KOREA FOUNDATION

Yun Jiwon
Associate Professor at Stony Brook University, New York

 

 

 

 

I am a linguist currently teaching and conducting research at Stony Brook University (SBU) in the United States. I also participated in the KF Fellowship for Field Research in 2022.

 

My research is focused on how intonation influences the conveying of meaning in Korean. Many believe that the standard form of Korean has monotonous intonation when compared to languages like English. However, intonation plays a much larger role in Korean communication than it does in English. In Korean, word order remains the same even when the kind of sentence changes or when interrogatives like “who“ and “what“ are used in non-interrogative sentences. As a result, identical sentences may have different meanings. In these cases, meaning is usually discerned by changes in intonation.

During my time in the KF Field Research program, I was able to find empirical evidence that, compared to the past, the role of intonation is becoming increasingly important in contemporary Korean. By analyzing changes in intonation patterns, I could discuss the importance of Korean language data within the larger context of general linguistic theory of intonation. Furthermore, having access to Korean references and materials that were hard to find outside Korea was a tremendous help. Despite encountering certain difficulties while conducting field research during the COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to work without any major hitches thanks to support provided by the KF program and Seoul National University‘s Department of Linguistics. Additionally, I was afforded the opportunity to report on the interim result of my research at the Linguistic Association of Korea’s academic conference. Since completing my fellowship, I have been preparing to arrange and publish the results of my research in the form of a paper. While Korea’s status in the international community and global interest in the Korean language continues to grow, English still remains dominant in the academic world. Therefore, I endeavor to publicize Korean linguistics studies in other countries by having my papers written in English and published in international academic journals.

Finally, in June last year, the KF organized a wonderful meeting for fellowship members; this provided me with a good opportunity to interact with researchers from many countries, each doing interesting studies on a variety of topics in varied fields. The time spent learning about each other’s research and talking about living in Korea was joyful and memorable. Once again, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the KF and its staff for the emotional and material support provided during my stay in Korea as part of the KF Fellowship for Field Research.