The Social Meanings of Korean Hearer Honorific speech and Non-Honorific speech and Social Events Triggered by Their Use -Based on Newspaper Articles-.

This study investigates the social meanings and socio-pragmatic consequences of honorific speech and non-honorific speech in Korean hearer honorific by analyzing 2,075 newspaper articles published between 1920 and 2024. It identifies six principal social meanings associated with honorific forms―politeness (respect), self-deprecation, lack of charisma, mental distance, rationality, and sarcasm―and seven meanings associated with non-honorific forms―rudeness (disregard), authoritativeness, roughness, informality, unfriendliness, intimacy, and equality. Furthermore, drawing on indexicality thoery, we analyse how these social meanings have evolved from social deixis meanings. The study further examines how these social meanings have spurred real-world social events: the negative connotations of non-honorific forms have precipitated interpersonal conflicts and violent incidents, while the prestige afforded to honorific forms and the stigma attached to non-honorific forms have given rise to norms prohibiting non-honorific form usage or mandating mutual honorific form use. Conversely, when non-honorific forms index intimacy or equality, they underpin emerging norms that encourage mutual non-honorific form address. By elucidating the complex interplay between linguistic form, indexical meaning, and social practice, this research deepens our understanding of Korean hearer-honorifics in their broader sociolinguistic context.