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Reflexive relationship between address forms and context: A case study of Korean spouses
Abstract
The purpose of this case study was to investigate from the communication perspective how persons chose or did not choose address forms when addressing their spouses and how the selection influenced the existing contexts. This study focused on two families with a particular interest on spousal addressing behavior. The approach of exploring the mutually influencing "reflexive" relationship between address forms and context is distinct from traditional linguistic and sociolinguistic approaches. Rather than mapping between address forms and social factors, this study attempted to explain why certain address forms were selected in spousal interaction among a host of options available and also in what way the address forms reconstructed the existing contexts. To illuminate and clarify the couples' addressing behavior, I also examined other sets of their communicative actions, e.g., the spouses' argument in Family One and the family's negotiation of family matters in Family Two. The linguistic and nonlinguistic actions together brought the nature of their communication patterns into a clear focus. To analyze the reflexive process between actions and the context, the research utilized the theory of the coordinated management of meaning (CMM). For interviewing, this study used circular questioning, developed by the systemic family therapy of the Milan Group, which shares many of the metatheoretical commitments of CMM theory. The analyses revealed that actions were reflexively related with the context: The spousal communication pattern in Family One was identified with slow "strange loops"; the pattern in Family Two was identified with "charmed loops." In Family One, strange loops were produced by the wife's oscillation between assertive self and nonassertive self, which was influenced by a reflexive effect from her husband. The charmed loops in Family Two, on the other hand, were the result of the younger family members' absolute giving in to the eldest member. The communication patterns of the two families also showed a reproduction of their existing context even when something new is brought in.
Subject Area
Communication|Linguistics|Individual & family studies|Sociology
Recommended Citation
Kim, Hye-sook, "Reflexive relationship between address forms and context: A case study of Korean spouses" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9022703.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9022703