Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 6 No. 1, July 2016, pp. 99-111 DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF HONORIFIC USE IN KOREAN EMAIL DISCOURSE Jaegu Kim Sekolah Pelita Harapan, Lippo Cikarang, Jakarta [email protected] First received: 22 March 2016 Final proof received: 13 July 2016 Abstract It is a relatively new field that examines how Korean culture affects Korean language use in terms of age difference in a corpus of computer mediated email discourse. The purpose of this descriptive study and experiment is to prove the close relationship between Korean language and culture. This paper shows the descriptive study of Korean culture in relation to language use. Korean culture acknowledges an inherent hierarchy with regard to age, and considers [+age] as relating socially to [+power]. When younger Koreans converse with older ones, they express different morpho-syntactic patterns, which is an age complex. The main task of the experiment was to examine the way through which the age complex is reflected by Korean honorific linguistic system in email discourse. I asked 15 Korean native speakers between the ages of 20 to 25 to write emails expressing an impositive request to [+age (46-50 years old)], [-age (below 25 years old)] and [=age] recipients. The results show significant differences in the use of grammatical features in emails written to [+age] recipients, as compared to emails written to [-age] and [=age] recipients. The implication of the findings is that the cultural values that are attached to age and aging in the Korean society affects Koreans’ language use, which means Korean language and culture are closely intermingled. Keywords: age, email, discourse, honorific, culture, language, Korean This study will discuss the relationship between each other in a close relationship. For this study, Korean cultural and linguistic phenomena as shown Korean emails will be analyzed based on the in a computer mediated discourse (CMD), email, collected email corpuses that were written in Korean where primarily spoken forms of language are used among Koreans who was living in Korea. The to accomplish conversational communication in the corpus of 45 emails was collected through a absence of direct physical and contextual signs such Discourse Completion Test (DCT) from 15 Korean as facial expressions or gestures. Studies of CMD native speakers based on three different situations. constitute a relatively new field, and digital Situation #1 was to write an e-mail to an older discourse including email is one of the venues that person. Situation #2 was to write an email to an have been actively studied only in recent years equal aged person, and Situation #3 was to write an (Georgakopoulou & Tereza, 2015; Thurlow & email to a younger person. The main target of the Kristine, 2011; Bjørge, 2007; Graham, 2007; experiment was to examine how language use in Hatipoğlu, 2007; Chen, 2006). Email discourse email discourse changes according to each provides a good data source to see both written and differently aged person. The results of the three spoken cultural behaviors at the same time (Spilioti, different sets of emails are compared with each 2011; Bjørge, 2007). Email discourse is engaged in other, with the initial assumption that there would be by a great number of users in a huge worldwide clear differences in language use. network (Crystal, 2005, 2001, 1997). Examining Crucially, the experiment was based on email discourse within the scope of different imagined situations and people. These emails were linguistic and cultural traditions provides a means to not actual correspondence. The assumption was that explore communication patterns that demonstrate if there were two different aged persons who diverse cultural thought patterns and linguistic corresponded through sending and receiving emails, patterns in use. those emails should show clear different use of This study will show that Koreans’ thoughts language. For example, the result of situation #1, in about age which is an age complex are reflected in which a writer sends an email to a senior professor, Koreans’ linguistic features in terms of [+age] should be an example of a maximum age complex relationship, which may or may not be found in case. The result of sending emails to an equal-aged those of speakers of other languages. This present person should be neutral age complex case. The study consists of two main tasks, descriptive study result of sending emails to a younger-aged person and experiment, to build the argument that Koreans’ should be the minimum age complex case. This thought about age and Korean language use affect study assumed that there would be clear differences 99 doi: dx.doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v6i1.2742 Kim, Descriptive study of honorific use in Korean email discourse in use of language based on [+age] between younger Tudor (2012) and Anderson (2003) claim that Korean emailers and older Korean emailers. Korean culture is generally more collectivistic and In conclusion, this study is based on the less individualistic than American cultures. People