Kim, Kyung Suk. 2004. The Portrayal of Korea in an English- English Dictionary. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). This paper examines the sentences relevant to Korea which were found in a search of an English-English dictionary to see how they portray Korea. One hundred nineteen sentences were obtained from the CD-ROM version of Collins-Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001) and they were judged as to whether they present positive, neutral, or negative images. The majority of the sentences (73/119) have neutral portrayals. Among the remaining sentences, 12 are positive and 34 are negative. When the data are sub-categorized into three groups, it becomes obvious what the positive and negative sentences in the data reflect in general. Nine positive sentences out of the total 12 positive ones are relevant to the activities/people of the Republic of Korea. Twenty-four of the negative sentences include the generic expressions of Korea referring to both South and North Korea (e.g., Korean peninsula or Koreans) or phrases referring to North Korea more explicitly. When we look more closely at the negative sentences, it is found that they are mostly related to the political tension or military conflicts between South and North, which happened quite a while ago and which we have fully recovered from. In order to prevent those sentences from leaving a potentially bad imprint on the users of the dictionary, we need to give feedback to the publisher about the results of this line of research and ask them to replace the sentences with positive/neutral sentences when they update the dictionary.
Kim, Seul-Ong. 2004. A Study of the New Categorization of Hangeul Names and their Social Meaning. The Sociolinguistics Journal of Korea 12(2). This paper suggests a new direction of making Hangeul names in view of the Hangeul(Korean Alphabet) cultural community. We newly organize the concept and category of Hangeul names which include names of a Chinese character written in Hangeul as much as the names of the original Korean vocabulary. This type of combination produces, for example, from “슬기(seul-gi)” and “지혜(chi-hye)”, “슬지(seul-chi), 슬혜(seul-hye), 기지(ki-chi), 기혜(ki-hye), 지슬(chi-seul), 지기(chi-gi), 혜슬(hye-seul), 혜기(hye-gi)”. Through this method, we will be able to gain the following results: (1) We can make more human names with Hangeul, (2) We will be able to overcome the dichotomy between Chinese characters and Hangeul, (3) We will be able to truly accomplish a cultural community using Hangeul writing system.
Kim, Ye-Sug. 2004. A Study of the Social, Cultural Connotations of French Personal Pronouns. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). This study explores the social, cultural connotations of French personal pronouns. The second person pronoun divides into TU and VOUS. In the past, TU was used when the speaker of high standing calls a person of low birth. VOUS was used by the latter calling the former. Between persons of high rank, VOUS was used reciprocally and between persons of lower classes TU was in the reciprocal usage. At the time of the French Revolution, TU was considered as the real pronoun for the citizens whereas VOUS was rejected as flattering, causing inequality. But a few years later, VOUS began to be used again. The change was made by the way that the use of TU presents familiarity between speaker and hearer, and no more equality. So nowadays, the choice of TU/VOUS depends principally on the horizontal relationship, not on the vertical relationship. Other terms of address like 'Monsieur', 'Madame', 'Mademoiselle', the first name and the last name come join TU/VOUS and make the most appropriate mode to call or indicate persons.
Kim, Jung-woo. 2004. The Changes of Language Usage in Radio Advertisements. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). The purpose of this study is to examine the changing trends of language usage in radio advertisements. Radio has made efforts to compete with other mass media. This study proposes to divide the changing trends of radio advertisements into five periods according to competing relationships between radio and the other media. Diverse aspects of language usage were found in each period; they relate to the radio's efforts to solidify its position against other competing media such as newspaper and television. This paper suggests, in conclusion, that the trends of language usage in radio advertisements have reflected the radio's efforts to fortify its communication efficiency in communicating to the masses.
