Honorific System Research Articles

“Call Me Judy”: Cross-Cultural Interaction in Asian-American Environment

This study scrutinizes the cross-cultural interactions in the 2019 Asian-American movie Always Be My Maybe. A notable linguistic feature that diverges across cultures is the honorific system, which varies significantly between Asian and Western contexts. This research analyzes the honorifics employed in the movie using a qualitative approach, grounded in Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory. The findings reveal that, despite the Asian-American setting, the Korean main characters often use the Korean honorific system to address elders, highlighting cultural retention. Additionally, the study underscores that acculturation occurs naturally for individuals living in different cultural environments over time. However, it emphasizes that individuals do not entirely abandon their original culture nor fully adopt the new one. This dynamic is illustrated through the characters’ interactions, where they navigate between Korean and Western addressing systems based on context and relationships. The use of honorifics and politeness strategies plays a crucial role in avoiding misunderstandings and maintaining harmony. Another finding from this study, which is related to the first, shows that acculturation is inevitably encountered by someone who has been living in a different culture for a period of time. This study serves as a case analysis representing the interplay of honorific systems from two cultures, providing insights into sociopragmatic behaviors in cross-cultural settings.

Revisiting the binary view of honorifics in politeness research

Abstract In this paper, we revisit the popular assumption that politeness in languages such as Japanese and Korean with a complex honorific system is crucially different from politeness in languages with no comparably rich honorific repertoires, such as Chinese. We propose a bottom–up, contrastive and corpus-based model through which we challenge this binary view. This model combines interaction ritual and speech acts. As a case study, we compare a set of expressions representing lexico-grammatical honorifics in Japanese and Chinese, i.e., in a so-called “honorific-rich” and a “non-honorific-rich” language. Our results show that the group of honorifics studied work in an essentially comparable fashion, hence disproving the above-outlined binary view.

Between honorifics and non-honorifics: A study of the Korean semi-honorific style and a comparison with Japanese

Korean possesses a highly intricate honorific system with six speech styles, each indicating a different degree of respect, intimacy, and formality. While the two styles at the honorific level and the two at the non-honorific level are in daily use, the two styles at the middle level of the six have mostly disappeared due to the shift toward a less hierarchical and less formal society. In this study, using both diachronic and synchronic corpus data, I demonstrate that a new speech style, which I call the “semi-honorific style,” has emerged, partially filling the void created by the two disappearing ones, and I propose the mechanism of the new style’s grammaticalization. Constructed by combining honorific and non-honorific markers in a single sentence, the “semi-honorific style” occupies the space between the honorific and non-honorific levels. I compare this with the Japanese “semi-polite” form, whose rise has been noted by recent studies.

The use of the Korean honorific system In the family-themed K-pop (Korean pop) song lyrics

Korean society, to this day, generally still applies Confucian principles in its discourse. Confucian principles in speech are expressed through the use of politeness in language This research conducted to determine how the Korean honorific system is used in the family-themed K-POP (Korean Pop) song lyrics and the factors that influence such use. This research was designed as a qualitative study. The data were collected by using a document analysis technique. Meanwhile, the data analyzed by using a linguistic data analysis technique, with reference to Kang, et al.’s (2005) Korean honorific system theory and Lee’s (2002) theory of social factors that influence the application of the Korean honorific system. This research resulted in 38 Korean honorific system expressions. The most commonly used Korean honorific system type is, namely, the honorific vocabulary. Because songwriters often used vocabulary in the form of honorifics, where the vocabulary was a pronoun to mention the characters in the lyrics of the song. The use of the Korean honorific system was influenced by various factors, including age, social status, intimacy, and context. While the gender factor was not found, this is likely due to the speaker and the addressee having different ages and social status.

호주의 한국어 학습자의 경어법 이해에 대한 사회화용론적 접근

The Korean language has an established honorific system that reflects the Korean society’s hierarchical and relational nature, where respect for elders and individuals of higher social status must be shown through language (Brown, 2015). This cultural aspect poses significant challenges to L2 Korean learners. Taking a socio-pragmatic perspective, this study explored how L1 English speakers living outside the target language society comprehend and apply the honorific system when speaking in L2 Korean. The study was conducted with eight L1 English speakers learning Korean in Australia. All eight participants completed a survey revealing their motivation for, first impression of, and biggest hindrance in learning Korean. Next, seven of them were interviewed concerning how they conceptualised, perceived, and used Korean honorifics. The survey and interview data analysis showed that the participants appeared to have a subjective attitude towards the application of honorifics instead of considering the listener’s relational status even when the honorific system had been learned and mastered for a considerable period. Although the participants were learning Korean while living outside the Korean society, which makes it challenging to understand honorifics or establish conversational concepts completely, they recognised honorifics as an important part of the Korean language; however, this understanding was overpowered by their cultural identity as “Australians.” The findings suggest that an L2 speaker is not a target-like object unconditionally accommodating socio-pragmatic elements but rather a fluid speaker exercising subjectivity and autonomy.

