Dr Narah Lee
Korean Major
Lecturer
School of Languages and Cultures
+61 7 336 51445
Researcher biography
Narah Lee is a Lecturer in Korean at the School of Languages and Cultures. She received her PhD in Linguistics from the Australian National University. Her research lies at the intersection of pragmatics, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics, with particular interest in Korean honorifics, speech styles, and intercultural pragmatics. Her work contributes to understanding how language reflects and negotiates social relationships in Korean and cross-cultural settings.
Book Chapter
Lee, Narah (2025). Pragmatic literacy through overt subjects in Korean: indexical and interactional functions. Handbook on the Korean language and literacy: Insights into Hangul and text processing. (pp. 89-112) edited by Hye K. Pae, Heather Winskel and Say Young Kim. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-88087-2_5
Journal Articles
Yonezawa, Yoko, Lee, Narah and Liu, Xiangdong (2025). Relationality and the fictive use of kinship terms in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Contrastive Pragmatics, 1-34. doi: 10.1163/26660393-bja10153
Lee, Narah (2025). ‘What happened to the un-omitted subjects?’ : Variation in referential choices for first and second person subjects in spoken Korean. Pragmatics and Society, 16 (6), 850-872. doi: 10.1075/ps.20022.lee
Lee, Narah (2024). Korean speakers' perception of (im)politeness across speech acts of agreement, compliment, disagreement and criticism. Linguistic Research, 41 (Special Edition), 185-207. doi: 10.17250/khisli.41..202409.007
Jeong, Woojeong and Lee, Narah (2022). Understanding of Korean honorifics by L2 Korean learners in Australia: a socio-pragmatic perspective. Language Research, 58 (3), 223-245. doi: 10.30961/lr.2022.58.3.223
Lee, Narah (2022). The pragmatic understanding of subject expression in spoken Korean: interpersonal effects of the alternation among reference forms for the expressed subject. East Asian Pragmatics, 7 (2), 175-205. doi: 10.1558/eap.18812
Lee, Narah (2021). Overt subjects signaling floor shifts in Korean discourse. Lanaguage Research, 57 (3), 329-354. doi: 10.30961/lr.2021.57.3.329
Lee, Narah (2021). Overt subject NPs as a contrast marker in Korean discourse. Linguistic Research, 38 (2), 365-393. doi: 10.17250/khisli.38.2.202106.007
이나라, (2014). A reconsideration of the omission of first and second person subjects in modern spoken Korean: Focusing on the pragmatic meanings of the overt subject expressions. Discourse and Cognition, 21 (3), 145-164. doi: 10.15718/discog.2014.21.3.145
Lee, Narah (2012). Pragmatic inferences of some hybrid words: An experimental pragmatic analysis. Journal of Language Sciences, 19 (1), 319-349.
Conference Papers
Lee, Narah (2025). Keyboard warfare: Analysing hate speech in YouTube comments on a Korean reality show. The 19th International Pragmatics Conference, St Lucia, QLD Australia, 22 - 27 June 2025.
Lee, Narah (2024). Unveiling toxic discourse: a study of YouTube comments on a popular Korean reality show. LCNAU Eighth Biennial Colloquium, Sydney, NSW Australia, 27-29 November 2024.
Jeong, Woojeong and Lee, Narah (2024). Apology strategies of Australian learners of Korean. The 31st Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference Pre-conference Workshop, Caulfield, VIC, Australia, 30 October 2024.
Lee, Narah (2023). How are we being polite in the Korean language?: The perception and realisation of of (im)politeness in Korean. KSAA-AKS International Korean Studies conference, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 5-6 December 2023.
Lee, Narah (2023). Impoliteness of polite disagreement: the perception of (im)politeness between honorifics and speech acts in Korean. 18th International Pragmatics Conference, Brussels, Belgium, 9-14 July 2023.
Lee, Narah (2022). Education of politeness expressions in Korean language. Australian Association of Teachers of Korean (AUATK) 2022 Conference and Teachers Workshop, Perth, WA Australia, 15-17 December 2022.
Lee, Narah (2022). What do kinship terms mean in Korean?. 9th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics and Communication (INPRA 9), Brisbane, QLD Australia, 21-23 June 2022.
Lee, Narah (2021). Nominal but pronominal: abnormality and impoliteness of not using kinship terms in address in Korean. 6th International Conference of the International Network on Address Research, Bergamo, Italy (Online), 23-25 June 2021.
Lee, Narah (2021). How big is your family?: The extended use of kinship terms in Korean. 17th International Pragmatics Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland (Online), 27 June-2 July 2021.
Lee, Narah (2019). Pragmatics of referential choices in spoken Korean. In: 16th International Pragmatics Conference, Hong Kong, (). 9-14 June 2019.
Lee, Narah (2018). Age as a driving force in referential choices for first and second person in spoken Korean. 2018 Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, Adelaide, Australia, 9-12 December 2018.
Lee, Duck-Young, Og, Naomi, Lee, Narah and Yonezawa, Yoko (2015). On the characteristics of personal reference terms in Korean: a comparison with Japanese based on TV dramas. Korean Studies Association of Australasia Biennial Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 25-27 November 2015. Adelaide, SA, Australia: Korean Studies Association of Australasia.
Lee, Narah and Yonezawa, Yoko (2015). A contrastive study of second person reference terms in Korean and Japanese. In: 9th Korean Studies Association in Australasia (KSAA) Biennial Conference, Adelaide, SA, Australia, (). 25 - 27 November 2015.