Korean Loose Talk:
Why the configuration?

Terry Stocker and Woo Eunjoo
Hannam University
Taejon , South Korea

Abstract : This study compares American to Korean (tree) loose talk, i.e. the difference in cognitive ability to talk about an entity and the ability to recognize the same entity. It is established that a cultural factor is responsible for the configuration of the ordering. Problems with the validity of recognition are raised and future study is suggested. And it is demonstrated that individuals differ in their private salience order from that of the group. To our knowledge, this is the first study to present etic and emic hypotheses on the same topic. In that the emic hypothesis was supported, it is concluded that anthropologists might in the future ask any study group to explain their own behavior/cognition. Finally, it is suggested that future studies might determine how loose talk is constructed by using children as study group rather than adults, and that studies be longitudinal.


cognition, Korea , etic/emic, methodology, trees