Kim, Haeyeon. 2004. Discourse Studies in Sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). Among many topics in sociolinguistics, many discourse studies have been carried out to explore how social factors are related to the use of language. The purpose of this research is examine assumptions, methods, and major topics/issues of the following discourse approaches to sociolinguistics: (i) interactional sociolinguistics, (ii) ethnography of speaking/communication, (iii) variation analysis, (iv) conversation analysis, and (v) critical discourse analysis, among others. In doing so, this paper first examines the developmental history of sociolinguistic research in discourse, discussing researchers' interest in discourse in exploring social activities and practices. After that, it starts with the interactional sociolinguistic approach to discourse analysis, discussing the notion such as Gumperz's contextualization cues. It also discusses Hymes' theory of ethnograpy of speaking/communication in exploring the relationship between communication and social contexts. In addition, it discusses Labov's variation analysis, particularly focusing on his analysis of narrative discourse. After that, this paper shows major topics and methods of conversation analysis, which deals with social actions reflected in talk-in-interaction. It also deals with critical discourse analysis which deals with many social issues, viewing language as a reality-creating social practice. Finally, this paper shows that many approaches to discourse in sociolinguistics have contributed to a better understanding of the roles of social factors reflected in the use of language.
Kim, Hye-Sook. 2004. The Changes of Address Forms between Korean Husbands and Wives according to the Relationship History. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). The present study explores how Korean husbands and wives change their ways of addressing each other during the course of their relationship and the underlying dimensions of meaning which are expressed in such changing patterns of personal address. Forty husbands and their 40 wives who are currently teachers at primary, middle and high schools in South Chungcheong Province participated in the study. The results showed that the teacher couples went through four distinct stages when selecting address forms for their spouses. In the first meeting stage, 'distance' played a major role in the selection. In the dating and early married stage, 'intimacy' was the key underlying semantics. Then 'solidarity' through the first child was the main influence in the parenthood stage. Finally in the later married stage 'solidarity' as longtime partners became the principal factor which governed address selections. It was revealed that there was a strong correlation between the couples' perception of their roles at their homes and their addressing behaviors. Address usage was not governed by social status when Korean husbands and wives, who were both teachers, selected address forms for their spouses.
Nam, Mi-Hye. 2004. The Usage Types and Communicational Properties of Chinese Characters in Korean Advertisements. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). The purpose of this study is to examine the usage pattern and communicational attributes of Chinese characters in Korean advertisements. Advertisements in printed newspapers and journals were sources of data. The study produces five significant findings. First, one function of Chinese characters in printed advertisements is to show ideograms, to elevate the presentation, and to convey the professional nature of the contents. Second, the concise nature of Chinese idioms (composed of only four characters) used in printed advertisements provides the benefit of smaller paper space requirements. Third, Chinese characters in printed advertisements are used intentionally to indicate multiple meanings through homonyms. Fourth, Chinese characters in printed advertisements force readers to deduce the meanings of Chinese characters through cognitive efforts, which could be linked to increased recall or retention in the readers. Fifth, contrary to the purpose of general communication, i.e., clear messages, advertisements using Chinese characters are able to convey vague messages that can lead the readers not only to interpret them in various ways but also to have more curiosity on the advertised items.
Suh, Kyung-Hee. 2004. Interactional Functions of Way in Korean Conversation. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). This study aims to explore the interactional aspects of the Korean wh-word way and the kinds of action undertaken by this marker from the perspective of conversation analysis. Examination of conversation data reveals that the non-interrogative way is associated less with information and more with emotional expression. In this vein, way in non-interrogative contexts is analyzed as a Discourse Modality Indicator, which is used to index the speaker's cognitive, affective, and interactional stance towards the proposition, the speech acts or the addressee. More specifically, I argue that the functions of way expressing recognition, criticism, challenge and exclamation as well as filling in a necessary interactional space is derived from its referential meaning signifying that 'something is questionable, problematic, unexpected, and extraordinary to the speaker'. Depending on how the speaker handles such doubtful situations, way functions at one of the three levels of communication - cognition, affect and interaction in conversational discourse.
