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A pragmatic analysis of kesiki in a Korean dialect
Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002) 1879–1881 www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma
Squib
A pragmatic analysis of kesiki in a Korean dialect Eun-Ju Noh Department of English Language and Literature, Sejong University, Kunja-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul, 143-747 South Korea Received 1 July 2000; accepted 1 November 2001
I shall be concerned with the dialect of the Cellanamto area of Korea. In this region, people use the expression kesiki ‘that thing’ so often that it is said that they cannot produce an utterance without it. In some cases, the whole utterance consists only of kesiki along with some functional words, as in (1a), meaning literally (1b). This can be interpreted in various ways, for example as in (1c)–(1d), depending on the context: (1)
a. b. c. d.
Kesiki-ka kesiki-ha-yse that thing-NM that thing-do/be-because As that one did that, [subject] did that way. As they were rude, I refused to admit them. As he insulted her, she ran away.
kesiki-ha-yss-ta that thing-do/be-Past-DC
(In transcribing the Korean examples, the Yale Romanisation System is used. NM: nominative case particle, DC: declarative sentence-type suffix.) I shall show that kesiki may function as a loose metarepresentation of an expression which the speaker is unwilling or unable to utter overtly for personal or cultural reasons. I will discuss the use of kesiki as a noun, as in (2), and kesiki-ha (do/be) as a predicate, e.g. a verb or an adjective, as in (3) (from example (3) onwards, Korean examples are translated into English except for the relevant part, for easy understanding). (2) kunye-nun ku pangaskkan cwuin-uy twulccay kesiki-i-ta she the miller’s second that thing be-DC ‘She is the second that thing of the miller.’ (I(ntended) M(eaning): She is the second daughter of the miller.) E-mail address: [email protected] 0378-2166/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0378-2166(01)00068-6
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E.-J. Noh / Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002) 1879–1881
(3) A: What about the second daughter of the miller? B: She kesiki-ha-yss (Past) with the baker’s son seriously, but her parents kesiki-ha-yss, so they kesiki-ha-yss to Seoul. (IM: She was seriously in love with the baker’s son, but her parents objected to their love, so they ran away to Seoul.) Let us consider when and why kesiki is used. First, it is used when a speaker is reluctant to say something explicitly. Suppose Mary does not like Peter’s suggestion. She says: (4)
It is a little kesiki-ha. (IM: It is a little problematic.)
Here, the speaker is using kesiki-ha instead of saying ‘problematic’ overtly, because to say it overtly sounds impolite. Korean society belongs to the Confucian tradition, in which to say something unpleasant overtly is considered rude. Indeed, kesiki is used among people from other regions as a term for sexual intercourse or sexual organs in colloquial or slightly vulgar speech. Second, it is used when a particular expression does not occur to the speaker on the spot, for example, when the speaker wants to express an objection, but she does not know how to put it. It could be: ‘It entails a problem’, ‘It is not a good idea’, ‘It is unrealistic’, ‘It is impossible’, etc. Another example is in (5) where the speaker wants to encourage someone, using the proverb ‘Patience is bitter, but the fruit is sweet’. She might produce one of the utterances in (5): (5)
a. b. c. d. e.
Kesiki is Kesiki is Patience Patience Kesiki is
kesiki-ha, but kesiki is kesiki-ha. bitter, but kesiki is sweet. is kesiki-ha, but the fruit is kesiki-ha. is kesiki-ha, but kesiki is kesiki-ha. bitter, but the fruit is kesiki-ha.
Third, it is used before an utterance when the speaker does not know how to start her utterance, or when she has something difficult to say. By saying kesiki, the speaker secures some time to think of how to start or she prepares the hearer for what she is going to say. In (6), (6)
Jane: John: Jane:
John, can I have a word? Sure, go on. Kesiki, do you have some money?
