were used mostly, which supports the similar findings in the CCSARP (Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project). As a situation specific apology strategy, however, explanation was used in a surprising degree, which was not shown in the findings in the CCSARP. In addition, modifications of apology strategies such as intensifiers, minimizers, and concern for the hearer in the study were also used much more than other studies in the CCSARP. Correlations between severity and obligation in the study support other studies, however correlations between IFIDs and obligation, inverse correlations between responsibility and explanation in the study are quite unique in apology studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the different attitudes depicted in TV cosmetic ad texts for women and men. It will also probe the way women and men are identified in these ads. Based on 112 women's, and 56 of men's ad texts, we examine their sentence patterns, persuading strategies, high frequency words, and red flag expressions. Interrogative forms were preferred in women's ads, probably to reinforce solidarity, while imperative forms were preferred in men's ads, suggesting men prefer forceful approach. Women's ads used far more honorific forms revealing typical character of women's language. In persuading strategies, [explanation of the products] were mainly adopted in women's ads, while [women's recognition] was highly valued in men. For frequency words, it was ‘skin' which was the most frequently used in women's ads, while it was ‘man' in men's ads. In both women's and men's, foreign words were alarmingly adopted in red flag expressions. Exaggeration, deception, and provocation were used much more in women's ads than men's, probably due to the fact that women's ads emphasize explanation of the products' function or effect. In men's ads, a vulgarism marked the most, which might have been adopted to strengthen the solidarity between men.

This study aims to describe the change of word order in the modern enlightenment times in Korean language. The composition's order was dominated by several elements, for example preception and recognition. Chang (2008) concluded the word placement of coordinate word order is determined by the elements of lexical hierarchy, basic vocabulary, word frequency and sociocultural meaning. These elements are the fundamental factors. But, the word order is changed by the language family and sociolinguistic environment. The word order has rapidly changed in the modern enlightenment times. I divided the change into two types: lexicalization and sociocultural change. The former means the increase in quantity of lexical items through the competition of two types: in the right order and reverse order. The latter means the social concerns have changed. But the results of change are not uniform. Some reverse words gain special meaning or nuance. The Korean word 'SEONGJANG(成長)' means 'growth' or 'development', but 'JANGSEONG(長成)' means 'come of age' or 'grown up' for example.