KJC Korea
Journal Central

People communicate, as we know, not only with the spoken language but also with a body language. This study explores the interactional functions of nodding in the Korean dyadic conversations. Considering that conversation is an interactional achievement, nodding carried out the following functions. First, nodding generally supplements verbal message of the speaker and enables the listener to communicate without causing any verbal collision. It overcomes the limitation of the spoken language, which can only use one path called voice. Second, nodding functions as a signal for turn-taking in conversation. Choosing to nod rather than speaking can be interpreted, depending on the context, as a sign of listening or having an intention to yield the next turn or not to take the next turn in the conversation. Thus, it is also difficult to make the turn-taking system work without using non-verbal signals. Third, nodding enables the participants to respond to others without interrupting the conversation. Continual interaction regardless of turn-taking or communication content allows the participants to feel that the conversation is being accomplished smoothly. In that sense, nodding contributes decisively to the conversation as an interactional achievement. (187)

From around 2005 till today there has been an increasing interest among people in the internet space. Indications of such a phenomenon is the trend of using [X-남], [X-녀] type words. These words newly categorizes and gives value to people and shows close relation with social phenomenon. In regard to word formation, [X-남] and [X-녀] have high productivity. First of all, [X-남], [X-녀] can easily be made into words that correspond to gender. Also quite many are made through inference. [X-남], [X-녀] type words sometimes form a paradigmatic relation in a semantic way. [X-남], [X-녀] type words can be classified as ‘ability’, ‘appearance’, ‘behavior’ and ‘attitude’ according to the meaning, and again as positive and negative social value. The number of [X-녀] is greater compared to that of [X-남], and cases of [X-녀] particularly show strong characteristics of female discrimination. The trend of [X-남] and [X-녀] are largely influenced by on-line media seeking to stimulate the reader‘s curiosity. It is also used as means for viral marketing by people with industrial motives. But above all, the usage of [X-남], [X-녀] type words have a strong nature of exposing social value.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the usage of “contracted honorifics” in Korean language, and to explain the result in relation to socio-cultural property of the military society. Generally, the military society used to focus on vertical relationships which emphasized on social positions and ranks; however, in these days, the society is changing its focus on parallel relationships which stresses freedom and equality. Thus, the usage of “contracted honorifics” in Korean is gradually decreasing. In comparison with the civil society, the military society still uses the “contracted honorifics” very thoroughly. When one talks in a military society, he/she considers the personnel of the highest rank and addresses others without the honorific title. The usage of “contracted honorifics” in the military is closely related to the special property of the military society. The “contracted honorifics" is consistently used in the military with the focus on the relative ranking order rather than the speaker him/herself due to the special features of the ranking system and the conservativeness of the military. Hence, newly enlisted soldiers have difficulty in adapting themselves to the culture and the language in the military. Although the military is a special community executing national defense, it has to recognize the usage of the general honorifics in the civil society, and make efforts to develop an atmosphere which considers the language used in the civil society.

This paper analyses corpora of South Korean and US newspapers to investigate the representation of environmental issues. The analysis focuses on the frequency and collocation of 녹색(noksaek: green) denoting environmental- friendliness. As a corpus-based study, the analysis aims to show how environmental issues are construed in the use of noksaek through collocational patterns and the context in which it occurs. The English word green is analysed for comparison as the English translation equivalent of noksaek. 그린(grin: green), a phonetic translation of green is also included in the analysis. The most characteristic of the green discourse in the South Korean press is expressed in 성장(seongjang: growth), the top collocate of noksaek. The construal of environmental issues as a matter of economic growth is a distinctively Korean approach, contrasting with the ways the issues are talked about in the US press. The use of grin(green) in the South Korean press shows that grin(green) is mainly used in the commercial sector and often to mask an un-green aspect of an entity modified by the word. (172 words)