interdependent relationship between culture and in collectivistic cultures are likely to live together as language as reflected in the different uses of a large family unit or tribe, whereas people in language among Korean [+age] groups of people. individualistic cultures tend to live alone or in Therefore, the present study will contain descriptive smaller groups such as the nuclear family. Group information of Korean culture and language decisions are not as important as personal judgments behaviors of Korean people. And then there will be in the U.S., while the opposite is true in Korea. the discussion of research methods and present Specifically, Korean collectivism has been nurtured analysis of the data from the experiment. Results of by Confucianism - the teaching of Confucius, who the experiment in email language use will show that stressed the importance of social harmony through there is a normative honorific system between [+age] hierarchical social relationships. For that reason, and [–age]. Korean juniors are encouraged to show respect towards their seniors. When the junior interlocutor Language and Culture does speak to the senior, the speech that the junior Culture exists in a close relationship with language, uses should contain honorifics which linguistically in that culture helps the users of a language govern encode Koreans’ socio-cultural structures. For more and define the conditions and circumstances under than 2000 years after Confucius’ teaching, many which various messages may or may not be sent, Koreans have continued to believe that their social noticed, or interpreted; indeed, cultural patterns and world is hierarchical; this belief constitutes an customs are sometimes explicitly encoded in a important aspect of their culture which is reflected language (Salzmann, 2014; Gumperz, 1996; Sherzer, in their language. Korean language encodes social 1987; Hymes, 1974). In the examination of the structure through honorifics, and Koreans habitually distinctive cultural behaviors of Korean language use honorific expressions reflecting their habitual users, the present study brings out Koreans’ thoughts about social power, especially relative honorific culture honoring the older people by the “age”. younger people, which I argue is a key to Korean It is always important for Koreans to know culture, encoded in Korean language and reflected first who is older among interlocutors or people in Korean’s use of language. In other words, discussed in a topic. The appropriate linguistic Koreans’ use of language shows a peculiar behavior forms must be chosen according to the hierarchy. when it is used toward a [+power] person by a On the other hand, it is not so important to know [−power] person. who is older among siblings in English speaking culture. English speakers do not encode “age” of Ageism in Korean Culture interlocutors or people, unless age is itself a topic of Although, in the individualist’s view, Koreans’ conversation. This entrenched, hierarchical social changing linguistic forms according to age relationship is reflected in Korean linguistic patterns differences of recipients may be considered as an that feature a complex honorific system that unnecessary social behavior, it is an important social reinforces a normative type of politeness – a sort of performance to keep their society harmonious in a socio-cultural indexing. Korean normative their belief. For example, English speakers also politeness can be expressed with grammatically and consider the hearers’ age in their conversation, but lexically encoded forms, honorifics, which are these considerations are very differently lexico-grammatical patterns that encode relations demonstrated in their grammar and lexicon from between the speaker and the addressed recipient. those of Korean speakers. Koreans show grammatical and lexical change in their language Linguistic Patterns of Honorifics use according to different [+age] recipients, Korean personal pronouns encode traditional considering [+age] as social power among the Korean social hierarchy (Sohn, 2001). For example, interlocutors, in more highly nuanced ways than there are two different first person pronouns in available to English speakers. Thus, this present Korean: cher/chey and nah/nae. Both of them mean study shows that Korean honorification culture is “I” in English, but the former cher/chey is to be embedded in verbal communication across various used by a younger person to an older person to be social relationships on [+age] differences among polite. The latter nah/nae is mostly used by an older Korean interlocutors, especially in linguistic feature person to a younger person. However, the latter case use. In their using honorifics, Koreans need to find is a little bit more complicated than the former proper linguistic forms of expression according to because it can also be used among equal-aged the age-related social statuses of their interlocutors. interlocutors and by a younger person to an older Therefore, when they use the chosen forms, the person in a close relationship or a younger person to cultural values behind those forms are revealed.