Rodney E. Tyson & Chiou-Yau Cherng
Arizona Working
Papers in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching,
2(1), 14-27.
Fall 1994.
Abstract
This study involved two steps: (1) A contrastive analysis approach was used to identify cases of equivalence, non-equivalence, and partial (or overlapping) equivalence in semantic content, illocutionary force, and rules of use among some common Chinese and Korean politeness formulas for four types of speech acts--greeting, leave taking, apologizing, and thanking. Among other findings, the contrastive analyses demonstrated the major influence of Chinese on Korean politeness formulas. (2) A brief survey, which asked native-speaking Chinese (n=5) and Koreans (n=5) to guess the meanings of politeness formulas written in the other language, was used to investigate how a common knowledge of Chinese characters might help or interfere with the understanding of those formulas. The results of the survey seemed to be largely predictable from the contrastive analyses, supporting the usefulness of the contrastive approach. It is suggested that politeness formulas may be a good starting point for teaching Korean to Chinese or Chinese to Koreans because of the many overlaps that occur, even though the two languages are very different in other respects.
References
Davies, E. E. (1987). A contrastive approach to the analysis of politeness formulas. Applied Lingusitics, 8(1), 75-88.
Donga's new concise Korean-English dictionary. (1982). Seoul: Donga Publishing Company.
Ferguson, C. A. (1976). The structure and use of politeness formulas. Language in Society, 5, 137-151.
Gu, Y. (1990). Politeness phenomena in modern Chinese. Journal of Pragmatics, 14, 237-257.
Hwang, J.-R. (1990). Deference versus politeness in Korean speech. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 82, 41-55.
Kao, M. K. (1986). Han yu yu fa lun (On Chinese grammar). Beijing: Shang Wu Ying Kuan Publishing Company.
Lee, H. H. B. (1989). Korean grammar. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lukoff, F. (1982). A first reader in Korean writing in mixed script. Seoul: Yonsei University Press.
Pyles, T., & Algeo, J. (1982). The origins and development of the English language. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanich, Inc.
Sam Ik hwal yong ok phyen [Korean-Chinese character dictionary]. (1980). Seoul: Sam Ik Publishing Company.
Su, S. H. (Ed.). (1985). Concise Chinese-English Dictionary. Taipei: Lanbridge Book Company.
Yang, S.-Y. (1987). A comparison between Chinese and American cultures in forms of address, greetings and farewells, and compliments. Cross Currents, 8(2), 13-28.
Yi, K.-M. (1975). Language and writing systems in traditional Korea. In P. H. Lee (Ed.), The traditional culture and society of Korea: Art and literature (pp. 15-32). Honolulu: University of Hawaii, The Center for Korean Studies.