Linguistic constructions of modernity: English mixing in Korean television commercials

This study investigates the construction of linguistic modernity via English mixing in the discourse of Korean television commercials. Specifically, it is concerned with Korean-English bilinguals’ linguistic construction of modernity as realized in three domains of advertising: technology, gender roles, and taste as a cultural form. Four hours of commercials were video-taped in Seoul, South Korea, during weekend prime time from August through October 2002. A total of 720 advertising spots were analyzed. The findings suggest that mixing English with Korean is a linguistic mechanism for the construction of modernity in contemporary South Korea. It is argued that knowledge and use of English in South Korea is a defining linguistic expression of modernity, and the conspicuous total absence of English is linguistically disassociated from modernity. (Modernity, advertising, English and globalization, South Korea)* I N T R O D U C T I O N English mixing in non-English-language advertising is one research area that has received increasing attention lately (Bhatia 1992; Cheshire & Moser 1994; Cook 1992; Haarmann 1989; Martin 1999, 2002a, 2002b; Piller 2000, 2001, 2003; Takashi 1990).The majority of previous studies on English use in advertisements deal mostly with European language contexts, with a few exceptions (e.g., Bhatia 1992, Jung 2001, Takashi 1990, Haarmann 1989). This study addresses what has been relatively ignored so far, bringing data from a non-Western language context to the focus on English mixing in advertising, in this case in South Korea. The evidence presented in this article will demonstrate that a “modern” identity in contemporary South Korea is virtually guaranteed through acquisition and use of English. In other words, my main argument is that the acquisition of English linguistic capital is the necessary means of indexing modern identity in that context. Language in Society 35, 59–91. Printed in the United States of America DOI: 10.10170S0047404506060039 © 2006 Cambridge University Press 0047-4045006 $12.00 59 I will focus on Korean television commercials to show how English is used creatively as a medium to present messages of linguistic modernity. This article, then, augments the empirical and theoretical scope of previous research that limited English mixing in advertising to symbolic uses (e.g., Cheshire & Moser 1994, Haarmann 1989). It also extends the empirical scope of studies on bilinguals’ creativity, which has so far been limited to contact literatures (e.g., Kachru 1986a, 1986b, 1987). Creativity in the realm of popular culture intended for wide commercialized dissemination has not received much serious scholarly attention. The creative use of word play and hybrid linguistic forms in the discourse of Korean TV commercials draws specifically on bilingual copywriters’ ability to create them and the viewers’ ability to understand them. This study will examine (i) motivations for English mixing in Korean TV commercials, and (ii) how English mixing contributes to identity construction in close conjunction with reinforcing modernity. P R E V I O U S S T U D I E S : A C R I T I C A L R E V I E W Most research on codeswitching and codemixing can be divided into two major categories: the formal0structural-linguistic approaches focused on structure constraints (e.g., Azuma 1993, Belazi, Rubin & Toribio 1994, Bhatt 1997, Bokamba 1989, Clyne 1987, DiSciullo, Muysken & Singh 1986, Pfaff 1979, Poplack 1980, Myers-Scotton 1993, Sridhar & Sridhar 1980), and the functional0socialpragmatic approaches centered on social motivations (e.g., Auer 1995, Blom & Gumperz 1972, Gross 2000, Heller 1988, Gal 1987, Li, Milroy & Ching 1999, Myers-Scotton 1997). The majority of these studies have been based predominantly on naturally occurring, spoken codeswitched utterances in interpersonal interaction. Studies specific to English mixing in mass media, especially in advertising, have been relatively new (e.g., Bhatia 1987, 1992, 2001; Cheshire & Moser 1994; Cook 1992; Haarmann 1989; Martin 1999, 2002a, 2002b; Piller 2000, 2001, 2003). These studies can be categorized as focusing on the following areas: (i) symbolism in use (e.g., Cheshire & Moser 1994, Haarmann, 1989), (ii) identity construction (e.g., Gao & Pandharipande 2002; Piller 2000, 2001, 2003), or (iii) globalization (e.g., Bhatia 1987, 1992, 2001; Martin 1999, 2002a, 2002b; Myers 1999). In order to attain a more nuanced understanding of the generalizations of English mixing in advertising discourse, I argue that the convergence of the last two – identity construction and globalization – is necessary. Specifically, I will argue that in the globalizing world, the tension between global discourses and local practices produces hybridity that is interlinked with modernity by its engagement with English, and that the linguistic expression of modernity in South Korea is guaranteed by English bilingualism. One of the first studies specific to advertising in the Far East that discusses the functions of multilingual advertising is Haarmann’s (1989) research on JapJ A M I E S H I N H E E L E E 60 Language in Society 35:1 (2006) anese television advertisements. He argues that English is used symbolically because there is no expectation that Japanese viewers understand English they see or hear. Simply put, English