This open-access edited volume brings together the latest research on Korean politeness (K-Politeness) from multidisciplinary and multimodal perspectives across a broad range of different interactional contexts and communication platforms, both online and offline. The volume examines how Korean language speakers construct, negotiate, and utilize politeness or impoliteness as discursive practices during daily interaction. The studies not only include intimate interactions between family members and friends, but also institutional interactions between business vendors and customers, doctors and patients, talk show hosts and their guests, as well as politicians. The studies include discussions on the perception of Korean (im)politeness of K-wave viewers and fans. The role of media is discussed and how it influences public discourse and speakers’ perception and practice of Korean (im)politeness. This text also examines interactions through instant text messages, chat boxes in livestreaming sites, online chat boxes with business vendors, and related communication channels.
Although the disciplines and methodologies may vary, the studies are based on empirical research. This volume provides new insights through contributions from researchers of different disciplines, including communications, sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and pragmatics; it appeals to students and researchers in these fields.
Although the disciplines and methodologies may vary, the studies are based on empirical research. This volume provides new insights through contributions from researchers of different disciplines, including communications, sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and pragmatics; it appeals to students and researchers in these fields.
Mary Shin Kim
Multimodal perspectives Discursive practices Online and offline interaction Verbal and non-verbal (im)politeness Korean honorifics Identity construction and negotiation Emic perspectives Korean pop culture Korean-wave and media korean second language learning east asian politeness Open Access
"This edited volume has a number of merits. ... this volume makes a significant contribution to the study of (im)politeness and its functional relatives, such as face, identity, address terms, stance, intersubjectivity, etc. Researchers at various levels and persuasions, especially those specializing in interactional pragmatics, will benefit from reading it." (Seongha Rhee, Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 237, 2025)