Jang, In Chull & Yang, In Young. 2018. “Linguistic Representations of Korean Immigrant English in North American Media Space: An Analysis of Appa's English in Kim's Convenience”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2), 1~36. With the increasing importance of the mass media in social life and the linguistic changes it incurs, sociolinguistic research on linguistic representations in cinematic discourse has been increasing recently. Situated within this growing body of emerging scholarship in sociolinguistics, this study examines how Korean immigrant English is represented in a Canadian TV sitcom, Kim’s Convenience. Drawing on the perspective that linguistic performances in fictional discourse serve as resources for sociolinguistic styling and characterization, this paper investigates how the linguistic representations of Korean immigrant English contribute to authenticating the character of a middle-aged male Korean immigrant called Appa in the TV series. For this purpose, Appa's English used throughout the TV series' first season (13 episodes) was analyzed at the phonological, syntactic, lexical, thematic, and semiotic levels. The analysis revealed that each linguistic level shows distinct but concerted efforts regarding the authentication of Appa as a Korean immigrant. The phonological features of his English effectively share those of Korean English, whereas the syntactic representations are characteristic of a simple register. The lexical, thematic, and semiotic representations additionally reinforce Appa's “Koreanness” through the sitcom's integration of topics and images related to Korean culture.
Jeong, Hyeongseok. 2018. “Discursive Functions of the Free Morpheme ish1)”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2). 37~62. This study aims to explore the corpus data of the free morpheme ish with special reference to its discursive functions. Derived from suffix -ish, ish develops as a free morpheme denoting a sense of approximation. On its way to broadening its functions, ish not only approximates the propositional meaning, but also hedges the speaker's attitude towards the proposition. The semantics of ish indicates that the degree is slightly below the standard, but data show that this is not always the case. Contextual factors play a part in determining the degree of ish. By thoroughly analyzing data from the corpora, I focus on the functions of the ish in the discourse level, and the role of the surrounding context in differing scale of the free morpheme ish. Moreover, I introduce the punctuation marks occurring with the use of ish in written examples by focusing on the characteristics of each punctuation mark.
Kang, Minjung. 2018. “Functions of I mean in American Talk Shows”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2). 63~84. This paper aims to find out roles of the discourse marker I mean in American talk shows. Ten interviews from six talk shows were analyzed for the investigation and the results indicate that there are some unique functions of I mean which do not seem to be mentioned in early studies: counter-accounting and footing shift functions. This study suggests that the counter-accounting function of I mean can appear in utterance-initial position when the interviewee does not agree with what the interviewer has mentioned. Also, the interviewee can use I mean as a footing shift marker to switch stances from an informative one to an entertaining one (or vice versa). Since these two functions seem to be connected to the institutional settings and goals of talk shows, it is crucial to study functions of I mean in accordance with types of institutional talk.
Kim, Kyu-hyun & Suh, Kyung-Hee. 2018. “Formulation Sequence in Korean TV Talk Shows: Pre-Sequence as Consensual Grounds for Managing Category Work”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2). 85~117. From the perspectives of conversation analysis (CA) and membership categorization analysis (MCA), this paper analyzes the formulation sequence in Korean television news interviews and celebrity talk-shows. The analysis shows that the host's formulation is normatively oriented to by the guest as a preliminary action, which projects a range of face-impinging actions, such as challenge, assessment, request, etc. The formulation-confirmation sequence furnishes the host with consensual grounds for embarking on affectively-loaded assessment activities vis-à-vis the guest in his/her own terms. The guest, as the formulation-recipient, may block the host's projected action by using disconfirmation, which points to the contingent nature of the power that the host exercises as the agent of morality. The analysis of the formulation sequence is brought to bear upon the examination of the compositional features of the formulation turn (e.g., sentence-ending suffixes, discourse particle, etc.) and their interactional imports.
Kim, Younhee. 2018. “Private Speech and Mutual Engagement in Preschoolers' Playtime Interaction: Talk and Embodiment”. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2), 119~165. Preschoolers' playtime interaction presents a unique context where private speech/self-talk and mutual conversation are co-present as well as within and out-of-(pretend play) frame talk. Preliminary observation of the data from the larger project revealed an overall pattern where the two children would play together and soon one child or both of them wander off to his/her own private speech/play mode, and then mutual engagement is achieved again. The current study examines this phenomenon from a conversation analytic perspective by showing what types of sequential resources are employed by the children to manage the transition. The resources include making an announcement, a noticing comment about the shared environment, repetition, code-switching, and embodied resources such as gaze, postural orientation, and spatial positioning in the play space (Kendon 1990). The transition from mutual conversation to private speech often accompanies transition from reality to pretend play talk, though not exclusively so. Making a meta-pretend play comment and making a reference to the theme of the joint play also served as an effective way to achieve re-engagement. Based on detailed interactional analysis, the study suggests that the playtime interaction of preschoolers affords more self-oriented speech (self-repair, private speech) and is characterized by rather loosened expectation for responsivity while “playing together” takes close orientation to the other child's behavior as they co-ordinate moments of mutual engagement and separate play throughout their co-presence.
Lee, Josephine. 2018. “Preference Organization as a Characterization Device in TV Sitcoms.” The Sociolinguistics Journal of Korea 26(2), 167~193. This study employs conversation analysis to examine how preference organization is exploited as a characterization device in the American sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. The analysis shows that by enacting exaggerated and overt forms of preferred actions, the relationship and personalities of the main characters are constructed in a particular light. By focusing on dispreferred turns, and especially the violations of them, the analysis also demonstrates that preference organization is used to configure the main characters as “funnily abnormal nerds” while achieving the sitcom's purpose of providing entertainment and humor. These findings shed light on the workings of fictional dialogue and the specific resources used to accomplish different identity displays of sitcom characters.
Lee, Kathy. 2018. An Analysis of English Teachers' Metalinguistic Discourse. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 26(2), 195~223. In this paper, I examine an effort by the South Korean Ministry of Education (MOE) called the “Teaching English in English” (TEE) policy, which is still in practice today. In 2001, the MOE enacted TEE to improve the proficiency of Koreans through English instruction, with the implicit acknowledgement that 40 years of traditional teaching methods had not produced competent English users. To understand this policy's implications for teachers, I draw on ethnographic observations and interviews at a government-sponsored center, where Korean teachers of English participated in an intensive English course. Approaching this policy from a language ideological framework, I pay attention to their metalinguistic discourse about English. Analysis of the findings reveals that teachers challenged but also reproduced dominant language ideologies that prevented viewing themselves as legitimate English teachers. Based on these teachers' language ideologies, it is not helpful to view problems in English education as due to teachers' lack of English skills or confidence. The findings illustrate the importance of understanding the social and language practices of the local community when designing a well-informed language policy that can effectively transform language education and challenge ideologies that view Koreans as poor English speakers or English as a language of the Other.