Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 30:3 (2020) ► pp.351–380

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF

The Korean hortative construction revisited

Prototypical and extended functions

 | Myongji University
ORCiD logo with link | Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 3 July 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.19014.kim
Abstract
This paper revisits the hortative -ca construction in Korean from a usage-based perspective, examining its functions in natural interactional spoken data The examination of the actual occurrence of -ca reveals its various functions: -ca indicates that the performer of the focal-event encoded in the utterance may be 1st person plural subject, i.e., the speaker and other interlocutors; 2nd person, i.e., the addressee(s); 1st person, i.e., the speaker; and 3rd person. Our findings provide direct evidence for the different degrees of prototypicality among these functions, which are reflected in their different frequency counts. Furthermore, this study proposes two novel functions of ca, the accordant imperative (to demand that the addressee agree with the speaker that the addressee perform the focal-event) and the speaker hortative (to ask the addressee to perform an action so that the speaker him-/herself can perform the focal-event).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Preliminaries
    • 2.1The hortative and related notions
    • 2.2Hortatives in Korean grammar
  • 3.Data analysis
    • 3.1Cohortative -ca: 1st person plural performers of the focal-event
      • 3.1.1-Ca in internal monologues
        • 3.1.1.1 Idiomatic expression: Eti poca ‘let’s see’
        • 3.1.1.2 Idiomatic expressions: -Cako and -cani
      • 3.1.2Co-occurrence of explicit references to participants
      • 3.1.3 Markers of the conditional: -Chi-ca and -ca-myen
    • 3.2Imperative -ca: 2nd person performer(s) of the focal-event
      • 3.2.1Polite imperative -ca
      • 3.2.2Accordant imperative -ca
    • 3.3Speaker hortative -ca: 1st person performer(s) of the focal-event
    • 3.4Exhortative -ca: 3rd person performer(s) of the focal-event
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (22)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2016. “Sentence Types.” In The Oxford Handbook of Modality and Mood, ed. by Ian Nuyts and Johan van der Auwera, 141–165. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ammann, Andreas, and Johan van der Auwera. 2001. “Complementizer-Headed Main Clauses for Volitional Moods in the Languages of South-Eastern Europe: A Balkanism?” In Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 67, ed. by Olga Mišeka Tomić, 341–362. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Herbert H. 1996. Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Doh, Jae Hak. 2016. “On the Strategies and Grammatical Categories that Denote a Concept of ‘Wish’ in Korean.” Emwunnoncip 781: 361–390.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Schuetze-Coburn, Stephan, Cumming, Susanna, and Paolino Dane. 1993. “Outline of Discourse Transcription.” In Talking Data: Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research, ed. by Jane A. Edwards and Martin D. Lampert, 45–89. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jeon, Byung-yong. 1999. Cwungseykwukeuy Emi -Niey Tayhan Yenkwu [A Study on the Ending -Ni in Middle Korean]. Seoul: Cheongtongkewul.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Young-cheol. 2008. “A Study on the Discourse Function of ‘JA’ to Discourse Marker in Korean language.” Kwukemwunhak 451: 5–23.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koo, Hyun Jung and Seongha Rhee. 2008. “Manipulated Hypotheticality in Conditionals: A Journey in Search of Strength and Diversity.” Paper presented at the 4th New Reflections on Grammaticalization Conference, Catholic University of Leuven, July 16–19, 2008.
Lim, Dong-Hoon. 2011. “Sentence Types and Uses in Korean.” Journal of Korea Linguistics 601: 323–359.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mauri, Caterina, and Andrea Sansò. 2011. “How Directive Constructions Emerge: Grammaticalization, Constructionalization, Cooptation.” Journal of Pragmatics 431: 3489–3521. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Na, Eun-mee. 2002. “The Function of the Korean Utterance-Final Marker ‘-Psita’ with Focus on its Directive Function.” Icwungenehak 201: 93–110.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, F. R. 2001. Mood and Modality (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Sook-young. 2012. “Studies on Behaviors Accompanied by Hortative Utterances: A Case Study of ‘-(U)psita, -Ca’.” Paper presented at the 16th Fall Korean Language Culture Education Conference. Yonsei University, Seoul, October 20.
Rhee, Seongha. 2016. “From Quoting to Reporting to Stance-Marking: Rhetorical Strategies and Intersubjectification of Reportative.” Language Sciences 551: 36–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “What Happens When the Will Withers: The Case of Hortative in Korean.” Lingua 189–1901: 51.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sohn, Ho-Min. 1999. The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth C., and Richard B. Dasher. 2002. Regularity in Semantic Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van der Auwera, Johan, Nina Dobrushina, and Valentin Goussev. In press. “A Semantic Map for Imperative-Hortatives.” In Points of Comparison in Linguistics: from Morphology to Discourse, ed. by Dominique Willems, Timothy Colleman and Bart Defrancq, 1–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
. 2003. “Imperative-Hortative systems.” In World Atlas of Language Structures, ed. by Matthew Dryer, Martin Haspelmath, David Gil, and Bernard Comrie, 294–297. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Kim, Ahrim & Iksoo Kwon
2020. Hortatives, imperatives, and the directive speech-act continuum: A usage-based approach to the Korean -ca hortative construction. Lingua 245 ► pp. 102928 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue