Negotiating Age, Epistemic Stance, and Category Memberships in Korean Talk Shows

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines an integral part of Korean politeness—age. Prior research has focused on investigating age as a key determining factor that influences speakers’ choice of speech styles, address terms, and word choices. On the other hand, this study explores what speakers do with age and how age is relevant to them at the moment of their interaction. The focus of the study is on media talk as it reveals how age is represented, negotiated, and utilized by social members in public discourse. The study identifies a categorial practice related to age by utilizing (Stokoe, Discourse Studies 14:277–303, 2012)) five guiding principles for membership categorization analysis (MCA). A collection of data segments from various talk show interviews shows that the speakers routinely evoke age while displaying an epistemic stance, such as in claiming or disclaiming their epistemic rights, to the matter being discussed. Moreover, speakers classify themselves and others into age categories (Stokoe, Discourse Studies 14:277–303, 2012; e.g., the old, the young, acessi) based on their epistemic status or rights. These categories are determined not by the speakers’ chronological age, which is external to the interaction, but are rather spontaneously formulated in the local context of the interaction, which are subject to challenge, resistance, and negotiation by speakers. The study reveals how speakers use age as an interactional tool to negotiate their epistemic stance and category membership.