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Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 31:2 (2021) ► pp.303–329

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Positively bitter and negatively sweet?

Conventional implicatures and compatibility condition of emotive taste terms in Korean vs. English

ORCiD logo with link | University of Texas at Arlington
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 17 November 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.17008.yoo
Abstract
The goal of this study is to propose a pragmatic analysis of what we call Emotive Taste Terms (ETTs) in Korean, compared to English. What makes Korean taste adjectives special is its multidimensional meaning: In descriptive dimension, (i) the literal meaning concerns the taste; or (ii) it can be extended toward the situation, yielding a figurative meaning. In expressive dimension, (iii) the choice of particular derivation form reflects the speaker’s positive or negative emotional attitude; and (iv) another potential expressive meaning concerns honorification, thought it is not part of the meaning of ETTs. We thus propose that ETTs are a novel subcase of expressive elements, triggering Conventional Implicature. We show how the analysis of ETTs as a CI allows us to successfully derive subtle connotational differences amongst numerous variants. Finally, we show how the co-occurrence pattern of multiple expressives, ETTs and other expressives, within the sentence can be captured by Compatibility Condition Model.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The landscape of taste adjectives in Korean
    • 2.1Variants of sweet taste
    • 2.2Variants of bitter taste
    • 2.3Variants of salty taste
    • 2.4Derivation of taste terms
  • 3.The meaning of taste terms in Korean
    • 3.1Emotive taste terms as expressives
    • 3.2The effect of emotive taste terms in context
  • 4.Compatibility condition for multiple expressives
    • 4.1Compatibility between ETTs and expressive nouns
    • 4.2Compatibility between ETTs and expressive case markers
    • 4.3Compatibility between ETTs and expressive verbs
    • 4.4Compatibility condition, cumulative effects, and multidimensionality
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (23)
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