A Korean summons is used for the identification of ‘the function words for referring’, combining with ‘modal expressions’ and its types are determined by ‘referring function words’. As for Korean summons, the function words for referring can be distinguished by their morphological characteristics and social norms, and morphological characteristics and social norms which determine the types of summons can be considered semantic features of Korean summons. The semantic features are therefore affected by the following factors: the existence of the function word for referring, the speaker’s awareness of the person being addressed, the hierarchical relationship between speakers, and the involvement of a sense of belonging, as shown in <Fig. 1>. In addition, Korean summons can be divided into the eight types: ‘common noun,’ ‘kinship term,’ ‘title term,’ ‘proper noun,’ ‘semi-proper noun,’ ‘indirect referent,’ ‘request,’ and ‘attention’ according to the sematic features embedded in those summons. Types of these summons are encaptulsated in <Table 2>. In modern Korean language, the summons have undergone many changes due to the changes of social norms which affect the construction of summons. The changing patterns are observed as follows: First, the border between an acquaintance and a stranger is blurred. The use of ‘common noun’ summons used for a conversation with strangers is replaced by the ‘kinship term’ or ‘title term’ summons. Secondly, the distinction between young and old is reduced to the disappearance of ‘semi－proper noun’ or the changing usage of ‘indirect referents’. Thirdly, the mark of hierarchy between the speakers shows variations. Finally, the frequency of using ‘attention summons’ is gradually increasing.

function word for referring, modal expression, social norm, ‘referent’ type, ‘referent－of－particular person’ type, ‘referent －of－the public person’ type, ‘non－referent’ type (‘referent omission’ type), change of summons