Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:39:41.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Blurring the boundaries

English–Korean bilingual creativity manifested in the linguistic landscape of South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2020

Sugene Kim Open the ORCID record for Sugene Kim [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A brief stroll about the cityscape of South Korea (henceforth ‘Korea’) testifies to Curtin's (2014) presumptive cosmopolitanism, whereby locals are expected to possess a high degree of competence in linguistically accommodating newcomers or world travellers by using English or other international languages in the linguistic landscape. One can easily spot English monolingual, Korean–English bilingual, and multilingual signs for ‘advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop[s] and . . . government buildings’ (Landry & Bourhis, 1997: 25), helping visitors and new arrivals negotiate the environment without being literate in the local language, Korean. The current English-flooded linguistic landscape of urban areas is well described in J. S. Lee's (2016) study, in which an elderly interviewee confirms, ‘[E]verywhere you go, you see English – banks, markets, and things. When we go shopping these days, brand names and street signs are all in English’ (331).

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 123 - 131
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Backhaus, P. 2007. Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Bhatia, T. & Ritchie, W. C. 2013. ‘Bilingualism and multilingualism in the global media and advertising.’ In Bhatia, T. & Ritchie, W. C. (eds.), The Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism. Malden, MA: Wiley–Blackwell, pp. 565–597.Google Scholar
Broselow, E. & Park, H.–B. 1995. ‘Mora conservation in second language prosody.’ In Archibald, J. (ed.), Phonological Acquisition and Phonological Theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 151–168.Google Scholar
Chosun.com. 2018. ‘Hangeul trumps English for fancy store signs.’ Online at <http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/10/09/2018100900406.html> (accessed October 20, 2018).+(accessed+October+20,+2018).>Google Scholar
Crystal, D. 1998. Language Play. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Curtin, M. 2014. ‘Mapping cosmopolitanisms in Taipei: Toward a theorisation of cosmopolitanism in linguistic landscape research.’ International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 228, 153–177.Google Scholar
Friedman, J. 1994. Cultural Identity and Global Process. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffer, B. L. 2002. ‘Language borrowing and language diffusion: An overview.’ Intercultural Communication Studies, 11(4), 1–37.Google Scholar
Kachru, B. B. 1985. ‘The bilinguals’ creativity.’ Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 6, 20–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Y. 2006. ‘Mixers lyricing in Hinglish: Blending and fusion in Indian pop culture.’ World Englishes, 25(2), 223–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, S. 2020. ‘“Sejong the Great would turn in his grave!”: South Korean attitudes towards monolingual English signage in public buildings.’ English Today. Advanced online publication. doi:10.1017/S0266078420000334Google Scholar
Kim, Y.–S. 2007. ‘Phonological awareness and literacy skills in Korean: An examination of the unique role of body–coda units.’ Applied Psycholinguistics, 28(1), 69–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landry, R. & Bourhis, R. Y. 1997. ‘Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study.’ Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. S. 2016. ‘“Everywhere you go, you see English!”: Elderly women's perspectives on globalization and English.’ Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 13(4), 319–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. W. 2014. ‘Transnational linguistic landscapes and the transgression of metadiscursive regimes of language.’ Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 11(1), 50–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luk, J. 2013. ‘Bilingual language play and local creativity in Hong Kong.’ International Journal of Multilingualism, 10(3), 236–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, J. S.–Y. 2009. The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea (Vol. 24). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pound, L. 1923. ‘Spelling-manipulation and present-day advertising.’ Dialect Notes, 5(6), 226–232.Google Scholar
Praninskas, J. 1968. Trade Name Creation: Processes and Patterns. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravina, M. 2009. ‘Introduction: Conceptualizing the Korean wave.’ Southeast Review of Asian Studies, 31, 3–9.Google Scholar
Rivlina, A. 2015. ‘Bilingual creativity in Russia: English–Russian language play.’ World Englishes, 34(3), 436–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivlina, A. A. 2020. ‘Bilingual language play and World Englishes.’ In Nelson, C. L., Proshina, Z. G. & Davis, D. R. (eds.), The Handbook of World Englishes (2nd edn.) Hoboken, NJ: Wiley–Blackwell, pp. 407–429.Google Scholar
Shim, R. J. 1994. ‘Englishized Korean: Structure, status, and attitudes.’ World Englishes, 13(2), 225–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sohn, H.–M. 1999. The Korean Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stefanowitsch, A. 2002. ‘Nice to miet you: Bilingual puns and the status of English in Germany.’ Intercultural Communication Studies, 11(4), 67–84.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, J. 1999. Globalization and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wales, K. 2001. A Dictionary of Stylistics (2nd edn.) Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.Google Scholar