University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Fighting the tightrope: language ideologies, balancing acts, and figures of elusive modernity in South Korea

Kim, Jenna Hyojin Chi

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/97615

Description

Title
Fighting the tightrope: language ideologies, balancing acts, and figures of elusive modernity in South Korea
Author(s)
Kim, Jenna Hyojin Chi
Issue Date
2017-04-21
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Lo, Adrienne S.
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Lo, Adrienne S.
Committee Member(s)
  • Yoon, James H.
  • Koven, Michèle
  • Fagyal, Zsuzsanna
Department of Study
Educational Psychology
Discipline
Educational Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Language ideologies
  • South Korea
  • Loan word phonology
  • Multilingualism
  • English
  • Linguistic capital
  • Citizenship
Abstract
There has been a growing interest in how local linguistic practices are being shaped by the global force of neoliberalism. Though it is a powerful paradigm, I hope to illuminate through this dissertation how neoliberalism alone is insufficient to be held accountable for the changing meanings of English in Korea, and how invoking the framework of language ideologies allows for a more complete analysis of language change. To this end, I explore the interconnectivity of neoliberalism, displays of consumption, and language change with a focus on gender. By tracing the uptake of a particular phoneme, I examine how speakers use phonological accuracy as a tool to construct new indexical orders by appropriating chronotopic symbols of the past, reinscribing gendered narratives of Korean womanhood as figures of successful or failed modernity. These associations provide a window into the reconfiguration of language ideologies surrounding English, as well as how a new global neoliberal order is melted into the pedestrian lives of locals.
Graduation Semester
2017-05
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97615
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2017 Jenna Kim

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