Korean Studies Association of Australasia 8th Biennial Conference 2013 Korea and the Southern Hemisphere Conference Proceedings Compiled by 2013 KSAA Conference Organising Committee ISBN: 978-0-9579595-2-1 Table of Contents Page Peer-reviewed papers 1 A systemic functional linguistic description of Theme in 5 Korean Mira Kim 2 Differing Identity Constructions of Second and 1.5 17 generation Korean Canadians and Their Heritage Language Learning Jeeweon Shin 3 A Curious Case: North Korea and the United Nations 33 Framework Convention on Climate Change Benjamin Habib 4 ‘Opp … Oppan Gangnam Style’: Psy’s Popularity and its 51 Social Significance in Contemporary Korea Gil-Soo Han 5 “Humanitarian Aid” Reconsidered: The Politics of 66 Transnational Welfare Citizenship among Older Sakhalin Koreans Sung-Sook Lim Unreviewed papers 6 “Still Quite Fun To Read:” 81 An Introduction to North Korean Children’s Literature Christopher Richardson 7 Exhibiting Juche: The Unfolding of Juche in North Korean 93 Museum Displays Jacqueline Willis 8 The Role and Limits of Civil Society on North Korea: 110 A Case Study of Multi-dimensional Approaches toward North Korean Defectors Kim Kyungmook 9 The Space of Modernity: Based on the Novels of Yi Gwangsu 121 Lyudmila Atanasova 2 10 Prospects for Resolving the Conflict with North Korea 130 in 2013 and Beyond: Looking at the Past in order to help Change the Future Roland B. Wilson 11 On the folk custom of forbidding well digging in traditional 146 Korea Hong-key Yoon 12 The Environmental Movement of Christianity and 167 Buddhism in Contemporary Korea: The Common Efforts and their Limitations Nam-chul Bu Young-hae Chi 13 Faith-based organization's support for migrant workers in 185 Ansan city, South Korea Shreejana Gnawali 3 Peer-reviewed Papers 4 A systemic functional linguistic description of Theme in Korean Mira Kim The University of New South Wales Abstract On the basis of Kim’s (2007) analysis of 537 clauses from a corpus that consists of 17 Korean texts, this paper challenges the widely accepted proposition that un/nun is the Theme or topic marker in Korean (cf. Li & Thomson 1976, Lim 1972, Shin 1975). Drawing on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory, Kim (2007) shows that there are different ways of orientating the reader in terms of how a text unfolds in Korean and argues that un/nun certainly plays a major role in that regard but it is not the only resource in realizing Theme in Korean. Based on the corpus evidence, this paper suggests a model for a system of THEME in Korean and describes the choices of Theme in the language that is yet to be studied comprehensively from a SFL perspective. 1 Introduction It seems to be widely accepted that un/nun is the Theme or topic marker in Korean (cf. Li & Thomson 1976, Lim 1972, Shin 1975). That is, what the clause is going to be about is indicated by the element marked by the postposition un/nun. This proposition is useful in understanding one aspect of the postposition un/nun but it is certainly limited in explaining how Theme is realized in Korean simply because there are other elements that appear to function as Theme based on evidence from discourse but are not marked by un/nun. The present paper investigates these other elements that function as Theme and how they are different from the elements marked by un/nun. The investigation is based on a manual analysis of a corpus of 537 clauses from 17 Korean written texts spanning three text types, expounding, reporting and recreating, drawing on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistic theory (SFL). The results of the analysis unearth certain patterns, which will be presented in the paper through the system network of THEME1 in Korean. The approach taken in the study is trinocular: from above, from around and from below (cf. Halliday & Matthiessen 2004). That is, firstly, SFL theory has provided general linguistic principles that can be applied in describing any language (from above); secondly, rigorous reference has been made to a range of systemic functional descriptions of other languages and also to earlier studies of un/nun and i/ka in Korean (from around); and lastly, but most importantly, this study is based on the quantitative analysis of the corpus, which consists of a number of authentic Korean texts. A detailed description of the data is provided in Kim (2011) along with an introduction of the theoretical framework, a discussion of the methodological issues that were considered in the data analysis process and a critical review of existing studies of Theme in Korean from the theoretical perspective of SFL. The purpose of this paper is to describe a range 1 Following SFL conventions, the names of systems and sub-systems are capitalized. *Thank you to Nick Bisley, Daniel Bray and Colum Graham for their assistance with this project. 