Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in Korean Grammar

doi:10.1017/9781108292351.018

Chapter 17 - Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity in Korean Grammar

from Part IV - Semantics and Pragmatics

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2022

Ho-min Sohn

Edited by

Sungdai Cho and

John Whitman

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Sungdai Cho: Affiliation:
Binghamton University, State University of New York
John Whitman: Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York

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Summary

Chapter 17 aims to give an integrated account of how subjectivity and intersubjectivity are coded in Korean sentence endings, how such suffixes are diachronically derived from their source constructions, and what typological and socio-cultural factors motivate the emergence and proliferation of such suffixes. The chapter surveys how suffixes index the speaker or both the speaker and addressee as an integral component in their semantic structure. It then examines how such (inter)subjective inflectional suffixes have diachronically been grammaticalized from non-subjective source constructions. The chapter shows that in Korean and in other languages, subjectification tends to lead to intersubjectification and not vice versa. Finally, the chapter argues that the relatively extensive diversity of inflectional suffixes in Korean, especially intersubjective suffixes, is due to two facts: 1) typologically head-final syntax and a typical agglutinative morphology and 2) the time-honored cultural values of hierarchism and collectivism as well as recent dynamic socio-economic mobilities in Korean society and culture.

Keywords

(inter)subjectivity (inter)subjectification grammaticalization honorifics modals evidentials performatives hierarchism collectivism

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics , pp. 489 - 523

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108292351.018 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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