A Naturalised History of Polite Language: The Colonialist Representations of Korean under Japanese Rule

This project examines Japanese publications housed at the Harvard-Yenching Library in order to illuminate the influence of colonial-period (1910-45) language projects on modern Korean notions of honorific language. It aims to understand the particular images of the linguistic phenomenon and the impact of the perceived norms on the social and linguistic structure. I will undertake this project in association with the Korea Institute at Harvard University, where I have a long-standing invitation from Professor Nicolas Harkness to work on this project under his guidance. Following this research stay, I expect to be ready to submit a book proposal to academic presses.