Evolution of Korean honorifics

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho-min Sohn
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Language Use ◽  
System A ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Cultural Forces ◽  
Language Universal ◽  
Crucial Condition

The aim of the present paper is to revisit earlier studies on the evolution of Korean honorifics and, following a brief survey of the contemporary system, (a) overview the historical development of Korean honorific patterns from Old Korean to Contemporary Korean and (b) propose to account, on a principled basis, for the evolutional processes in the framework of grammaticalization. I assume that Korean honorifics have evolved due essentially to the three interdependent language/culture-specific forces: structural, socio-cultural, and interactional, as directed by the language-universal principles and processes of grammaticalization. The essence of the structural forces is the agglutinative, predicate-final, and head-final morpho-syntactic nature of Korean. This typological salience is a crucial condition under which honorific affixes and particles may be germinated. Socio-cultural forces include the Korean people’s traditional and contemporary socio-cultural systems, values, and norms of hierarchism and collectivism, as language is regarded as reflecting culture and society. Koreans’ hierarchism and collectivism are sufficiently manifested in the structure and use of the language (e.g. H. Sohn 1986). The interactional forces are Koreans’ society/culture/context-bound interpersonal language use for communicative purposes. These three interlocking forces are assumed to have motivated and sustained a dynamic set of addressee and referent honorific contrasts in Korean, which have evolved as driven by the universal principles and processes of grammaticalization.

scholarly journals A grammatico-pragmatic analysis of the because X construction: Private expression within public expression

F1000Research ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 965
Author(s):  
Masaru Kanetani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Joint Attention ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Attention Effect ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
Public Expression ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Online Sources

Background: This article investigates an innovative use of because, called the because X construction (e.g., because homework). Quantitative and qualitative research as well as research about the historical development of the construction have been conducted. The present article aims to determine what motivates the use of the construction.  Methods: Based on the data collected from the literature and online sources, the grammar of the because X construction is described in detail. The construction is then analyzed  within Hirose’s (2015) three-tier model of language use.  Results: A two-layered expressive structure is proposed: The X-element serves as a private expression, which is a speaker’s expression of thought with no intention of communication, whereas the whole construction functions publicly. The private nature of the X-element consistently accounts for the syntactic categories of the X-element and the restrictions on them observed in the literature.  Conclusion: The proposed two-layered expressive structure reflects a metapragmatic function of the construction. A private, subjective expression embedded in a public expression has the function of connecting the hearer to the speaker, and it accordingly brings about a joint attention effect. With such a function, the proposed structure is effective especially (but not exclusively) in online communication because one can strategically indicate closeness or intimacy to others, particularly in an environment where nonverbal means are difficult to apply.

Processing and Directionality in German and English

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Doherty
Keyword(s):  
General Theory ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Processing Conditions ◽  
Literary Style ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Contrastive Linguistics

The paper discusses basic aspects of a general theory of contrastive stylistics, which is taken to result from the interaction of parameterized properties of languages with universal principles of language use. Proceeding from some basic psycholinguistic assumptions about language processing, the discussion will concentrate on various problems arising from specific processing conditions in English and German. The basic claims will be exemplified by translational evidence subjected to the method of control paraphrases. The findings pertain to contrastive linguistics, translation theory and a better understanding of individual literary style.

scholarly journals Efficiency in human languages: Corpus evidence for universal principles

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Levshina ◽  
Steven Moran
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
Introductory Paper ◽  
Communicative Efficiency ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
First Time ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in communicative efficiency. It has been argued that language users act efficiently, saving effort for processing and articulation, and that language structure and use reflect this tendency. The emergence of new corpus data has brought to life numerous studies on efficient language use in the lexicon, in morphosyntax, and in discourse and phonology in different languages. In this introductory paper, we discuss communicative efficiency in human languages, focusing on evidence of efficient language use found in multilingual corpora. The evidence suggests that efficiency is a universal feature of human language. We provide an overview of different manifestations of efficiency on different levels of language structure, and we discuss the major questions and findings so far, some of which are addressed for the first time in the contributions in this special collection.

Der Vistembor brehlte dem Luhr Knotten auf den bänken Leuster – Wie sich die Fähigkeit zur satzinternen Großschreibung entwickelt

2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (spec) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartmut Günther
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Writing System ◽  
System A ◽  
The Way

AbstractUsing capital letters within sentences not only for proper names but also for nouns is a specific feature of the German writing system. A short sketch of the historical development and two different approaches to the description of this phenomenon is given. Data using the dictation of pseudoword texts show that the ability to master this feature of German orthography develops independently of the way the rule of capitalizing nouns is taught at school.

