On the many faces of coarseness: The case of the Korean mak ‘coarsely’

Abstract

The concept of coarseness encoded by the lexeme mak ‘coarsely’ is represented at various levels of grammar in Modern Korean. At the level of lexis, the adverb mak designates diverse meanings associated with ‘coarsely’. At the level of bound morphology, the same form can be used as a derivational prefix to verbal, adverbial, or nominal roots to designate ‘recklessness’ or ‘low quality’. At the level of discourse, it carries diverse functions but its core functions are to intensify the meaning and to signal the speaker's negative stance toward the event being described, and to dramatize the event being described with the overtone that the unfolding event/situation was unexpected and, therefore, uncontrollable. The discourse marker development shows extensive subjectification and intersubjectification. The discourse marker often co-occurs with a locution involving a reported speech, with a negative evaluation of the locution of the original author being reported, and with semantically vague deictic pro-verbs, to signal the speaker's inability to find suitable expressions. By using the discourse marker mak, the speaker invites the addressee into the vivid scene of the event in order to create an affective common-ground. In that aspect, mak is a rhetorical device for dramatization in discourse.