This paper aimed to discuss the operative aspects of politeness from two perspectives (i.e., social duty and intentional strategy) by examining the Korean public perceptions presented within the Korean literature texts. As the Korean social duties for politeness presuppose the recognition of status, the speech and behaviors of superiors and inferiors are distinct and fixed. Thus, the truth is concealed to respect superiors’ status while inferiors are forced to do self-depreciation. In addition, speech and behavior for solidarity and fellowship are considered as ones that inferiors dare not perform to superiors, and instead are replaced by obedience and permission to superiors. The intentional strategies of inferiors to superiors for individual profits run outwardly in parallel with polite behaviors performing social duties. However, when they do not bring any profits, the polite speech and behavior disappears, thus bringing about relative betrayal. On the other hand, the intentional politeness of superiors to inferiors is marked in Korea. It is performed to trade profits with each other and recognized according to a hearer’s subjective perspective and emotion. In this way, Korean politeness in terms of the social norms operates in the boundary between harmony and betrayal.

This article aims to reveal the boundary between humor and murye/bulson. Murye/bulson and humor are one of the inferences aspects of conversational implicature. Mechanisms to consider murye/bulson as humor present as follows: multiple indirectness and virtual world in the contexts understood to be untrue, existences sympathized within familiarity, conversions of implicature, setting, relation and area. These mechanisms permit to deviate from individual responsibility and offset murye/bulson. On the other hand, according to bulson implicature, there are situational·relational conditions that humor is not allowed any more as humor: Korea's sensitive topics cling to previous negative situations·emotions, invasion of privacy against expected values, gender inequality, class distinction, neglecting the weak, disparagement of appearance violating the limit of emotions and disregarding status.