Linguistic Image of Womanhood in South Korea

Jieun Kiaer is Professor of Korean Linguistics at the University of Oxford. She publishes widely on East Asian linguistics, with particular emphasis on pragmatics. Her recent publications include Understanding Korean Film: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (with Loli Kim, 2021), More Than Polite (Routledge, forthcoming), and Pragmatic Particles: Findings from Asian Languages (2020).Jiyoung Shin is Professor of Korean Linguistics at Korea University. Her research areas are phonetics and phonology, spoken grammar of Korean, and the role of prosody in subareas of linguistics. She is also interested in the ideology behind language. Shin has most recently published The Tug-of-War of the Language (2018) and The High Jump of Language (2021). She received the Presidential Commendation for her contributions to family policy in 2020.

• List of figures List of tables Acknowledgments Preliminaries 1. Introduction1.1 Studies of Women’s Languaging Habits 1.2 The Case of Japan 1.3 What are Language Cosmetics? 2. Womanhood in Neo-Confucian Society - Past and Present2.1 Introduction 2.2 Transition from Goryeo 2.3 The Making of Womanhood in Joseon 2.3.i Women’s place 2.3.ii Oryun (五倫) ‘Five Relations’ 2.3.iii Women’s Virtues 2.3.iv Admonishment for Women 2.3.v Women’s Misconduct 2.3.vi Women’s Education 2.3.vii Women’s Sorrow Han (恨): The Untranslatable Grief 2.4 Between the Joseon dynasty and contemporary Korean society 2.5 Neo-Confucianism in Contemporary Korea 2.5.i Father-son relation (bujayuchin 父子有親) 2.5ii King-Vassal Relation (gunsinyuui 君臣有義) 2.5.iii Husband-Wife Relation (bubuyubyeol 夫婦有別) 2.5.iv Sibling relation (hyeongjeuae 兄弟友愛) 2.5.v Old-young relation (jangyuyuseo 長幼有序) 2.6 Marriage Migration 2.7 Exceptions: Gen Z in the Metaverse 2.8 Patriarchy in North Korea 2.9 Summary 3. The Linguistic Landscape of Korea3.1 A Fine Line Between Nature and Nurture 3.1.i Studies of East Asia 3.1.ii The Need to Avoid Generalisation 3.2 The Influence of the Linguistic Landscape 3.2.i Feminisation of Professional Titles 3.2.ii Meanings of Yeosa (女史) 3.2.iii Problematic Family Address Terms 3.2.iv Terms of ‘Endearment’ 3.2.v Moving Towards a Gender-Neutral Language 3.3 Case Study: Invisible and Unheard in 100 Minute Debate 3.4 Summary 4. Language Cosmetics4.1 Introduction 4.2 Language Cosmetics: More than Verbal Hygiene 4.3 Aegyo as a Linguistic Cosmetic 4.4 ‘Generation MZ’ women 4.4.i The Fist Pump 4.4.ii Closing eyes 4.4.iii Hand over heart 4.5 Online Language Cosmetics 4.6 Summary 5. Language Cosmetics in Non-Verbal Behaviour5.1 Introduction 5.2 Neo-Confucian Non-Verbal Indicators of Politeness 5.3 Gender and Gesture 5.5 The Samonim Dynamic 5.6 Summary 6. Conclusion6.1 The Female Voice in the Future