한국어 경어법의 주요 기능

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to look at the major functions of Korean honorifics. For this, we will examine the honorific data which were used by Korean speakers, and analyze the attitudes of them about the Korean honorifics. The major functions of Korean honorifics are 'treating a hearer according to the status relationship', 'showing a polite attitude', 'adjusting the relationship of participants.' We first introduced the concept of honorific functions, and then examined the realization of them focusing on the usages of honorifics. The concept of 'treating a hearer according to the status relationship' is that speakers show the status relationship of participants by using honorific forms, and treat the hearer properly in terms of rank. The 'showing a polite attitude' is that speakers display a polite attitude each other regardless of their position at the rank. The 'adjusting the relationship of participants' is that speakers adjust the awareness of the status relationship or the psychological distance between the speaker and the hearer through changing the way of honorific use.