earticle

한국어

Na and ce in Korean are used by the speaker(S) to refer to himself/herself to the hearer(H), tantamount to the English I. Na is known to be used to H who is younger than, or subordinate or equal to S, whereas ce is used by S humbling himself/herself to H who is older than or superior to S. However, when S and H are not familiar with each other or are in a formal situation, a so-called strategic usage in the sense of Brown/Levinson (1987) and J. B. Lee (1998, 1999, 2011, 2012) is triggered, which will be the main topic of this paper. We analyze 30 episodes of one TV program and conduct an experiment with 57 participants, in order to observe which of na and ce is preferred in various strategic situations. Based on the results of the two studies, it will be proposed that ce is strongly preferred in strategic situations, which seems to show people’s desire to maintain politeness and thoughtful consideration bidirectionally, i.e., not only from S to H, but also from H to S.