use in Japanese TV commercials is argued to have less to do with message conveyance and more to do with appealing to TV viewers. Haarmann claims that the use of English words in Japanese advertising is primarily meant to appeal to the public’s positive feelings toward internationalization, and not for practical communication. His account, however, cannot be generalized to English mixing in Korean TV commercials because the latter contain various instances of English mixing that rely on bilingual viewers’ understanding of what they hear and see. If English mixing in Korean advertising is, in fact, intended to serve merely as an “attention-getter” (Jung 2001) or simply to create positive “feelings” about modernity and internationalization and has little to do with actual understanding of a message, we would not expect Korean advertisers and copywriters to use English expressions that deviate from the so-called canonical use of Standard English. If the Korean case were similar to what Haarmann argues for the Japanese case, where the public neither understands nor uses English for practical communication, what difference would it make if Korean advertisers simply used Standard English rather than Koreanized innovations? In fact, English use in Korean commercials indicates that English is not used simply to create the impression of a modern, fashionable style. If the public’s understanding of TV commercials that contain English mixing were not an issue at all, as Haarmann seems to suggest, it is not clear why Korean bilingual copywriters would opt for Koreanized English (such as moving bra in place of Standard English forms such as underwire bra or push-up bra)? Notice that this is not an example of localization of international ad campaigns; rather, it is domestically constructed strictly for domestic viewers. Labeling this type of Koreanized English in advertising as an indication of interference or incomplete acquisition would be somewhat misleading and simplistic. As Blommaert (2003:616) suggests, “ ‘good’ and status-carrying English in the periphery may be ‘bad’ and stigma-carrying English in the core of the world system.” As far as the meaning-accessibility of the message is concerned, push-up bra is equally as intelligible to Korean viewers as moving bra. This is not to say, however, that there is a total absence of inequalities in English proficiency across creators and consumers of commercials in South Korea. What needs to be recognized is that the trend of mixing English in nonEnglish advertising may be globalized, but the kind of innovative English that works is highly localized. For instance, hybridized English in Indian advertising might evoke an image of modernity, but its message is not necessarily intelligible to South Korean consumers. In order for their ads to make sense, Korean advertisers customize their English in domestically aired advertising in such a way that it can target a wider range of viewers in Korea across stratified levels of English proficiency. L I N G U I S T I C C O N S T R U C T I O N S O F M O D E R N I T Y Language in Society 35:1 (2006) 61 As Hill (1999: 546) asserts, “The sphere of the market is an important zone for mixing and crossing.” In this sense, commercial discourse such as advertising becomes a pertinent sociolinguistic site in which to investigate crossing and mixing. The linguistic practices of “styling the other” and “crossing,” which refer to the use of outgroup linguistic styles, are empirically documented in Bell 1999, Bucholtz 1999, Cutler 1999, and Lo 1999. However, building one’s own identity by styling the other is not without a risk. In fact, Hill (1999: 552) argues that “this constructed self will be rejected as ‘inauthentic’” and that “the crosser will be rejected as, in Cutler’s words, ‘a “wannabe”’ by peers of both ‘own’ and ‘other’ group.” As for identity construction in advertising, Piller (2001:153) proposes to view mixing as a compilation of hybrid social identities that are shifting “from political to economic” ones. She argues that this identity change influences a shift “from monolingual practices to multilingual and English-dominant ones.” Piller discusses multiple orientations in identity constructions. There are International, Future, Success, Sophistication, and Fun orientations. English is used to address the reader as an international, career-oriented worker. The use of lexical items such as tomorrow and future technologies indicates that the reader is portrayed as future-oriented. Professional executives are often featured in English-mixing advertisements in Germany, and they are depicted as being “endowed with wealth” and leading a “desirable lifestyle.” These linguistic attitudinal creations are the ideological work of English in the globalizing world and find support in the present study. Piller 2001 suggests that the aforementioned five orientations “emerge from” her bilingual advertisement corpus. In order to make this claim, she should have contrasted German-only ads, which constitute 26.6% of her corpus, with mixed ones to see whether these characteristics are in fact unique to bilingual ads. Without the presentation of a comparative analysis of “narratees”’ orientations in German-only advertising versus those in bilingual advertising, her theoretical claim about the characteristics of bilingual narratees would not provide an accurate account. Thus, the present