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Chapter 24 - Performing Gender in Korean: Language, Gender, and Social Change

from Part V - Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

By
Minju Kim
Edited by
Sungdai Cho  and
John Whitman
Sungdai Cho
Affiliation:
Binghamton University, State University of New York
John Whitman
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Chapter 24 examines the topic of language and gender in the context of Korean studies. Korean is well-known for its highly sophisticated honorifics and other resources that index hierarchy, formality, personal closeness, etc. Korean speakers “perform” gender using politeness distinctions as a primary resource. Studying how gender is performed requires the examination of language and gender in local contexts as they are indexed and constructed. This chapter also looks at the relative frequency of men’s use of formal language such as caney “you”, yey “yes”, and the supnita style, in comparison to women. The result of this is that women may feel like “interlopers” in prestigious professions where formal language is the norm. On the other hand, as Korea is rapidly moving away from a hierarchical society and toward a more egalitarian one, informal language, including caki “you”, ney “yes”, the eyo style, and other patterns associated with women, is becoming preferred over formal language to some extent across genders. This is especially evident among the younger generation.

Keywords

language and gendersentence enderhonorificsindexicalitysecond person pronounsexualizationgendersocial changeyes
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics , pp. 689 - 716
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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