Revisiting “polite” –yo and “deferential” –supnita speech style shifting in Korean from the viewpoint of indexicality

Lucien Brown

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

This article revisits the question of why Korean speakers switch between two different speech styles (‘‘polite’’ --yo and ‘‘deferential’’ --supnita) in public speech. Although two recent articles (Eun and Strauss, 2004; Strauss and Eun, 2005) have approached this problem, their explanations that --yo/--supnita shifting is grounded in the marking of information status and the indexing of stances of inclusion/ exclusion have some underlying problems, which I address in the opening sections. I then analyze a Korean talk show to arrive at a more appropriate model for describing --yo/--supnita shifting. The data shows that participants in this talk show use --supnita as a resource for indexing presentational and performative stances of authority and to mark talk as public or ritualistic. From this, I posit that the underlying direct indexical meaning of --supnita is ‘‘formal presentational stance.’’ Although --yo tends to occur in more casual and emotionally unrestrained sequences of the talk show, I argue that affective stances are only indirectly indexed by this form when it occurs in opposition to --supnita in public speech. Crucially, these affective meanings are mediated by the co-occurrence of --yo with interactional particles. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)43-59
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Pragmatics
Volume79
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • korean
  • Japanese
  • Honorifics
  • speech style shifting
  • indexically
  • politeness

Cite this

Brown, Lucien. / Revisiting “polite” –yo and “deferential” –supnita speech style shifting in Korean from the viewpoint of indexicality. In: Journal of Pragmatics. 2015 ; Vol. 79. pp. 43-59.
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abstract = "This article revisits the question of why Korean speakers switch between two different speech styles (‘‘polite’’ --yo and ‘‘deferential’’ --supnita) in public speech. Although two recent articles (Eun and Strauss, 2004; Strauss and Eun, 2005) have approached this problem, their explanations that --yo/--supnita shifting is grounded in the marking of information status and the indexing of stances of inclusion/ exclusion have some underlying problems, which I address in the opening sections. I then analyze a Korean talk show to arrive at a more appropriate model for describing --yo/--supnita shifting. The data shows that participants in this talk show use --supnita as a resource for indexing presentational and performative stances of authority and to mark talk as public or ritualistic. From this, I posit that the underlying direct indexical meaning of --supnita is ‘‘formal presentational stance.’’ Although --yo tends to occur in more casual and emotionally unrestrained sequences of the talk show, I argue that affective stances are only indirectly indexed by this form when it occurs in opposition to --supnita in public speech. Crucially, these affective meanings are mediated by the co-occurrence of --yo with interactional particles. {\circledC} 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",
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Brown, L 2015, 'Revisiting “polite” –yo and “deferential” –supnita speech style shifting in Korean from the viewpoint of indexicality', Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 79, pp. 43-59.

Revisiting “polite” –yo and “deferential” –supnita speech style shifting in Korean from the viewpoint of indexicality. / Brown, Lucien.

In: Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 79, 2015, p. 43-59.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

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AB - This article revisits the question of why Korean speakers switch between two different speech styles (‘‘polite’’ --yo and ‘‘deferential’’ --supnita) in public speech. Although two recent articles (Eun and Strauss, 2004; Strauss and Eun, 2005) have approached this problem, their explanations that --yo/--supnita shifting is grounded in the marking of information status and the indexing of stances of inclusion/ exclusion have some underlying problems, which I address in the opening sections. I then analyze a Korean talk show to arrive at a more appropriate model for describing --yo/--supnita shifting. The data shows that participants in this talk show use --supnita as a resource for indexing presentational and performative stances of authority and to mark talk as public or ritualistic. From this, I posit that the underlying direct indexical meaning of --supnita is ‘‘formal presentational stance.’’ Although --yo tends to occur in more casual and emotionally unrestrained sequences of the talk show, I argue that affective stances are only indirectly indexed by this form when it occurs in opposition to --supnita in public speech. Crucially, these affective meanings are mediated by the co-occurrence of --yo with interactional particles. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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Brown L. Revisiting “polite” –yo and “deferential” –supnita speech style shifting in Korean from the viewpoint of indexicality. Journal of Pragmatics. 2015;79:43-59.