Abstract
A Study of Impoliteness in the Korean Utterances
Kim, Tae-Na
Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language
Department of Korean Language and Literature
Graduate School of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
This study aims ...
Abstract
A Study of Impoliteness in the Korean Utterances
Kim, Tae-Na
Teaching Korean as a Foreign Language
Department of Korean Language and Literature
Graduate School of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
This study aims to explore the sociopragmatic analysis criteria for Murye(Impoliteness 1) in Korean Utterances. It aims to reveal the universal rules of speaking that Murye can realize in Korean Utterances, and from them, to present the Korean society·culture-specific rules of Murye and to reinforce the successful communication competence of Korean learners.
Murye in Korean Utterances is defined as 'the words and actions that are contrary to objective and neutral courtesy(Ye, 禮) and justice(Ui, 義) that Korean speakers make a compact as social norms'. That is, Murye is a term for the words and actions that are against socially adopted norms - authorization(permission), non-acknowledgement of an addressee's status, needs, competence, space with an emphasis on self's status, needs, competence, space and discordance between words and actions. There are the Principles of FACE, INTENTION and RELATION that activate as the sociopragmatic analysis criteria in judging Murye in Korean Utterances. These principles interact dynamically and organically.
According to the original purpose, the 'face' of Politeness theories includes social norms and on that basis, the theory seeks to establish universal linguistic politeness strategies. The individualistic emphasis has been picked up and elaborated by Brown and Levinson(1978, 1987) into a cognitive model of 'face' based on Western ethnocentric assumptions such as the existence of a predominantly relational actor and the strategic, goal-oriented nature of 'face-work' and of social interaction. They described 'face-work(face saving)', protecting face or defending face from threats only at the level of utterances, especially 'face-work' with individualistic basic wants. Consequently Impoliteness theories, which have developed on the opposite parallel lines of politeness 'face-work', as it is, receive the problems of these 'face-work' legacies. Thus Impoliteness neglects social norms' face(social face) and it is impossible to explain the distinction from various sociocultural norms. In this respect, Murye is perceived as the words and actions are against Korean social norms and is realized by threatening social face as well as individualistic face. In comparison to Impoliteness, if a conflict occurs between individualistic face and social face, social face will take precedence and then individualistic face will be offset. Ultimately, the Principle of FACE of Murye is the interaction between individualistic face and social face, and depending on situations and relations, one of them is either offset or increased.
Secondly, from the aspect of intention, Impoliteness is an 'action attacking face intentionally and purposely'. However, it cannot take into account the categories for the misinterpretation of intention which brings about the concept of 'unintentional face threats' such as incidental and accidental threats to face which Goffman(1967) suggests. That is, the intention of Western Impoliteness, on the level of utterances, is only the propositional intention(propositional mechanism), which comes to the speaker's impolite intention. Thus, an utterance can only be regarded as impolite, if it contains impoliteness implicature(impoliteness 'implication'). However, in this respect, Korean Murye can be regarded as Murye regardless of having real intention or not. As Murye is fixed categories of the words and actions that go against Korean social norms, Murye is the words and actions that speakers use to act innocently or maliciously. The (un)intentional face threats can merely be judged through the situational·relational context of conversational participants. In other words, these interactants perceive Murye intentionally through the propositional attitude(formal mechanism), situational·relational context and in this sense intentional Murye is regarded as Bulson(Impoliteness 2). In contrast with Murye, Bulson is perceived as intentional, unfixed categories by interactants according to their propositional attitude(situational·relational conditions). Murye disregards intention while Bulson has a direct connection with intention. In other words, Murye is the social judgement about the proposition of the words and actions against Korean social norms. On the other hand, Bulson is based on the words and actions of Murye, and realized as a result of the addressee's subjective judgement and emotional effects. Ultimately, The Principle of INTENTION of Murye acts regardless of intention and the standard of intentions is 'the propositional intention(propositional mechanism)', which includes contents against the social norms and 'propositional attitude(formal mechanism)', such as situational·relational conditions, co-texts through the exchange of continuous utterances, and not just through a single talk.
Lastly, from the aspect of relations, Impoliteness presents that "the powerful participants reduce the ability of the less powerful participants to retaliate with impoliteness (e.g. through the denial of speaking rights), and threaten more severe retaliation should the less powerful participant become impolite". And in horizontal relations with solidarity, Mock Impoliteness is realized. In other words, lack of politeness is associated with intimacy, hence being superficially impolite can promote intimacy. Clearly, this only works in contexts in which the impoliteness is understood to be untrue. However, Mock Impoliteness doesn't distinguish from Impoliteness as it appears in vertical and intimate relationships. Following Western logic, if intimate contexts exist in vertical relations, there will be Mock Impoliteness. In Western Impoliteness, if individualistic face is threatened, Impoliteness will arise in all relations. With this point of view, Korean Murye also appears in all relations. The relation-work is also included in Korean social norms, presenting the aspect that Murye is not equal to Impoliteness and cannot explain Murye with the Impoliteness's relation-work. That is the reason why Western social norms are different from those of Korea, to be concrete the Korean standard of relations is different from that of the Western ones. The standard of Western relations is represented by vertical relations and horizontal relations by social dominance(ability), and relations which offset Impoliteness by the distance of solidarity. Murye, as mentioned in 'face-work', encompasses individualistic face and social face. Hence, the relations committing to Murye as a threat to individualistic face are realized in the individualistic relations and the relations committing to Murye as a threat to social face are realized in social relations. However, even though participants are in individualistic relations, and if one of them emphasizes social face, contrary to this, even though they contains social relations, if one of them emphasizes individualistic face, Murye will be realized. The clash of individualistic face and social face in each relations conformity with Korean social norms brings about Murye. Also, the standard of differentiating individualistic relations and social relations is the existence or absence of social(status·profession) roles in the situation of relevant utterances. Thus, the Western relation-work limits itself to the social relations related to professional roles in Korea. With this, even though social status is equal, the dynamic elements such as age, generation, status, undergrad, gender, etc exist, they can interact with vertical and individualistic relations. That is, the relation-work of Korean society can be divided by individualistic relations which are attenuated by social norms related to social roles and by social relations which emphasize social roles and duties. In social relations, there are vertical and horizontal relations depending on the social hierarchy, in there also vertical relation and horizontal relation by age, generation, status, undergrad, gender, etc. Ultimately the Principle of RELATION of Murye activates with judging individualistic relations and social relations through social roles and situations of relevant utterances. Therefore, the clash of faces and relations in an inappropriate social norms makes them Murye. Moreover, the distance of solidarity can be the standard that offsets or increases Murye(or Bulson).
Through organic and dynamic interaction of FACE, INTENTION, RELATION, Korean Impoliteness, Murye(or Bulson) can be analyzed. These analysis criteria are the sociopragmatic ones that can judge and recognize Murye.
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