Ban-mal and Hierarchical Structures : Professor Chung′s Theory Critically Examined

반말과 계층 구조 -정대현 교수의 반말 이론에 대한 비판적 검토-

Professor Daihyun Chung has recently presented an intriguing view of Ban-mal(non-honorific expressions) in Korean. He criticizes uses of Ban-mal, on the grounds that they presuppose the existence of hierarchical structures in human beings. Professor Chung also advocates ″a relational theory of Ban-mal″ according to which ascriptions of 'n-mal' should be relativized to the speaker-hearer relationship. He employs this view in showing that uses of Ban-mal indeed presuppose the existence of hierarchical structures in human beings I claim that Professor Chung has not shown the credibility of his relational theory of Ban-mal, and that this very view leads to an unintended and undesirable consequence. Moreover, 1 show that even if we assume that this view is true for the sake of an argument, he is not able to show that uses of Ban-mal indeed presuppose the existence of hierarchical structures. All he can show is rather that uses of 'Ban-mal'(a meta-linguistic expression) presuppose the existence of hierarchical structures. Finally, 1 conclude that what really presupposes the existence of hierarchical structures is the asymmetrical uses of Ban-mal and honorific expressions.