Anglicisms in Korean: A diachronic corpus-based study with special reference to translation as a mode of language contact

Heekyung Choi

Abstract


This study examines how English has penetrated the Korean language by analyzing Anglicisms in weekly news magazine articles, with special reference to translation as a mode of language contact. For this purpose, it conducts a diachronic quantitative analysis of the occurrence of Anglicisms by compiling and utilizing corpora consisting of translated and original Korean news magazine articles over a period of 20 years. The results of this analysis are explained through a qualitative analysis of sociolinguistic factors influencing contact-induced language change. The findings suggest that Anglicisms increased over the 20-year period at a greater pace in original texts than in translated ones. Various sociolinguistic factors, including language ideology, language policy, and linguistic attitude, affected the results either positively or negatively. In addition, translators, as key agents of language contact, seem more conservative than other native speakers in changing their attitude toward Anglicisms, partly due to the complex decision-making process of translation. These results help broaden the scope of translation studies by introducing a new contact linguistic perspective.

Keywords


Anglicism; language ideology; translation as a mode of language contact; diachronic corpus analysis; journalistic texts

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