This paper is a quantitative follow-up study of Lee’s (2017) qualitative examination on the usage of Korean human nouns for inanimate/non-human referents. It investigated the usage of “demonstrative + human noun” construct (e.g., yay ‘this child,’ i-chinkwu ‘this friend’) referring to inanimate referents by examining various factors that were chosen based on findings and discussions from Lee (2017) and Kim (2018, 2021). Statistical results conformed to the findings of these earlier studies, showing that human nouns referring to inanimate referents were favored when referents were compared to other things or had concrete concept. In addition, it was also revealed that formality conditioned the realization of human noun usage as human nouns for inanimate/non-human referents were favored in less formal contexts. These results provided a quantitative verification of Lee’s (2017) findings and additional insights to Kim (2018, 2021) along with the usefulness of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding sociolinguistic variables.

Due to the development of the internet and communications technology, the media market has undergone significant changes in the 2000s. In the past, when the types of media were not diverse, media content was mainly consumed through TV, radio, newspapers, etc., but as varied, it allowed users to watch the content anytime and anywhere. ‘Snack Video’ which is produced in a short length and consumed in commuting time and leisure time, and ‘Snack Culture’ which is a popular lifestyle trend of consuming short-form cultural content, is now widespread. The representative content of snack content is video clips. Various of media provide video clips, such as portal sites, SNS, and TV programs. YouTube is effective in increasing purchases than the other channels. Over-The-Top (OTT) is another pillar of the new media market, which has emerged with the development of the internet and communications technologies.