Cho, Sungwon. (2023). “Speech Adjustment in Adverb According to the Gender of the Recipient”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 31(4), 279-305. This article aims to examine the use of adverbs by Korean men and women in conversations with each other, depending on the gender of the interlocutor. It has long been argued in sociolinguistics that language use of one gender to the other can clearly adjusted, even if they belong to the same social group. Gender of the receiver, in this sense, can be considered as a factor in context which fosters certain speech-adjusting behavior. If men and women use different languages, typical gender specific speech style may be present in the speaker recognition, and as a result, intentional or unintentional accommodation may occur. However, there has been no research on how the speech of one gender is accommodated by the other gender in Korean. The frequency difference between male and female speakers were significantly smaller in single-gender dyads compared to mixed gender dyads, which leads to conclusion that speakers mimic more of receiver’s speech style when conversating with opposite gender.

The purpose of this study is to explore the language attitude of 20s toward genderlect. This study focused on the representation of genderlects in South Korean dramas, and was based on the media reception theory. In the research, 32 men and women aged between 19 to 24 were interviewed in focus groups. The data were analyzed qualitatively. The research results are as follows. First, the participants partially recognized the characteristics of genderlect which were reported in previous studies, and the opinions among the participants hardly agreed. Second, the way which dramas represent genderlect was shown as breaking away from traditional gender roles and the reestablishment of overturned gender roles. Third, this study categorized the positive and negative responses of the participants toward the use of gender language. Fourth, participants’ attitude toward genderlect was gradually arranged from negotiation to opposition. This study is meaningful in that it comprehensively demonstrated the language attitudes of the younger generation. However, there still remains a margin on further research in consideration of non-binary participants and broader contexts.