study attempts a comparative treatment of Koreanonly commercials versus English-mixed commercials to validate the theoretical claim that English mixing achieves a certain goal that is not sought in Koreanonly commercials – that is, the linguistic construction of modernity. Similar to Piller 2001, the present study makes a connection between language and its associated identities. This connection is treated as an essential component in understanding identity construction and its interface with modernity. Piller (2001:153) contends that advertisements in Germany “valorize GermanEnglish bilingualism and set it up as the strongest linguistic currency for the German business elite.” Her findings, however, do not suggest that there exists an age-related language subgroup association within the same business elite class. Interestingly, my study indicates that among identities indexed with modernity that hinge on the use of English, age turns out to be a critical variable. For inJ A M I E S H I N H E E L E E 62 Language in Society 35:1 (2006) stance, a successful business executive in Piller’s study is identified as someone who is bilingual in English and German and who values quality, tradition, and authenticity. In contrast, I argue that if the successful executive is a middle-aged male, then only Korean or Sino-Korean is used, whereas if he is a young man, English mixing is used. An individual who “values tradition” in this study is not indexed as modern; therefore, there is a clear absence of English in those types of commercials. Identities represented in the form of orientations in Piller’s study seem to overlap with one another. For instance, properties of success orientation can intersect with those of sophistication orientation. In order to deal with this intersecting quality of identities, I propose that the modern identity be viewed as a superordinate identity that encompasses all of the above; that is, being modern subsumes being international, progressive, futuristic, and fun-loving. This is not to claim that all of these orientations are present simultaneously at all times. For example, a combination of being successful and fun-loving could be perceived as being modern, without the element of being futuristic. More importantly, an understanding of identity construction work in Korean TV advertising discourse requires the addition of one critical subordinate identity to those that identity construction-oriented researchers such as Piller have proposed: language skills. The findings of the present study demonstrate that being a Korean-English bilingual is arguably the most determining identity required for one to claim membership in modernity. Being an English-knowing and English-using Korean is one of the most significant characteristics of “being modern” in contemporary South Korea. What is meant by “modernity” in this study is based on an overview of research conducted by scholars who worked specifically on the notion of modernity in connection with globalization (e.g., Bilton 1996; Flowerdew 2002; Giddens 1990; Hall 1996; Hall, Held & McLennan 1996; McGrew 1996a, 1996b; O’Brien, Penna & Hay 1999; Robertson 1992; Waters 1995). Hall et al. (1996:432) argue that “the direct result of increasing globalization is a sense of variety of values and customs and people become more attached to their locality as the appropriate forum for self-assertion” (emphasis added). In their discussion of the impact of globalization and the resultant tension between the “global” and the “local,” they argue that modernity accelerated the pace of cultural innovation, the production of new languages, and the pursuit of novelty and experiment as cultural values. McGrew (1996a:273) proposes that globalization has two dimensions: “scope (or stretching) and intensity (or deepening).” In another article, McGrew (1996b: 470) warns that the popular use of the term “globalization,” which is often associated with people’s awareness that “modern communication technology has shrunk the globe,” is inaccurate. This so-called common-sense understanding of the term “globalization” often neglects to deal with its multiple consequences. For McGrew, globalization is “a process through which events, decisions, and L I N G U I S T I C C O N S T R U C T I O N S O F M O D E R N I T Y Language in Society 35:1 (2006) 63 activities in one part of the world can become significant in distant parts of the globe” (1996b:470). The multiplicity of linkages and interconnections that transcend nation-states which is represented in the form of globalization “reinforces social and cultural boundaries while simultaneously creating ‘shared’ cultural and social spaces in which there is an evolving ‘hybridization’ of ideas, values, knowledge, and institutions” (1996b:479). One instantiation of this hybridization he identifies is advertising. Similarly, Hall (1996:623) notes that these contradictory tendencies between the global and the local are the very dynamics of globalization. Hall claims that the tension between the global and the local lies in the transformation of identities. That is, there is a tension “between particularistic forms of attachment or belonging and more universalistic identification.” In his discussion of cultural identities, Hall (1996:619) proposes that “compression of distances and timespaces are among the most significant aspects of globalization affecting cultural