In this paper, I suggested the ideas for developing efficient educational contents and educational methods of speech education in the university by analyzing the self-evaluation results of college students' speeches. To do this study, I gave the students the checklist to be able to evaluate their speeches. The students had to submit the checklist and evaluation report for their speeches. The students' self-evaluations were quantitatively as well as qualitatively analyzed and extracted the main characteristics of college students' speeches. On the basis of these results, I suggested some ideas as follow. First, to improve their speech ability, it is important to gain confidence. So four strategies to gain confidence were proposed. Second, we must enforce the non-verbal education contents. Many students think that non-verbal elements in the speech are very difficult to do well. Therefore efficient educational methods as well as educational contents of non-verbal must be developed. Third, as to do high level speech, students must enhance linguistic sensitivity, so I proposed the methods of enhancing linguistic sensitivity. Last, I represented the meaning of speech contents. What this study is empirical is its good points.(208)

This study explores cultural and linguistic practices, identity negotiation, and power dynamics manifested in language socialization practices in a recreational setting of seven high school and college students of Korean heritage currently residing in the US. In conjunction with interviews, audio-tapings and observations of these students' weekly basketball games serve as the data sources. Analyses of data demonstrate that the basketball game offers a prime context for these students to speak Korean, practice Korean sociocultural values and rules, negotiate their identity, and establish their own position in the group. While they all speak English for the majority of time in their day-to-day interactions, the students mostly use Korean in the basketball setting, particularly when talking about Korea-related topics. In terms of negotiating their ethnic identity, the Korean-born students seem to negotiate their identity more strictly than the US-born students, who appear to negotiate their identity more ambiguously and flexibly. Also, the power and authority to control the interaction seems to depend upon the symbolic and material resources that the students own.

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 20(1). pp. 161-176. In this study, focused on the first language-based strategies and the target language-based strategies about the development of communication strategies in Japanese by three korean learners were investigated.　The results are summarized as follows. First, as target language proficiency increases, the frequency of the first language-based strategies and the target language-based strategies generally tended to decrease. However, the case of the beginning level learner, as learning progresses, the frequency of the target language-based strategies increased. Second, as target language proficiency increases, the frequency of the first language-based strategies generally tended to decrease. However, as chaotic-period of the first language and the target language, the intermediate-level learners increased the frequency of the first language based-strategies. Third, as target language proficiency increases, the frequency of problem-solving strategy of the sentence unit increased than problem-solving strategy of unit vocabulary. This study will have important implications to say that by analyzing the longitudinal data of three cross-cutting learners of differing proficiency target language, we attempted to elucidate the developmental processes of communication strategies.

We can access to high-speed internet at anytime and anywhere thanks to the advent of smart-phones which are fully equipped with computer and mobile phone. Such being the case, netizens' language use in real-time has increased significantly in the social network services (SNS) such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. So smart-phones and mobile internet have become an important part of our lives, and the time and opportunities of reading and writing in cyberspace are also rising rapidly. The purpose of this paper is to identify the use of net-language in 2012 and look at the recent research trends and challenges of net-language. In section 2, we introduce the usages of net-language in the SNS. In section 3, the recent research trends of net-language adopted in the SNS will be examined. Then, we present the future direction and challenges of research on net-language. Through this process, it has been confirmed that the reading and writing activities in cyberspace have become a part of our everyday life, and the characteristics of net-language are observed to be transferred to everyday language. It appears to be necessary to study the new phenomena of net-language and linguistic cultures which are emerging with the advent of smart-phones and mobile internet. We want to point out the necessity of research on the new emerging and changing of net-language. In addition to that, the effects of net-language on the netizen should be studied and dealt with in a more serious way.

This study uses discourse analysis to illustrate some ways that non-verbal actions such as gaze, facial expression, and gesture work to contextualize the speech delivered in conversation. These bodily cues also enable participants to organize interactions as collaborative creations of meaning rather than simply a turn-by-turn exchange of speech. This study uses two excerpts from Mandarin Chinese conversations to illustrate how non-verbal cues help speakers and recipients to engage in collaborative action with one another. Speakers give recipients information about their stances vis-à-vis the speech they produce, and recipients use this information to manage their reactions to the speech they hear. Non-verbal actions also allow both parties to mutually regulate the flow of conversation. In both examples, it becomes clear that gaze, facial expression, and gesture are important elements of spoken interaction and that conversation as a whole should be understood as a contextual web of meaning that includes speech, body language, and overall social interaction.

