한국 사회언어학에서의 담화분석 연구

Abstract

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.