Second Language knowledge of pragmatic meanings: What do learners of Korean know about the Korean pronouns ce and na?

In this study, we examined two related aspects in pragmatic knowledge: namely, knowledge of the contexts in which certain linguistic forms are prototypically used (i.e. form-context mappings), and the indexical meanings which are produced when a form is used in a particular context. We employed one-to-one metapragmatic interviews with 30 L1 Korean speakers, 28 L2 Korean learners in the UK as well as eight group interviews with 26 of the learners. The interviews focused on the participants’ understanding of the Korean first-person honorific pronoun ce in relation to its non-honorific equivalent na. The findings revealed that, while the learners’ understanding of the contexts in which ce is normally used was fairly similar to L1 speakers, the indexical meanings that they associated with the form-context mappings differed saliently from that of L1 speakers. In addition, the learners struggled to align with the L1 speakers’ meaning interpretations and made unsuccessful attempts to incorporate them into their existing indexical systems. The findings thus demonstrate that form-context mappings represent only one part of L2 learners’ pragmatic competence. Future research and pedagogical efforts are encouraged to take into consideration the indexical meanings that underly language usage and help learners make more informed linguistic choices.