This paper constitutes a second report regarding an experiment examining the relationship between color recognition and concomitant color expressions as experienced by middle school students and high school students. The experiment’s protocol required three steps: first, sixty subjects viewed 308 color chips; next, they recorded by themselves the proper color terms for those color chips; last, they selected the proper color terms matching both color chips and color terms. This experiment yielded several notable discoveries related to color recognition and concomitant color expressions. First, in the task examining systemic color terms, only 22.72% answers corresponded with the systemic color terms of KS A 0011. Especially notable was that the ‘Yellow’ color terms (31.35%) were at the top of the correspondence degree and the ‘Red’ color terms (16.58%) were at the bottom degree. Second, the task relating to idiomatic color terms revealed that ‘Namsack (dark blue), Bora (deep purple), Jaju (deep purplish red)’ color terms (23.33%) were at the top level and ‘Red’ color terms were at the bottom. Next, we elucidated three controversial points regarding KS A 0011: modifying adjectives, division of complex colors and combination of systemic color terms.

This study analyzed slangs, which are registered in 'Youth Slang Dictionary' in smart-phone application, thereby having aimed to grasp the actual condition of slangs, which are now being used actively. This application is translating through registering slangs, which are used by adolescents, as if Korean dictionary, and is routinely updating, thereby being effective for grasping the actual condition of slangs, which are being lively used in the present age. As a result of analyzing Youth Slang Dictionary, the structural characteristic was indicated most noticeably, which expresses it with the first syllable by clipping a form in a word or word-phrase, given seeing in light of the expression. And sound transcription, Romanizaton, deletion, contraction, alternation, and addition were being indicated. Also, even the phenomenon, which newly expresses by producing new meaning, not the standard meaning of a word, was shown. Examining semantic characteristics, the slangs, which indicate figure, behavior, state, and psychology, were being used much. Each of slangs was strongly indicated the tendency of being used negatively, rather than being used positively.

The purpose of this study is to inquire about sound change by tracing the transition of English loanwords in Korean, which came from Japan, from phonological and sociolinguistic perspectives. The Japanese-style English loanwords from an earlier period have been transformed into newly adjusted forms at a surprisingly rapid rate and many of them have shown unexpected sound changes which went against general Korean phonological rules. This shows that sound change is not necessarily expected to occur in accordance with language-specific phonological rules. It can occur through the political and sociological will of speakers against their native grammar at a surprisingly rapid rate.

The objective of this study was to analyze the expression methods and contents of 246 city brand slogans in Korea. Conclusions drawn from this study are as follows. First, a large percentage of the city brand slogans used Roman characters in their expression and English was used frequently. This may be unavoidable for acceptability in the age of globalization, but the problem is that they were improvised hurriedly without a process for building up consensus with local residents. Second, the slogans consisted of 1‐2 words, satisfying the requirement of simplicity. Third, they utilized ambiguity, rhythm, etc. adequately and this shows that various linguistic expression strategies are necessary in developing city brand slogans. Fourth, abstract words were used frequently in city brand slogans, and some of them were redundant among cities and therefore failed to differentiate their respective cities. Fifth, while many of the materials of city brand slogans were abstract and sensuous motifs, only a few of them were historical and cultural motifs. Accordingly, it is necessary to find historical and cultural motifs and develop them into images. A city brand slogan representing the visions and goals of the city clearly based on the local image is very important for enhancing the brand value of the city. Therefore, brand slogans should be developed through elaborate investigation of natural scenes, geographical conditions, traditions, cultural uniqueness, social characteristics, etc. For these efforts, there should be a ground for close cooperation among local self‐governing bodies, local residents, and related experts.