Solidarity Through Negotiated Interactional Identities in Korean

This paper shows how Korean speakers use different strategies to increase solidarity among newly acquainted interlocutors in performing common tasks by co-constructing through the negotiation process of their interactional identitiesIdentity and adjusting themselves to the right level of intimacy and/or politenessPoliteness within the given interaction. According to (Swann, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53:1038–1051, 1987), 2008), “identity negotiationIdentity negotiation” refers to the processes where interactants try to find a balance between their interactional and identity-related goals, keeping a conflict-free relation between their interpersonal and intrapersonal interactions. The ways in which Korean speakers negotiate their situational and interactional identityIdentity will be illustrated using excerpts taken from TV talk shows, reality shows, or dramas where different participants achieve what is considered an adequate level of intimacy with their conversational partners within the given tasks as the show participants. In interactions where Korean speakers meet for the first time, it is very common to see how they exchange personal information. Among them, interlocutors’ ageAge is very often exchanged at the very early stage of their encounter. In many reality shows and talk showsTalk shows on Korean TV, participants often start their first-time encounter by asking about their ageAge and work-related backgrounds. Interlocutors achieve an increased level of intimacy by assigning newNews interactional identitiesIdentity to themselves, that of (a) friends (=same age), (b) siblings (=different age), or (c) senior/junior (work-related). Oftentimes, this process is streamlined by adjusting their speech styleSpeech style and/or address termsAddress terms that match their newly constructed identitiesIdentity in order to successfully perform their common tasks.