Promoting the Use of Okinawan by New Speakers: An Analysis of Honorific Choices in the Family Domain

Linguistic insecurity about polite registers constitutes a serious barrier for any new speakers specifically in settings between parents and children or between married couples. Politeness might very well be the register that prevents new speakers from either learning or using their heritage language. This paper examines the current use of honorifics in Okinawan between parents and children, and between married couples. It examines the use and awareness of honorifics in the family domain, paying due attention to situations when honorifics are used without causing communicative and sociolinguistic problems. Two families serve as a case study, including myself and my parents. The results of the analysis of the two families illustrate that the traditional honorific system (use of strict honorifics) has changed to fit modern life and that its accompanying values are characteristic of contemporary Okinawan society. We found that honorifics are rarely used in Okinawan conversations between married couples both by rusty speakers and semi-speaker. The use of honorifics between parents and children (semi-speaker) has been also moderated. If such flexible use of honorifics is adopted at home, there may be a possibility of intergenerational transmission of Okinawan within the family. Lastly, I introduce the opinion of new speakers, all in their 20s, about the use of honorifics. The y do not wish fluent speakers to criticize their mistakes one by one, but they still want fluent speakers to correct crucial errors to master honorifics step by step.

Corpus-based analysis of honorifics in Korean and its pedagogical implication

Abstract This study explores the speech level shifts from non-honorific to honorific situation by analyzing Korean spoken corpora of conversations between native speakers of Korean through a discourse-analytic framework. Although non-honorific styles (e.g., panmal) are used as frequently as honorific ones (e.g., contaysmal), little attention has been paid to non-honorific expressions in Korean, let alone to the speech level shift between non-honorific and honorific. Analyzing interactions between native speakers of Korean revealed that, depending on the change of their stance in response to the interlocutor’s utterance, speakers dynamically switched their speech levels not only within the boundary of non-honorifics or honorifics, but also across the dichotomous categories, that is, they changed from non-honorific to honorific speech styles. In general, speakers employed the speech level elevation from non-honorific to honorific when indexing a confrontational stance toward a topic and an object, or when upgrading an epistemic stance in naturally occurring interactions. The findings of this study encourage researchers to actively construct and use corpora of authentic/naturalistic conversations to explore the dynamicity of the speech level shift and its functions, which in turn contributes to developing instruction materials that reflect the dynamicity of the Korean honorific system.

四書언해의 존대법 변용

In a previous work, this author inspected how the honorific system of language was applied to Confucian classic annotations in Korean which were published in the reign of King Seonjo. As a result, it was found that underlying that system are two main principles which are theory of mastering the way or ‘dotongron’ and situational logic or ‘sanghwangnonri’. However, the previous research was unsuccessful in determining how to understand exceptions that didn't comply with any of the two principles. The objectives of this study were to verify that such exceptions are just variations of the principles and infer implications that the variations have. Both Gyojeongcheong version of Saseo Eonhae and Yulgok's version of the annotated literature cling to one of the elements of dotongron, that is, byeokyidan[repelling of heresy] as they annotate conversation between Meng-zi and Gao-zi and hermits' criticism of Confucius. Also, the two versions have a common basic rule that no honorific words are used to annotate quoted speech from feudal lords. Nevertheless, both the versions include some annotations that hard to be determined between being honorific and being humble or, in other words. ‘moderate’ in style. Gyojeongcheongbon version of Saseo Eonhae braces for dotongron as well as sanghwangnonri in terms of the honorific system of language. Indeed, however, the former principle overwhelms the latter one. The version treats speech from Confucius in a less honorific way than feudal lords. Also, it depicts behavior by the lords in a less respectful way than Meng-zi in order to position him relatively higher. Moreover, Gyojeongcheong version applies the honorific system of language when dealing with utterance only by monarchs of Zhou dynasty, excluding those of Yin dynasty. In contrast, Yulgok's version maintains sanghwangnonri throughout itself. Accordingly, that version has speech from Zeng-zi or Yan-zi annotated with honorific words whose degree gets lowered when the version works with Confucius. When it comes to feudal lords' speech or behavior, Yulgok's version dictates it in either honorific or humble style depending on who the lords converse with. Thus, Yulgok's version utilizes dotongron more flexibly than Gyojeongcheongbon version, and provides more variations of the honorific system of language under sanghwangnonri than the other version.

