In English, some occupations are used as titles or address terms, while others are not. For example, doctor is a title and address term, but lawyer and teacher are not. In Korean, however, it is the other way around. This discrepancy among various occupations shows that there exist both linguistic and nonlinguistic conditions which are more than just "status" of the individual or the occupation concerned. According to Bell (1988), it is the absence of the definite article that endorses the descriptive noun phrase to become a title, a process which is achieved by pre-posing the descriptive noun phrase, e.g. linguist Chomsky. In Korean, it is the post-posing of the descriptive noun phrase that achieves the same result, e.g. Gim Jakka (Kim Writer). 105 native speakers of Korean were asked to judge whether or not 30 different occupations sound natural when they are used as titles or address terms. At least three conditioning factors were found to be necessary for higher acceptability: (1) high status of the occupation, including professionality, (2) a discourse context which is high in density in terms of social network, and (3) the occupation name with fewer than three syllables which cannot be abbreviated.

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.