https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hanyang/handle/2021.sw.hanyang/597 2026-07-04T16:19:20Z 2026-07-04T16:19:20Z Lee, Miseon Lim, Tae-Won https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hanyang/handle/2021.sw.hanyang/212240 2026-04-20T00:00:20Z 2026-06-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Overuse of subject honorifics in Korean TV interviews Authors: Lee, Miseon; Lim, Tae-Won Abstract: This study examines why Korean crime victims and witnesses in televised interviews use subject honorifics when referring to offenders—individuals who are typically undeserving of deference. We analyzed unscripted interview transcripts from televised programs, a corpus of casual conversations, and online appropriateness ratings. The analyses show that speakers use subject honorifics for offenders significantly more often in televised interviews than in comparable informal conversations. Conversely, in casual settings, subject honorifics are rarely used for non-deference-deserving referents and appear in fewer than half of deference-deserving cases, well below conventional expectations. Eighty native Korean speakers rated the use of subject honorifics for offenders as highly inappropriate compared to their use with conventionally deference-deserving referents. Across all analyses, we found no significant effects of speaker or referent demographics, relationship type, or crime severity. These results suggest a flexible, context-dependent use of subject honorifics in Korean, indicating that they may serve pragmatic functions beyond traditional deference marking. In particular, the formal and public nature of televised interviews appears to trigger strategic over-honorification as a face-saving mechanism, enhancing speaker self-presentation and expressing politeness toward the audience in mediated discourse.

2026-06-01T00:00:00Z Arslan, Seckin Cho, Sook Whan Lee, Miseon Selvi Balo, Semra Lee, Sun-Young Lee, Sumi Yeom, Heesun Mavis, Ilknur Meunier, Fanny Kim, Say Young https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hanyang/handle/2021.sw.hanyang/212733 2026-05-18T01:00:10Z 2026-05-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Older, wiser, linguistically savvy: A comparative experimental study of grammatical evidentiality across younger and older generations in Turkish and Korean Speakers Authors: Arslan, Seckin; Cho, Sook Whan; Lee, Miseon; Selvi Balo, Semra; Lee, Sun-Young; Lee, Sumi; Yeom, Heesun; Mavis, Ilknur; Meunier, Fanny; Kim, Say Young Abstract: This study explores whether the ability to process grammatical evidentiality is compromised in older adults speaking Turkish and Korean, two languages that grammatically encode evidentiality. Building on previous research that suggests cognitive demands associated with language structures may reduce processing capacity in older adults, we conducted self-paced reading experiments using sentence contexts involving grammatical evidentials. We tested adult groups of young (N = 44, ages 19-27) and older (N = 37, ages 48-70) speakers of Korean and young (N = 31, ages 18-31) and older (N = 42, ages 50-85) speakers of Turkish. The results indicate that both language groups rated mismatched evidential verb forms as unacceptable, with Turkish speakers more likely to interpret mismatches as acceptable than Korean speakers. Notably, older Korean adults exhibited longer reading times (RTs) for direct evidential mismatches, while older Turkish adults showed longer RTs for indirect evidential verbs, suggesting age-related disruptions in processing. The findings only partially support the hypothesis that predicts grammatical processing differences in older compared to younger adults.

2026-05-01T00:00:00Z Mitterer, Holger Kim, Sahyang Cho, Taehong https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hanyang/handle/2021.sw.hanyang/210408 2026-01-21T05:00:18Z 2026-02-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Segmental contributions to prosodic weight in processing English auxiliary contractions Authors: Mitterer, Holger; Kim, Sahyang; Cho, Taehong Abstract: Prosodic weight of prominence is traditionally attributed to suprasegmental features associated with pitch accent. This study examines segmental contribution to prosodic weight in processing English auxiliary have contractions. Through four web-based mouse-tracking experiments, we tested whether and how segmental variations in the auxiliary have (contracted vs. uncontracted) could signal prominence in relation to information structure and guide sentence processing in a mini two-sentence dialogue. It was hypothesized that the uncontracted, segmentally full form would carry prosodic weight on the auxiliary, independently of suprasegmental cues with pitch accent. The first two experiments showed that when have (in they have ) was hyperarticulated with pitch accent, participants could use its prosodic weight, perceiving an enhanced affirmativeness in contrast with a preceding negative question with haven’t . However, an uncontracted have when produced with no pitch accent, was not perceived as carrying such prosodic weight. The intended uncontracted form produced with no pitch accent differed from the accented one, not only in suprasegmental features but also in segmental detail, with the ‘h’ being weakened. Experiment 3 used an uncontracted have with a clear ‘h’, which did create prosodic weight for enhancing affirmativeness contrast even without pitch accent. Experiment 4 confirmed that this effect was not merely due to the longer duration of this form as a whole, contributed by a full ‘h’, highlighting genuine segmental contribution to the interpretation of they have with its prosodic weight of prominence in relation to the information structure of the mini dialogue. Our findings underscore the importance of segmental detail in real-time sentence processing and provide new insights into the syntax-prosody interface, with implications for speech production and perception.

2026-02-01T00:00:00Z Cho, Taehong Kim, Sahyang Mitterer, Holger https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/hanyang/handle/2021.sw.hanyang/210370 2026-05-09T05:01:31Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Linguistic and cognitive functions of fine phonetic detail underlying sound systems and sound change Authors: Cho, Taehong; Kim, Sahyang; Mitterer, Holger Abstract: This special issue examines how fine phonetic detail participates in the shaping of sound systems. Across fourteen studies, the central theme is that subtle temporal, spectral, and articulatory patterns are not incidental by-products of articulation, but are systematically regulated aspects of speakers’ phonetic knowledge. They provide the means through which phonological contrasts and prosodic structure are realized, maintained, and sometimes reorganized. The contributions show how languages allocate continuous phonetic parameters—such as timing, coordination, voice quality, and nasality—within prosodic domains (e.g., phrases, words, and syllables) and under general biomechanical and communicative pressures. Studies of Irish, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Mandarin illustrate how prosodic structure guides segmental and suprasegmental realization. Work on English, German, Danish, and Cantonese demonstrates how fine phonetic detail underlies patterns of variation and creates potential pathways for change. Production connects naturally to perception and learning: findings from English accent adaptation and Samoan iterated learning reveal how listeners stabilize or reinterpret detail, linking individual processing to community-level patterning. A set of studies on Italian, Korean, English, and L2 German show how prominence reorganizes cues across articulation, interaction, and acquisition, shaping how speakers signal and listeners recover linguistic structure. These studies converge on a view in which fine phonetic detail arises from a central phonetic component (or the phonetic grammar) of linguistic structure—controlled by speakers, shaped by universal motor and perceptual constraints, and continually adjusted through perception and learning. In this perspective, sound systems emerge from the interplay of these regulated patterns, which sustain contrasts, support communication, and open principled routes for change.

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z