비격식체 상대높임법 구문의 도출과정에서의 반순환성

The purpose of this paper is to show that the types of sentences in Korean may be determined not only by the syntactic information but also by the phonological information, especially the prosody structure. In the informal style constructions in the Hearer-oriented Honorific System, we conducted phonetic experiments to prove this phenome- non. As a result, it is observed that the types of sentences can be distinguished by intonation. Since the sentence type of Korean is determined at the end of the sentence, it can be confirmed that each sentence type is divided according to IP boundary tones. Our observation is significant because it is an example of the anti-cyclicity of the derivational operation in generative grammar. This does not mean, however, that all types of sentences will be related to anti- cyclicity.

희곡 『M.나비』 속 권력의 전복과 한국어 번역

This study analyzes the Korean translation of David Henry Hwang’s play, M. Butterfly, focusing on the characters’ honorific speeches, particularly on their use of Korean hearer-oriented honorific system. It is because one of the most important massages the original text carries is subversion of power in Orientalism and gender ideology, and its exposure through the relationship between the characters. Whereas in English, politeness or relative honorification is intermittently revealed in dialogue, in Korean language, the hearer-oriented honorific system is grammatically contained in every sentence. Therefore, it is very essential for translators of English dramas to complete Korean sentences with relevant hearer-oriented honorifics in order to show relationships between characters and to convey playwrights’ intended messages and effects to readers and audience. By analyzing the Korean hearer-oriented honorifics in the Korean translated text, this study examines how the Korean translation represents the power relations between the main characters in M. Butterfly and what effects it can bring to the Korean readers and audience.

Tingkat Tutur Pengisi Fungsi Subjek Bahasa Korea dan Bahasa Jawa

The aim of this study is to explain Korean and Javanese subject honorific and identify its similarities and differences. To accomplish it, this research was conducted using literature review method. Data related to the Javanese language were taken from two Javanese drama scripts, namely Mak Ana Asu Mlebu Ngomah and Bantul Sangsaya Pinunjul, and Javanese drama titled Sri Ngilang by George Quinn. Korean language data was taken from television drama, Misaeng and Fight for My Way. Based on the analysis that has been carried out, despite the difference of the honorific system of Korean dan Javanese, Javanese has subject honorific as described in the Korean honorific system. Both languages use words that have honorific meaning to honor the subject and use words that are usually used for the animal to dishonor the subject of the sentence. The difference between both languages on subject honorific is Korean subject honorific is mainly realized grammatically, whereas in Javanese is realized lexically. In addition, there are rules from the Korean government regarding the use of one type of subject honorific, abjonbeob, whereas in Javanese there are no rules related to the use of speech level.

번역, 현상과 실제 : 번역의 실질적 가치

Translating is a process of converting one language to another which might not be compatible at all with one another, due to divers inherent differences that are identifiable between languages. This difficulty in converting one language to another mainly stems from differences in the uses of vocabularies unique, customary and traditional, and also to an extent in the uses of honorifications. The paper addresses the problems of translators in converting languages without conventional inherent honorific system such as English to Korean. English as language does not use the honorific system per se, while it is used in certain circumstances and situations as addressing someone with title or to show respect, it is not a norm. Translating from a language which does not use an honorifical mode to a language that does is a delicate process, because it ultimately becomes a question of tradition and to a certain degree questions in portrayal of gender and its representation. The problems in translating dramatical texts are far different from any other literary genre in that dramatic texts are dialogues that are meant to be pronounced by an actor/actress on stage in actual time in front of a live audience. Drama achieves reality only when the dialogues presented are accepted as ‘reality’ in itself. In this sense, the dramatic dialogue should and has to be an exact copy of the actual reality that the work is representing and should not be modified in translation trying to conform to the translators language, traditions, culture and customs. In conclusion, translating from one language system to another where the two systems have no common ground poses problems and must be engaged based on the cultural and linguistic consideration of the original work to deliver the ‘nuance’ that the original work tried to convey. This paper addresses the above situations and the subsequent questions of value that may arise in translating a dramatic text from one language to another.

