Familiar names in Korean – sociolinguistic aspects of communication

Abstract

The article is a consideration on Korean personal names and addressative forms of kinship, their significance in everyday communication, as well as the linguistic and social functions they perform during the process of forming and developing interpersonal relationships. Family and groups of relatives are particularly important in the processes of formation and change of particular forms – they are the core of naming-related knowledge, traditions and practices. Terms that originally functioned only within a community of blood-related individuals are nowadays in use even when communicating with people outside the family with whom one is on friendly terms – thereby including them in a closer, familiar group. The exceptional characteristics of Korean personal naming and the communicatively used forms of direct expression lead to the conclusion that Koreans are committed to the precise and deliberate expression of thoughts and that the language itself is an essential value to the community.