As summarized in the preface of the book, Dr. Yoon’s research, the first of its kind in Korean linguistics, makes several important descriptive and theoretical contributions to general socio-pragmatic studies. For instance, Dr. Yoon discovered that Korean hedges, functioning as interactive strategies, are used more frequently in two-party than many-party conversations and more frequently in personal than impersonal topics. Her study also reveals that hedges are used as both positive and negative politeness strategies and that social situational factors are more influential in affecting hedge use than social structural factors such as gender, age, region, or occupation.

Youn Yeonhee

Yeonhee Yoon is Associate Professor of the Practice of Korean Language and Culture at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and faculty fellow at the Liu Institute of Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She received her Ph.D. in Korean Linguistics from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Her research interests include Intercultural Pragmatics, Second Language Acquisition, and Korean popular culture. Her current project focuses on Korean History and Culture through Film, Korean Popular Culture and migration, Korean Language and Culture for International Negotiations and Diplomacy, and Korean language for academic purpose.