Complaining as a Sociocultural Activity

Kyung-Eun Yoon is senior lecturer and coordinator in Korean in the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Commendably written by an expert, this is the first book-length study that investigates the communicative act of complaining in Korean, using Conversational Analysis (CA). As a very welcome contribution to Korean linguistics, pragmatics, and interactional linguistics studies, it unfolds the complex interplay between grammar and social interaction in Korean cultural contexts. It will certainly serve as a valuable resource for Korean applied linguists and researchers and also as great supplementary reading for advanced undergraduate and/or graduate courses in Korean linguistics.--Andrew Sangpil Byon, University at Albany, SUNY Complaining as a Sociocultural Activity: Examining How and Why in Korean Interaction details with precision and insight the intricate network of psychological, interactional, and linguistic features that underlie complaints in Korean. With data culled from a variety of naturally occurring oral and written discourse, including spontaneous conversation (face-to-face and telephonic), online reviews, blogs, and social media posts, Yoon synthesizes the robust and complex discursive patterns of complaining and puts forward a systematically thorough analysis of the interactional phenomenon. Most importantly, the book centers on Korean discourse and keenly elucidates such issues as social identity and membership in the multifaceted, spontaneous, and dialogic activity of complaining.--Susan Strauss, The Pennsylvania State University On the one hand, this book provides authentic materials and insightful discussions of social norms, which can be tailored to instructions and activities in the Korean language classroom. On the other hand, its detailed analysis bridges linguistic forms, social norms, and social identities, the nexus of which is increasingly being attended to in pragmatics research. Therefore, the book is recommended reading and a useful resource for both researchers and Korean language educators.-- "Journal of Pragmatics"