An Analytical Study on the Honorific System in (1896)

An Analytical Study on the Honorific System in (1896)

발표 담화에서의 상대 높임법 사용 양상 및 인식 연구 - 중급 수준 학문 목적 학습자의 '합쇼체'와 '해요체' 전환을 중심으로 -

발표 담화에서의 상대 높임법 사용 양상 및 인식 연구 - 중급 수준 학문 목적 학습자의 '합쇼체'와 '해요체' 전환을 중심으로 -

Honorification in Nepali: a psycholinguistic perspective

This research article explores the psycholinguistic processes of honorification manipulation in Nepali language. Honorification is not static but dynamic process and is affected by many factors including psychological. Data is drawn from published narratives, mostly in the Nepali media, and analyzed from psycholinguistic perspective. The range of data include politics, royalese, language of marital discord and media. Significant influencers in choice of honorifics are fluctuation in state of mind and proximality. The canonical three-level honorific system is discussed as a reference point for psychologically motivated honorification fluctuation. Three types of honorific operators are identified and discussed: psychological, royalese and neutralization. The article attempts to bring forth the complex mechanisms that work on the honorification system in Nepali language.

A Study on the Comprehension and Expression of Honorific System by Intellectual Disability Students

Purpose The purpose of this study was to identify differences in comprehension and expression of the honorific system for intellectual disability students (IDS) and confirm need for education. Methods The subjects were 15 students with intellectual disability, 15 children with normal development matched for language age to the students with intellectual disability, and 15 ordinary adults matched for life age to the adults with intellectual disability. They were asked to examine 12 questions each on comprehension and expression honorific system individually. Results First, as a result of the honorific system test, IDS’s honorific system was increased as their language age (10, 11, and 12 years) increased, and there were differences among three groups with different language age. Also, for the result of honorific types (e.g., subject, object, hearer honorifics) and level of difficulty in the honorific question types (e.g., above average, average, below average), there was a significant difference between the three groups. Second, an analysis of the percentage of IDS group’s error responses to questions about the honorific system test showed that ‘raising the name’ and ‘woo-ri/jeo-hui’ questions had a high percentage of error answers. Conclusion These results suggest that the IDS group is lower average to the honorific system than other groups. To use the honorific system is important to IDS group who starts social life soon because the honorific system is a communication method that respects the others. Therefore, it can be seen the honorific system education is necessary and suggests that IDS group needs to consider the types and difficulty levels in the education of honorific system. Key Words: Students with intellectual disability, Honorific system, Subject honorific, Object honorific, Hearer honorific 중심 단어: ì§€ì ìž¥ì• í•™ìƒ, 높임법, 주체높임법, 객체높임법, 상대높임법

Linguistic (Im)Politeness and Characterisation in Interlingual Film Subtitling

This article deals with the question of the role of linguistic (im)politeness in fictional characterisation and rendering thereof in interlingual film subtitles. The discussion is based on a case study of the 2014 British action film “Kingsman: The Secret Service” and focuses on the representation of one of the film’s protagonists Harry Hart “Gallahad” as a ‘quintessential Englishman’ and gentleman-spy by exploring the pragmastylistic features of the character’s verbal behaviour in the English soundtrack and the Korean subtitles, as well as audience response of both language groups retrieved through the native speakers’ validation procedure. The analysis showed that in many cases the subtitler chose to deviate from the (im)politeness patterns of the original in order to retain the concordance with the situational context of a scene which resulted in the loss of some of the permanent features of the speech portrait of the analysed character. However, by deploying other pragmalinguistic devices, such as the predicate endings of different speech styles that are part of the complex honorific system of the Korean language, the translator was able to achieve a certain degree of similarity to the original impression of the character’s personality in a way that is understandable for the Korean audience.

東京外大本 ｢交隣須知｣(1881)의 교정 양상을 통해 본 19세기말~20세기초의 상대경어법 체계

東京外大本 ｢交隣須知｣(1881)의 교정 양상을 통해 본 19세기말~20세기초의 상대경어법 체계

Translating Khmer Second Person Pronouns: Respect, Relations, and Social Conventions in the Gospel of John

This paper is a case study in the challenges of translating the Greek New Testament into Khmer, the language of Cambodia. The paper focuses on Khmer’s honorific system of second-person pronouns in order to show the difficulties of translating across language families and to highlight the amount of theological interpretation that every Khmer translation entails. Through three examples drawn from the Gospel of John, the paper explores the challenges that Jesus’ presence at the heart of Christian piety poses for a pronominal system that encodes social values such as relation and respect. The paper ends with a reflection on the possible advantages of the study of idiolect for the translation of honorific pronouns.

≪闡義昭鑑諺解≫ 異本에 나타나는 높임 표현 양상

≪闡義昭鑑諺解≫ 異本에 나타나는 높임 표현 양상