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Article published In:
Pragmatics
Vol. 33:4 (2023) ► pp.559–591

Korean imperatives at two different speech levels

Alternate ways of taking part in others’ actions and affairs

ORCID logo | University of Hawaii at Manoa

Korean imperatives are differentiated by speech levels or levels of honorification. Accordingly, most research on Korean imperatives examines them from the perspective of politeness and interpersonal relations. This study takes a different approach, focusing on two types of non-honorific imperative turn design: one with the intimate speech level imperative e/a and the other with the plain speech level imperative ela/ala. Close examination of the forms in naturally occurring conversation provides a clearer picture of when and how the use of these imperatives is warranted by specific interactional configurations and contexts in everyday Korean talk-in-interaction. This study shows that alternate imperatives do not simply index politeness or social status, but are important resources for implementing separate action formats that pursue divergent interactional trajectories.

Keywords: (dis)alignment, (dis)affiliation, imperative, Korean, politeness, social interaction, speech level, stance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.Imperatives for here-and-now actions
    • 3.1Intimate imperatives in formulating here-and-now directives and requests
    • 3.2Alternate imperative choices for the same verb
    • 3.3Alternate imperative choices by the same speaker
  • 4.Imperatives for remote actions
    • 4.1Imperatives in the context of advice-giving
    • 4.2Ironic imperatives
    • 4.3Alternate imperative forms for discrete actions and stances
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 17 January 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20060.kim
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