earticle

영어

South Korea has made great progress in the economic and political spheres. However, South Korea has been plagued with more frequent violent collective actions by its people than other countries of comparable development. Why? With the intuitive help from Sapir-Whorf and the application of the idea of “frame” advanced by Lakoff, this study attempts to show that honorifics, which might be more sophisticated in Korean than in any other language of the world, could be responsible for this puzzling question. Honorifics in Korean, which were born and developed in the pre-modern environment, tend to prevent equality from being established among individuals and make people seek collective action in order to make their voices heard and resolve their interests on de-honorification.