Honorifics in the marketplace
A multimodal indexical analysis
This paper analyzes how vendors and customers in Korean marketplaces use three distinct levels of addressee
honorifics: the deferential ‑supnita
style, the polite ‑yo style and the so-called
panmal ‘half speech’ style. The frequencies of these forms to some extent pattern with the relative ages of
the participants; for example, vendors are more likely to use panmal towards customers who are relatively
younger. However, the majority of interactions feature dynamic variation between different styles, which cannot be adequately
explained by relative age. Rather, we see that participants use ‑supnita
style and ‑yo to index
that they are speaking in their prescribed roles as “vendors” or “customers”. Meanwhile, panmal was found to
index two main forms of social meaning. It was used to mark stages of the interaction that were conversational, playful, or
intimate, but also when speakers strategically indexed their authority or power as they tried to take the upper hand in price
negotiations. This authoritative use of panmal was accompanied by non-verbal behaviors such as large body
postures, high chin positions and the withholding of gaze and bodily orientation. The paper contributes towards a growing body of
research adopting an indexical approach to the use of honorifics, and demonstrates the importance of including analysis of
multimodal features alongside the honorific forms themselves.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Indexical properties of Korean honorifics
- 2.1Overview
- 2.2The deferential ‑supnita
style
- 2.3-yo
- 2.4
Panmal
- 2.5Other verbal and non-verbal features
- 3.Methodology
- 4.Data presentation
- 4.1Quantitative overview
- 4.2Qualitative analysis
- 4.2.1–supnita
- 4.2.2-yo
- 4.2.3
Panmal
- 5.Discussion
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
-
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