5 of Theme choices available in Korean in a paradigmatic system network. A few examples will be provided to show how the choices are made within discourse but more examples can be found with a lengthy discussion in Kim (2007, Chapter 4). 2 The system of THEME in Korean The system network of THEME in Korean presented in Figure 12 includes three sub- systems of THEME in declarative clauses in Korean, INTERPERSONAL, TEXTUAL and TOPICAL. Firstly, INTERPERSONAL THEME and TEXTUAL THEME simply offer options for expressing such Themes at the beginning of the clause. In other words, the clause in Korean may have an interpersonal Theme and/or a textual Theme in addition to a topical Theme as in English. + textual TEXTUAL THEME - INTERPERSONAL + interpersonal prominent ] ’ THEME - e v i circumstantial t a r exhaustive a l marked c e affirming d ‘ [ e s clause u a l functional c prototypical TOPICAL unmarked noteworthy THEME absolute Figure 1: The system network of THEM in Korean TOPICAL THEME consists of two kinds of Themes depending on whether or not the Theme has any experiential function. The clause-functional Theme has an experiential function but the absolute Theme does not have any experiential function but serves just as Theme3. When the Theme has an experiential function, it is a marked or unmarked Theme depending on what experiential function it has. The unmarked Theme is the most typical type of topical Theme that functions as a Participant and is conflated with the Subject. The unmarked Theme is prototypically marked by un/nun but is marked by i/ka when the status of information assigned to the Theme is noteworthy. The prototypical unmarked Theme tends to be elided when it is recoverable either because it has been introduced in the preceding discourse or is obvious within the context. The noteworthy unmarked Theme can be also elided under a similar circumstance in spoken 2 It is a revised version of the model proposed in Kim (2007). 3 Chinese has the same phenomenon of absolute Theme as briefly explained in Section 2.3. For details, see Halliday and McDonald (2004). 6 Korean (Shin and Kim 2008). However, both of them are explicit in the topic sentence of the paragraph. The marked Theme is the Theme of which experiential function is a Circumstance or Participant that is conflated with the Complement. When a circumstantial marked Theme is marked by un/nun, the Theme stands out and indicates a shift of focus. When it is not marked by un/nun, it still has a thematic status but it is less prominent than one marked by un/nun. Thus in this case, the Theme should be extended to the Subject of the clause. When a Complement functions as Theme, it may or may not be marked by un/nun. Each kind of Theme is explained below in detail. 2.1 Textual Theme The textual Theme orients the reader to the relationship of the clause with the preceding discourse or indicates continuity with the previous discourse. The former function is realized through a conjunction or conjunctive Adjunct (e.g. however, in other words, furthermore) and the latter through a continuative element (e.g. well, yes, oh) (Matthiessen 1995:538). When a conjunction or conjunctive Adjunct such as 그리고 (kuliko) and and 그러나 (kulena) but or a continuative element such as 글쎄요 (kulsseyo) well comes before the Subject at the beginning of the clause, it functions as a textual Theme in Korean. However, Korean has the predominant feature of clause chaining, which is also found in Japanese (Thomson 2005). That is, Korean clause-chain final suffixes, which function as structural conjunctions such as -고 (-ko) and and –만 (-man) but, come at the end of the clause in Korean, in contrast with the placement of structural conjunctions in English. Thus while English aligns the logical (structural conjunctions) with the textual (cohesive conjunctions) at the beginning of the clause, Korean aligns the logical with the interpersonal within the verbal group serving as Predicator as does Japanese. 2.2 Interpersonal Theme The interpersonal Theme orients the speaker’s evaluation and attitude toward the proposition realized by the clause. It is realized by a Vocative element (e.g. Sir, Mr Smith), modal comment Adjunct (e.g. foolishly, fortunately) or Finite verb in English (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004). In Korean, however, Finite verbs are not related to interpersonal Theme as the verbal group comes at the end of the clause and does not play any role in the realization of contrasts in mood — such contrasts being realized by verbal suffixes. However, a Vocative element or a modal comment Adjunct such as 다행히도 (tahaynghito) fortunately can be placed before the Subject and when it is, it functions as an interpersonal Theme.