Jane wants to borrow some money from John, but she does not want her request to sound abrupt or impolite. We have seen that kesiki is a device used to stand in for something that a speaker is unwilling or unable to express. I view kesiki in the examples given above as a metar-
E.-J. Noh / Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002) 1879–1881
1881
epresentational device, metarepresenting loosely the word(s) for which it stands in (see Noh, 2000, chapter 2; Wilson, 2000). For example, the utterance ‘I bought kesiki’ means that the speaker bought some specific thing, rather than that she bought at least something: so the expression substitutes for some specific noun/noun phrase. If what the speaker bought was a book, kesiki metarepresents the word ‘book’. Kesiki is not an indefinite pronoun. What is interesting about kesiki is that it is not used anaphorically by the same speaker. Consider (7)–(8): (7)
I bought a book and gave (the) kesiki to Tom.
(8)
John shouted at Mary and kesiki-ha-yss at Jane.
In (7), kesiki cannot be interpreted as referring back to ‘(the) book’, and in (8), kesiki-ha-yss as a predicate cannot be interpreted as a proform for ‘shouted’. My account explains why: if kesiki metarepresents an expression the speaker is unwilling or unable to use, it is hard to see how either of these conditions could apply to an expression already used by the same speaker just before. However, if the expression is a taboo word, e.g. sexual things, it can be metarepresented by kesiki by a different speaker. Compare (9)–(10): (9) A: I bought the book she mentioned in the last class. B: Why don’t you lend me kesiki? (10) A: The man raped the woman. B: He kesiki-ha-yss her? In (9), kesiki cannot be interpreted as referring to ‘(the) book’. By contrast, in (10), kesiki-ha-yss can be understood as ‘raped’. My explanation holds here, too. In (9), there is no reason to use the loose metarepresentational form. It is not the case that the speaker is unwilling or unable to use it. In (10), even though ‘rape’ was used by A, B is apparently unwilling to use it, so he uses the loose metarepresentational form kesiki instead. To sum up: the Korean dialect expression kesiki should be analysed as a metarepresentational device used to metarepresent loosely an expression that the speaker is unwilling or unable to use. This property cannot be explained in strictly grammatical terms, but by a pragmatic approach.
References Noh, Eun-Ju, 2000. Metarepresentation: A relevance Theory Approach. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Wilson, Deirdre, 2000. Linguistic metarepresentation. In: Sperber, D., (Ed), Metarepresentations, Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 411–448
Squib
A pragmatic analysis of kesiki in a Korean dialect Eun-Ju Noh Department of English Language and Literature, Sejong University, Kunja-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul, 143-747 South Korea Received 1 July 2000; accepted 1 November 2001
I shall be concerned with the dialect of the Cellanamto area of Korea. In this region, people use the expression kesiki ‘that thing’ so often that it is said that they cannot produce an utterance without it. In some cases, the whole utterance consists only of kesiki along with some functional words, as in (1a), meaning literally (1b). This can be interpreted in various ways, for example as in (1c)–(1d), depending on the context: (1)
a. b. c. d.
Kesiki-ka kesiki-ha-yse that thing-NM that thing-do/be-because As that one did that, [subject] did that way. As they were rude, I refused to admit them. As he insulted her, she ran away.
kesiki-ha-yss-ta that thing-do/be-Past-DC
(In transcribing the Korean examples, the Yale Romanisation System is used. NM: nominative case particle, DC: declarative sentence-type suffix.) I shall show that kesiki may function as a loose metarepresentation of an expression which the speaker is unwilling or unable to utter overtly for personal or cultural reasons. I will discuss the use of kesiki as a noun, as in (2), and kesiki-ha (do/be) as a predicate, e.g. a verb or an adjective, as in (3) (from example (3) onwards, Korean examples are translated into English except for the relevant part, for easy understanding). (2) kunye-nun ku pangaskkan cwuin-uy twulccay kesiki-i-ta she the miller’s second that thing be-DC ‘She is the second that thing of the miller.’ (I(ntended) M(eaning): She is the second daughter of the miller.) E-mail address: [email protected] 0378-2166/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S0378-2166(01)00068-6
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E.-J. Noh / Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002) 1879–1881
(3) A: What about the second daughter of the miller? B: She kesiki-ha-yss (Past) with the baker’s son seriously, but her parents kesiki-ha-yss, so they kesiki-ha-yss to Seoul. (IM: She was seriously in love with the baker’s son, but her parents objected to their love, so they ran away to Seoul.) Let us consider when and why kesiki is used. First, it is used when a speaker is reluctant to say something explicitly. Suppose Mary does not like Peter’s suggestion. She says: (4)
It is a little kesiki-ha. (IM: It is a little problematic.)
