만 3·4·5세 유아의 존댓말 습득에 관한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine Korean young children's acquisition of honorific expressions. The participants of the present study were 297 young children (ages 3-5 years) from Kyunggi province. The results of the study showed that young children acquire honorific markers in the order of hearer-honorific expressions, subject-honorific expressions, and then object-honorific expressions. Five-year old children acquired at least 75% of the hearer-honorific expressions. The result can be explained by the fact that most of them were used in greetings. Even though more than 90% of five-year old children acquired the subject-honorific marker si, the acquisition rates of subject- honorific nouns and subject-honorific verbs were less than 10%. Finally, the acquisition rates of object- honorific expressions were less than 20%, with the exception of the object-honorific noun ce. The results of the study suggest that educational programs should be developed in order to facilitate the acquisition of honorific markers in young children.