Cover not available

Article published In: : approches contrastives
[Pragmatics 33:4] 2023
► pp. 559–591

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

Korean imperatives at two different speech levels

Alternate ways of taking part in others’ actions and affairs

ORCiD logo with link | University of Hawaii at Manoa
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 17 January 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20060.kim
Abstract
Korean imperatives are differentiated by speech levels or levels of honorification. Accordingly, most research on Korean imperatives examines them from the perspective of politeness and interpersonal relations. This study takes a different approach, focusing on two types of non-honorific imperative turn design: one with the intimate speech level imperative e/a and the other with the plain speech level imperative ela/ala. Close examination of the forms in naturally occurring conversation provides a clearer picture of when and how the use of these imperatives is warranted by specific interactional configurations and contexts in everyday Korean talk-in-interaction. This study shows that alternate imperatives do not simply index politeness or social status, but are important resources for implementing separate action formats that pursue divergent interactional trajectories.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Imperatives for here-and-now actions
    • 3.1Intimate imperatives in formulating here-and-now directives and requests
    • 3.2Alternate imperative choices for the same verb
    • 3.3Alternate imperative choices by the same speaker
  • 4.Imperatives for remote actions
    • 4.1Imperatives in the context of advice-giving
    • 4.2Ironic imperatives
    • 4.3Alternate imperative forms for discrete actions and stances
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
References (39)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2010. Imperatives and Commands. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper. 1989. Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.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
Brown, Lucien. 2015. “Honorifics and Politeness.” In The Handbook of Korean Linguistics, ed. by Lucien Brown, and Jaehoon Yoon, 303–319. West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Byon, Andrew. 2001. “The Communicative Act of Requests: Interlanguage Features of American KFL Learners.” PhD diss. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Margret Selting. 2018. Interactional Linguistics: Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, and Sandra A. Thompson. 2022. “Action Ascription and Deonticity in Everyday Advice-Giving Sequences.” In Action Ascription in Social Interaction, ed. by Arnulf Deppermann, and Michael Haugh, 183–207. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2018. “Instruction Practices in German Driving Lessons: Differential Uses of Declaratives and Imperatives.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 28 (2): 265–282. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen. 2014. “Requesting – From Speech Act to Recruitment Requesting.” In Requesting in Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 1–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, and Asta Cekaite. 2013. “Calibration in Directive/Response Sequences in Family Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 46 (1): 122–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Han, Kil. 2004. Hyondae uri mal ui mach’im ssikkut yon’gu [A study on Korean sentence-enders]. Seoul: Yeklak.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinemann, Trine, and Jakob Steensig. 2017. “Three Imperative Action Formats in Danish Talk-in-Interaction.” In Sorjonen et al. 2017, 139–173. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickey, Leo, and Miranda Stewart. 2005. Politeness in Europe. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jefferson, Gail, and John Lee. 1981. “The Rejection of Advice: Managing the Problematic Convergence of a ‘Troubles-Telling’ and a ‘Service Encounter’.” Journal of Pragmatics 5 (5): 399–422. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Joungsook, Dongho Park, Byungkyu Lee, Hyeyoung Lee, Heejung Jung, Jungsoon Choi, and Yong Huh. 2005. Oegugin ul wihan han’gugo munpop 1 [Korean grammar for foreign language learners 1]. Seoul: Communication Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Mary Shin. 2018. “The Korean Vocative Interjection Ya ‘Hey’ Beyond Its Summoning Action.” In Japanese/Korean Linguistics 25, ed. by Shin Fukuda, Mary Shin Kim, and Mee-Jeong Park, 341–354. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Imperative Requests in Korean Interaction.” In Japanese/Korean Linguistics 26, ed. by Shoichi Iwasaki, Susan Strauss, Shin Fukuda, Suh-Ah Jun, Sung-Ock Sohn, and Kie Zuraw, 373–386. