mid_term_reviced

[최영미]

T: 엄마 기분이 어떠실 거 같아요? 얼굴을 좀 보세요. 얼굴 좀 봐 봐.

태근: 웃고 있다.

The exchange I’ve chosen is from a Korean 듣말쓰(which means listening, speaking and writing) class.

The teacher is asking what the mother’s feeling is. The teacher starts to ask the question with Korean honorific form(같아요? 보세요.), and changes it into non-honorific. How can we explain the change? By changing the form of the clauses, what is the teacher trying to do?

Ideational metafunction

엄마(의)	기분이	어떠실(sic)	것 같아요?
phenomenon			process
participant		process	mental
adjunct	subject	relational	modality
		attribute

We don’t say ‘것이 같다.’ or ‘것은 같다.’ We say ‘~한 것 같다’. ‘것’ looks like a subject of ‘같아요’ but it is not. ‘것 같다’ itself is a phrase that functions like a verb such as “think” or “guess”. In this clause, the phrase “것 같다” projects the clause “엄마(의) 기분이 어떠한”. The subject of this clause should be ‘여러분 생각은’ and it is omitted because the speaker(teacher) knows who she is talking to. In Korean, there is a tendency to omit parts of a clause even though they are verb, object or subject as long as they are already known to the listeners.(남영신, p181)

“엄마(의) 기분이 어때요?”(How is she feeling?) is a perfect sentence. The answer should be the mom’s feeling. However, by adding ‘것 같아요?’, the teacher is adding a process, providing modality, and showing students that what she wants is just opinions. The answer should be students’ guess about the mom’s feeling which starts with the phrase “I think that…”

얼굴을	좀	보세요
participant	scope	process
Sensered phenomenon	adjunct	mental

얼굴	좀	봐(look)	봐(try)
participant	Scope	process	process
Sensered phenomenon	adjunct	Mental	Mental

 This is an imperative so the unmarked participant of this clause “you” is omitted.

This clause is an imperative, too. It has no participant, either.

When the teacher gives the questions, as Professor Kellogg points out, the degrees of freedom didn’t get bigger at all. It is much more reduced. It seems to me that the teacher didn’t get a proper answer by repeating the mental process verbs over and over. The teacher asks the students to think not to answer. This explains that why 태근’s answer becomes 혼잣말 and other students didn’t answer. It is hard to expect an explicit answer to a mental-process verb question. 태근 takes the three mental-process verb questions into one material-process verb question “what is she doing?” and he answers “she is laughing.” In the clause below, the participant(subject) “엄마는” is omitted again.

웃고	있다
process	Process
material	material
doing	Happening (auxiliary)

In the ideational point of view, if the teacher simply changes the mental process verbs into verbal, she could give her students wider range of degrees of freedom.

Interpersonal metafunction

여러분은	엄마의	기분이	어떠	실(sic)	거(것)	같아	요?
Mood	Mood	Mood	Mood	Mood	Mood	RESIDUE	Mood
Subject	complement	subject	residue	Finite		Predicator	finite

This sentence is really complex. The clause has the simple clause “엄마의 기분이 어떠한” inside the whole sentence. As ‘것’ cannot be used by itself, it cannot be a subject. ‘것’ makes a clause functions like a noun. ‘기분’ is not the object of honorification so ‘실’ is a mistake. The proper clause is that “엄마 기분이 어떤 것 같아요?” The finite ‘요’ shows that the teacher addresses to the whole students using polite language.

얼굴을	좀	보세	요
RESIDUE	RESIDUE	RESIDUE	Mood
complement		Predicator+finite	finite

얼굴	좀	보(look)	ㅏ	보	ㅏ
Residue	RESIDUE	RESIDUE	mood	RESIDUE	mood
complement		predicator	finite	predicator	finite

Although the teacher is still using polite language(“보세요”) the clause is a command. The next clause is a command, too.(“봐 봐”) When the teacher switches the language from the honorific words to the 반말체, the teacher has just start to go inside the students’ mind. 반말 is the language that students use when they think inside themselves and when they do 혼잣말. Therefore, by speaking of 반말체, she starts to represent the students’ thought explicitly and shows her students how to think at the same time.

Textual metafunction

여러분은	엄마(의)	기분이	어떠실 거	같아요?
Theme	Theme	Theme	Rheme	Rheme
given		new	topical

여러분(you)	얼굴을	좀	보세요
Theme	Rheme	Rheme	Theme
interpersonal	new	circumstance

여러분	얼굴	좀	봐	봐
Theme	Rheme	Rheme	Theme	Rheme
interpersonal	new	circumstance	topical

It appears that the teacher is trying to vary the theme and is changing the theme into a specific one. “기분” is more abstract word than “얼굴”.

남영신, 나의 한국어 바로 쓰기 노트, 2002