‘우리 Mr. Son’: when ‘우리’ is combined with proper names

The goal of this paper is to clarify the meanings of such expressions as ‘우리 대한민국’ and ‘우리 손흥민 선수’, those expressions that can be obtained by combining ‘우리’ with proper names. I will first assume the hypothesis that ‘우리’ in ‘우리 손흥민 선수’ is intended to express the speaker’s intimate attitude toward Hongmin Son or the hypothesis that ‘우리’ in ‘우리 손흥민 선수’ functions as a marker signaling that the speaker and Hongmin Son together form a single in-group. And then I will examine what expressions like ‘우리 손흥민 선수’ mean, especially from the viewpoint of a philosopher of language. We will then be led to the conclusion that, in noun phrases like ‘우리 손흥민 선수’, ‘우리’ only has a non-truth-conditional meaning, making no difference to the truth conditions of the sentences in which it occurs. This is hoped to contribute to the project of understanding how ‘우리’ works in the Korean language.