Yun, Sung Kyu & Jung, Woo-hyun. 2004. Request and Question Perspective in Interlanguage Pragmatics. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). This paper is an interlanguage pragmatic study of request and question perspective. It aims to explore whether there are any differences in request perspective between American English native speakers and Korean EFL learners. To this end, this study employed a Discourse Completion Test, which consisted of eight situations. Data were collected from three different groups: native speakers of English; Korean learners of English; native speakers of Korean. The results showed that the learners deviated from native pragmatic norms in the choice of perspective in a relatively systematic way. The same held even more obviously in the use of please in interacting with request perspective. It was also shown that the mismatch between the native and nonnative groups in perspective was an instance of pragmatic transfer. The results suggested that the notions of imposition and politeness operated differently in perspective between the native and nonnative groups. It is expected that this study will shed light on the phenomenon of interlanguage pragmatics and the aspect of pragmatic transfer, revealing how learners differ from native speakers with respect to request perspective and what causes the differences.
Jin, Jae-Hee. 2004. Aspects of Teacher-centered Communication in Conversations between Teachers and Learners in the Korean Language Classroom. Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). This paper examines how and why asymmetrical relationships are constituted through verbal interactions between teachers and students in the Korean language classroom. According to van Dijk (1989), 'power' in institutions such as hospitals or classrooms is best conceptualized as ‘group power asymmetrical relations’ between groups. As is the case for institutional members, members of dominant groups may derive their individually exercised power from the overall power of the group to which they belong. Speakers often possess an institutional role and their conversations are backed by the power or authority of the institution. From this perspective, this paper examines how power is being exerted and assigned in conversations between teachers and students in the Korean classroom. First, this research examined if the turns at talk for the participants (teacher and students) were equally distributed. The results showed that the teacher took about 50% of the total turns at talk, which is about eight times as many turns taken by each student. This indicates that the flow of classroom conversation starts from the teacher, or in other words, is teacher-centered communication. Second, this research considered inequality that occurs during problem solving meaning negotiation. Research results also showed that in 165 negotiated exchanges, over 85% were initiated by the teacher, which underscores the extremely asymmetrical instigation of conversation in Korean language classrooms. Student deficiencies in fluency and initiation, teacher questioning methodology and dialogue guidance, the teacher's almost exclusive right to choose the topic, the excessive adaptation of students to the classroom environment as well as the nationality of students were all factors contributing to this phenomenon.
Chae, Seo-young. 2004. Use of English Names and Changes in Korean Naming Conventions. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). Many college students and young graduates in Seoul Korea have additional English first names. They obtained one in English classes because Korean names are believed to be too difficult to pronounce or memorize for foreign teachers. This phenomenon is strikingly parallel to the situation in Hong Kong. On the other hand, interesting evidence of simplification in naming is found: some young Koreans, especially females, have names with an international flare and hence do not need English names. When the older and younger generations are compared, the coda complexity of their first names is significantly reduced: the youngest generation (6 and under) showed far less complex coda compared to those of the oldest generation (65 and older). The most interesting aspect of this study is that the naming conventions reflect the language situation of Korea and women are in the van.
Hong, Minpyo. 2004. A Contrastive Analysis of Selections of and Responses to Conversation Topics at the First Meeting: A Case Study of Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Australian University Students. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 12(2). This paper conducts a contrastive analysis of dialogue topics and responses to the topics at the first meeting based on the data produced by Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, and Australians. The main research interest of this study lies in variation observed across nationality and gender. When the conversation topic at the first meeting was about entertainers, less than 20% of the respondents of the four countries reported uneasiness. More than 20% of the respondents showed discomfort regarding the topics of ideal opposite-sex type, one's phone number, or one's boy- or girl-friends. Concerning drinking capacity, most of Korean and Japanese female respondents reported uneasiness. Women of all countries felt discomfort about the topic of one's height. Korean and Japanese students overwhelmingly felt uneasy about topics of personality or future goals, but Chinese did not. Only Chinese showed discomfort about the topic of the residence place. Looking at gender variation, remarkable differences were observed in the Japanese and Australian data, but no differences were found from Koreans or Chinese. When people were asked what they wanted to know at the first meeting with a person of the opposite-sex, people from all countries preferred to know his/her name. People from Korea and China wanted to know his/her age; Japanese wanted to know where s/he was from; Australians wanted to know his/her hobbies. Koreans also liked to know his/her place of residence, but Chinese and Japanese also wanted to know about his/her hobbies.