The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical overview of the discourse-analytic studies in Korean sociolinguistics, mainly analyzing articles published in The Sociolingustic Journal of Korea. To achieve this goal, this article discusses definitions of ‘discourse’ and ‘discourse analysis’, and approaches to discourse. The examination of the articles in the journal shows that major studies in Korean sociolinguistics can be summarized as in the following: (i) functional approaches to language and discourse markers, (ii) conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, (iv) media discourse and critical discourse analysis, (v) analysis of public speeches and advertisements, (vi) electronic discourse (internet and SNS discourse), among others. This overview shows that discourse-analytic studies in Korean linguistics have focused on certain specific topics such as discourse markers, conversation-analytic studies, critical discourse studies, and electronic discourse, differing in topics from sociolinguistic studies in American and other societies. This overview suggests that more sociolinguistic studies need to be carried out in the fields such as intercultural communication, electronic discourse, and gender-based discourse as further research topics in Korean sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics explores the relationship between language and/in society, dealing with topics such as (regional and social) dialects, bilingualism, multi-lingualism, language contact, ethnography of speaking, ethnomethodology/conversation analysis, language planning, and so on. This research provides a comprehensive overview of sociolinguistic studies in Korea, analyzing papers which have appeared in Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea. Analysis shows that a variety of topics has been dealt with in the Korean Sociolinguistic Society, covering topics on variation analysis of regional/social dialects, honorifics/politeness and address terms, gender studies, interactional sociolinguistics and discourse/conversation analysis, intercultural communication, language planning/policies, computer communication language, language learning and teaching and so on. This general overview shows the development of sociolinguistic studies in Korea, in terms of the topics, methods, objects of analysis and so on, and it will be a guide for future research in the field of Korean linguistics.