Interference in the English-Korean language pair: the discursive level.

Abstract

Aim. This study investigates discourse-level interference in the English-Korean language pair, with a specific focus on the South Korean variant of the Korean language. Methodology. To compare the density of English borrowings and insertions within the morphosyntactic framework of Korean across different discourse types, we analyzed texts from various domains. These included fashion and beauty magazines (Marie Claire Korea, Vogue Korea, Cosmopolitan Korea, Harper’s Bazaar Korea, and Elle Korea), information and communication technology (ICT) texts (comprising two master's theses and one scientific article), and news broadcasts (YTN, KBS, and SBS). Additionally, we analyzed contemporary Korean literary works by authors such as Kim Hoyeon, Lee Ki-ho, Song Chi-hyun, Jang Ryu-jin, and Song Seok-che. To examine code-switching in television advertising, musical discourse, and film, we selected and studied 100 Korean commercials from TVCF, South Korea's largest advertising portal. We also analyzed the script of the TV series Sky Castle, the Korean Film Council database, and a corpus of 112 K-pop song lyrics by groups including Aespa, NewJeans, ITZY, Stray Kids, Babymonster, Zerobaseone, RIIZE, and ILLIT. Results. Analysis of the Korean linguistic material revealed significant English interference at the discourse level. This phenomenon was characterized by the retention of the Korean morphosyntactic framework, an increase in borrowings and insertions from English (leading to the formation of new sub-styles), and a spread of code-switching in specific discourse types. This increase was most pronounced in fashion and beauty discourse, where English lexemes accounted for an average of 12% of the vocabulary. K-pop, a dominant genre of Korean popular music, was found to be almost entirely based on code-switching between English and Korean, with English comprising 79.5% of the lyrical content on average, indicating the formation of a distinct multilingual discourse. Research implications. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of a substantial body of linguistic data to identify manifestations of interference at the discursive level in the English-Korean language pair. The findings offer a more complete understanding of English-induced interference in contemporary Korean.