Hortatives, imperatives, and the directive speech-act continuum: A usage-based approach to the Korean -ca hortative construction

Abstract

This paper revisits the hortative and its relationship with the imperative in a typological context by conducting a case study of the particle -ca in Korean from a usage-based perspective. It argues that the hortative and the imperative are functionally adjacent but clearly distinct categories on a directive speech-act continuum. Using data of modern spoken Korean from the 21st Century Sejong Corpus, we provide empirical evidence of four sub-functions of -ca, which differ by the performer of the focal action: (i) the cohortative has a first person plural subject (i.e., the speaker and the addressee(s)); (ii) the polite/accordant imperative has a second person subject (i.e., the addressee(s)); (iii) the speaker hortative has a first person subject (i.e., the speaker); and (iv) the exhortative has a third person subject. The analysis of the data shows that although the degree of directivity can vary, the core function of -ca remains the same across these sub-functions: to request participation in a joint activity of the speaker and the addressee. Cases of functional ambiguity, where -ca might fulfill more than one of the four sub-functions, are direct evidence that directive speech acts form a continuum ranging from hortative to imperative.