Transitions and Transformations

2021 ◽  
pp. 149-176
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Integrative Learning ◽  
Activity System ◽  
Expansive Learning ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The University ◽  
Bidirectional Flow

University-community engagement involves the co-construction of “knots of collaboration” that must be reconstructed again and again in ever-changing contexts in which participants necessarily expand their perspectives on the task at hand. This chapter provides a greater understanding of this process of integrative learning and its relation to expansive learning by viewing the historical development of UC Links programs such as La Clase Mágica through the trifocal lens of the sociotechnical activity system. The example of LCM demonstrates how, as university and community participants engage, they find overlaps in their diverse perspectives and begin to integrate them. In this expansive learning process, the university and community participants come to approach each other as equal partners in mutual relations of exchange that provide for the bidirectional flow of cultural knowledge between disparate and often irreconcilable cultural systems, and for the integration of multiple funds of knowledge.

Usage-Based Linguistics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Diessel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Structural Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Language System ◽  
System A ◽  
Linguistic System ◽  
General Goal ◽  
The Relationship

Throughout the 20th century, structuralist and generative linguists have argued that the study of the language system (langue, competence) must be separated from the study of language use (parole, performance), but this view of language has been called into question by usage-based linguists who have argued that the structure and organization of a speaker’s linguistic knowledge is the product of language use or performance. On this account, language is seen as a dynamic system of fluid categories and flexible constraints that are constantly restructured and reorganized under the pressure of domain-general cognitive processes that are not only involved in the use of language but also in other cognitive phenomena such as vision and (joint) attention. The general goal of usage-based linguistics is to develop a framework for the analysis of the emergence of linguistic structure and meaning. In order to understand the dynamics of the language system, usage-based linguists study how languages evolve, both in history and language acquisition. One aspect that plays an important role in this approach is frequency of occurrence. As frequency strengthens the representation of linguistic elements in memory, it facilitates the activation and processing of words, categories, and constructions, which in turn can have long-lasting effects on the development and organization of the linguistic system. A second aspect that has been very prominent in the usage-based study of grammar concerns the relationship between lexical and structural knowledge. Since abstract representations of linguistic structure are derived from language users’ experience with concrete linguistic tokens, grammatical patterns are generally associated with particular lexical expressions.

Dialect Topography of Québec City English

1999 ◽  
Vol 44 (01) ◽  
pp. 23-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.K. Chambers ◽  
Troy Heisler
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Quebec City ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Canadian English

Abstract Québec City has had an anglophone community for 250 years. A representative sample of this community was surveyed using the methods known as Dialect Topography. The analysis establishes the distinctiveness of Québec City English but at the same time shows that it is firmly planted in the Canadian English speech community. It is shown that there are significant correlations with three social factors: (1) Language Use Index, which allows a calculation of the extent of each respondent’s use of English in the francophone setting; (2) age, the principal correlate of changes in progress; and (3) Regionality Index, which separates indigènes, the natives of the region, from interlopers, recent arrivals. Although the results show that the distinctiveness may be threatened by the persistence of interloper variants, in most respects Québec City English favours the same variants as the rest of Canada, albeit with different frequencies and often with a unique historical development.

Individual Differences in the Behavioral Immune System and the Emergence of Cultural Systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 174-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russ Clay ◽  
John A. Terrizzi ◽  
Natalie J. Shook
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Behavioral Immune System ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Psychological Mechanisms ◽  
System A ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Pathogen Prevalence

Cultural variation may be evoked through the interaction between domain-specific psychological mechanisms and environmental conditions (Gangestad, Haselton, & Buss, 2006 ). One such constellation of mechanisms is the behavioral immune system, a cluster of psychological processes evolved to promote disease-avoidance ( Schaller, 2006 ). Previous research demonstrated that higher levels of both historic and contemporary pathogen prevalence are predictive of collectivism across geopolitical regions ( Fincher, Thornhill, Murray, & Schaller, 2008 ). Across two studies, we demonstrate that individual differences in behavioral immune system reactivity (e.g., disgust sensitivity, germ aversion) are associated with variable endorsement of a vertical collectivist cultural orientation and differential value priorities, which are indicative of cultural differences. These findings provide support at an individual level for the proposition of evoked culture.

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