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Mary Shin, Stephanie Hyeri Kim, and Sung-Ock Sohn. 2021. “The Korean Discourse Particle Ya Across Multiple Turn Positions: An Interactional Resource for Turn-taking and Stance-taking.” Journal of Pragmatics 1861: 251–276. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, Stephanie Hyeri, and Mary Shin Kim. 2020. “Requesting Here-and-Now Actions with Two Imperative Formats in Korean Interaction.” In Mobilizing Others: Grammar and Lexis within Larger Activities, ed. by Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm, Emma Betz, and Peter Golato, 19–46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koo, Dohee. 2001. “Realisations of Two Speech Acts of Heritage Learners of Korean: Requests and Apology Strategies.” PhD diss. Ohio State University.
Kuroshima, Satomi, Stephanie Hyeri Kim, Kaoru Hayano, Mary Shin Kim, and Seung Hee Lee. 2021. “When OKAY Is Repeated: Closing the Talk So Far in Korean and Japanese Conversations.” In Okay Across Languages: Toward a Comparative Approach to Its Use in Talk-in-Interaction, ed. by Emma Betz, Arnulf Deppermann, Lorenza Mondada, and Marja-Leena Sorjonen, 235–265. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Hyo Sang. 1994. “Discourse-Pragmatic Functions of Sentence-type Suffixes in Informal Discourse in Korean.” In Theoretical Issues in Korean Linguistics, ed. by Young-Key Kim-Renaud, 517–539. Stanford, CA: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. “A Discourse-Pragmatic Analysis of the Committal -Ci in Korean: A Synthetic Approach to the Form-Meaning Relation.” Journal of Pragmatics 311: 243–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2017. “Precision Timing and Timed Embeddedness of Imperatives in Embodied Courses of Action: Examples from French.” In Imperative Turns at Talk: The Design of Directives in Action, ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 65–101. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ochs, Elinor, Emanuel Schegloff, and Sandra A. Thompson. 1996. Interaction and Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Young Jun. 1994. Myongnyongmun ui kugosachok yon’gu [A study on Korean imperative constructions]. Seoul: Kwukhak calyowen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rossi, Giovanni. 2012. “Bilateral and Unilateral Requests: The Use of Imperatives and mi X? Interrogatives in Italian.” Discourse Processes 491: 426–458. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. “Secondary and Deviant Uses of the Imperative in Italian.” In Imperative Turns at Talk: The Design of Directives in Action, ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 103–137. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rue, Yong Ju, Grace Zhang, and Kyu Shin. 2007. “Request Strategies in Korean.” In Proceedings of the Fifth Biennial Korean Studies Association of Australasia Conference, ed. by Korean Studies Association of Australasia, Kyu Suk Shin, and Hyun Chang, 112–119. Perth: Curtin University of Technology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff, and Gail Jefferson. 1974. “A Simplest Systematics for the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation.” Language 501: 696–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sohn, Ho-Min. 1994. Korean. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena. 2017. “Imperatives and Responsiveness in Finnish Conversation.” In Imperative Turns at Talk: The Design of Directives in Action, ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 241–270. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena, Liisa Raevaara, and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, eds. 2017. Imperative Turns at Talk: The Design of Directives in Action. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya. 2011. “Morality and Question Design: ‘Of Course’ as Contesting a Presupposition of Askability.” In The Morality of Knowing in Conversation, ed. by Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada, and Jacob Steensig, 82–106. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taleghani-Nikazm, Carmen, Emma Betz, and Peter Golato, eds. 2020. Mobilizing Others: Grammar and Lexis within Larger Activities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A., and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen. 2020. “English Why Don’t You X as a Formulaic Expression.” In Fixed Expressions: Building Language Structure and Action, ed. by Tsuyoshi Ono, and Ritva Laury, 99–132. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wootton, Anthony. 1997. Interaction and the Development of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Brown, Lucien & Soung-U Kim
2025. Politeness in Korean. In Politeness Metapragmatics [Advances in (Im)politeness Studies, ], ► pp. 47 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