Here, the speaker is using kesiki-ha instead of saying ‘problematic’ overtly, because to say it overtly sounds impolite. Korean society belongs to the Confucian tradition, in which to say something unpleasant overtly is considered rude. Indeed, kesiki is used among people from other regions as a term for sexual intercourse or sexual organs in colloquial or slightly vulgar speech. Second, it is used when a particular expression does not occur to the speaker on the spot, for example, when the speaker wants to express an objection, but she does not know how to put it. It could be: ‘It entails a problem’, ‘It is not a good idea’, ‘It is unrealistic’, ‘It is impossible’, etc. Another example is in (5) where the speaker wants to encourage someone, using the proverb ‘Patience is bitter, but the fruit is sweet’. She might produce one of the utterances in (5): (5)
a. b. c. d. e.
Kesiki is Kesiki is Patience Patience Kesiki is
kesiki-ha, but kesiki is kesiki-ha. bitter, but kesiki is sweet. is kesiki-ha, but the fruit is kesiki-ha. is kesiki-ha, but kesiki is kesiki-ha. bitter, but the fruit is kesiki-ha.
Third, it is used before an utterance when the speaker does not know how to start her utterance, or when she has something difficult to say. By saying kesiki, the speaker secures some time to think of how to start or she prepares the hearer for what she is going to say. In (6), (6)
Jane: John: Jane:
John, can I have a word? Sure, go on. Kesiki, do you have some money?
Jane wants to borrow some money from John, but she does not want her request to sound abrupt or impolite. We have seen that kesiki is a device used to stand in for something that a speaker is unwilling or unable to express. I view kesiki in the examples given above as a metar-
E.-J. Noh / Journal of Pragmatics 34 (2002) 1879–1881
1881
epresentational device, metarepresenting loosely the word(s) for which it stands in (see Noh, 2000, chapter 2; Wilson, 2000). For example, the utterance ‘I bought kesiki’ means that the speaker bought some specific thing, rather than that she bought at least something: so the expression substitutes for some specific noun/noun phrase. If what the speaker bought was a book, kesiki metarepresents the word ‘book’. Kesiki is not an indefinite pronoun. What is interesting about kesiki is that it is not used anaphorically by the same speaker. Consider (7)–(8): (7)
I bought a book and gave (the) kesiki to Tom.
(8)
John shouted at Mary and kesiki-ha-yss at Jane.
In (7), kesiki cannot be interpreted as referring back to ‘(the) book’, and in (8), kesiki-ha-yss as a predicate cannot be interpreted as a proform for ‘shouted’. My account explains why: if kesiki metarepresents an expression the speaker is unwilling or unable to use, it is hard to see how either of these conditions could apply to an expression already used by the same speaker just before. However, if the expression is a taboo word, e.g. sexual things, it can be metarepresented by kesiki by a different speaker. Compare (9)–(10): (9) A: I bought the book she mentioned in the last class. B: Why don’t you lend me kesiki? (10) A: The man raped the woman. B: He kesiki-ha-yss her? In (9), kesiki cannot be interpreted as referring to ‘(the) book’. By contrast, in (10), kesiki-ha-yss can be understood as ‘raped’. My explanation holds here, too. In (9), there is no reason to use the loose metarepresentational form. It is not the case that the speaker is unwilling or unable to use it. In (10), even though ‘rape’ was used by A, B is apparently unwilling to use it, so he uses the loose metarepresentational form kesiki instead. To sum up: the Korean dialect expression kesiki should be analysed as a metarepresentational device used to metarepresent loosely an expression that the speaker is unwilling or unable to use. This property cannot be explained in strictly grammatical terms, but by a pragmatic approach.
References Noh, Eun-Ju, 2000. Metarepresentation: A relevance Theory Approach. John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Wilson, Deirdre, 2000. Linguistic metarepresentation. In: Sperber, D., (Ed), Metarepresentations, Oxford University Press, Oxford. pp. 411–448