KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study examines English-Korean code-mixing in the everyday and digital discourse of Korean university students, investigating the pragmatic functions underlying this practice. A survey was developed by three experts in sociolinguistics and pragmatics and administered to 383 university students at a university in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. Two rounds of exploratory factor analysis validated a five-factor, 16-item structure: communicative efficiency, playful function, translingual creativity, face-saving mitigation, and social identity. A repeated-measures ANOVA showed significant differences among the five functions, with communicative efficiency (M=3.40) rated highest, followed by playful function (M=3.13), translingual creativity (M=2.88), face-saving mitigation (M=2.65), and social identity (M=2.23). Code-mixing also varied significantly by interlocutor (friends > strangers/family > seniors > professors) and medium (text messaging > face-to-face > social media > email/presentations). Content analysis of two open-ended items revealed that face-saving mitigation and playful function, though lower on the Likert-scale items, emerged prominently in students‘ reported experiences, adding depth to the quantitative findings. These results show that English-Korean code-mixing, previously regarded as a marked choice signaling elite status, has shifted into an unmarked, agentive strategy oriented toward practicality and playful peer bonding, calibrated according to social context.

In this study, we identify latent patterns in public perceptions of foreign-language expressions and loanwords and examine their relationships with sociodemographic characteristics and evaluations of Korean alternatives. Data were drawn from the 2024 National Survey on Public Perceptions of Foreign-Language Expressions and Loanwords. Latent class analysis was conducted using 16 items measuring evaluations of use frequency and convenience, followed by ML- and BCH-adjusted three-step analyses. Five latent classes were identified. These findings show that positive evaluations of Korean alternatives may arise not only from rejecting foreign-language expressions and loanwords but also from recognizing their convenience while critically evaluating the frequency of their use. Korean language purification policies should therefore reflect these diverse perceptions and provide accessible, natural alternatives without compromising communicative efficiency.

This study examines the "Today’s Fortune" column in the Chosun Ilbo through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), using a 2025 text corpus to analyze text, intertextuality, and ideology. Lexically and grammatically, the overwording of the negative imperative mara and the high frequency of directive and controlling modalities reflected readers' anxiety and need for guidance. Intertextually, the text exhibited a hybrid genre, blending traditional fortune-telling with neoliberal "self-development" discourses. It adopted the authoritative voice of mainstream media, creating a "daily life manual" style that emphasized growth and action. Ideologically, the text reframed structural issues as individual responsibilities, ultimately producing conformist subjects focused on self-transformation rather than social change. This study highlights the subtle integration of neoliberal ideology into everyday media texts.