identities.” He presents three consequences of globalization on cultural identities: national identities are being eroded; other local particularistic identities are being strengthened; and national identities are declining but new identities of hybridity are taking their place. In Hall’s view, globalization exploits local differentiation. This is not to say that the global replaces the local; rather, a “new articulation,” in Hall’s term, emerges between the global and the local. Another critical point Hall argues is that “globalization is unevenly distributed ‘between different strata of the population’ with regions” (1996:624). This point, in particular, bears empirical significance for Korean TV commercials, because younger and older generations are linguistically addressed differently in these commercials. Arguments made by scholars in the area of modernity and globalization resonate with what is discussed by Giddens 1990. Since Giddens makes specific reference to advertising, his theorization of modernity and globalization will serve as a main point of reference for understanding these two concepts, which are essential to the present study. Giddens writes that “modernity is inherently globalizing” (1990:63). Globalization is claimed to entail an unprecedented degree of interpenetration between the global and the local. His argument specific to advertising is that it increasingly transcends particularities of one place and comes to be usable irrespective of time and place. As a consequence, commonalities of discourse practices rise above linguistic differences. Giddens (1990:64) views globalization as the “intensification” of social relations linking “distinct localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring miles away and vice versa.” Then, how is globalization manifest in social life? Waters 1995 claims that economy, polity, and culture are three areas in which people become aware that geographical constraints on social and cultural arrangements are decreasing. He argues that material, political, and symbolic exchanges are quite relevant to globalization. In particular, advertising is listed as one of the most prevalent examples of symbolic exchange. J A M I E S H I N H E E L E E 64 Language in Society 35:1 (2006) Studies of globalization generally focus on one of the following facets: cultural imperialism, the local, and “glocalization” (Machin & van Leeuwen 2003). English mixing in advertising draws on this very concept of globalization, which suggests that mixing allows success in many different markets and at the same time requires an adaptation to a local market. In her study of English mixing in French advertising, Martin 2002a asserts that English is a preferred language among other foreign languages in French advertising when one wants to globalize the product’s brand image. Myers 1999 also discusses advertising in connection with globalization. He argues that there is a competing strategy between creating advertising that will be successful in many markets and adapting advertising to its local market. Myers stresses that without careful consideration of its potential impact in a given cultural setting, an ad campaign might end up being unsuccessful. One example Myers provides is an ad for shampoo that stresses its “naturalness.” The way “naturalness” is depicted varies across cultures from “a mountain meadow to a boat on a pond” (1999:61). This example hints that a common concept such as “naturalness” needs to be expressed in a subtly different way to appeal to viewers and consumers in a particular market. Similarly, Bhatia 2001 addresses the issue of globalization in advertising and stresses the notion of “glocalization,” which is also extensively discussed by Robertson 1995. Bhatia focuses more on the innovative and creative aspects of mixing, an emphasis which resonates with empirical findings in this study of Korean advertising. The “positive approach” claims that “language mixing in advertising satisfies deeper innovative and creative needs of advertisement writers to create desired effects of persuasion, naturalness, and other socio-psychological effects in their language” (Bhatia 2001:197). The local adaptation of English is demonstratively in process in Korean TV commercials, as this study will show. The innovative use of English in Korean ads is not merely an ad hoc attention-getter. It is used to express Korean-English bilinguals’engagement with modernity. For these bilinguals, English is not an alien language but part of their socially active verbal repertoire. These bilinguals are not passive consumers of so-called canonical Standard English varieties, but active interlocutors and participants in the process of creating localized uses of English. The use of English with the attendant innovations allows a space for hybridity where the global uses of English are compromised to create local effects (Bhatt 2003). In his discussion of globality and locality, Bhatt (2003:17) argues that English allows “language consumers to glide effortlessly among local, national, and international identities” through hybridity. He further asserts that this hybridity “produces and reproduces identity positionings that link the global to the local” (2003:17). In fact, as Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999 have argued, modernity necessitates less clear boundaries between global and local. They argue that everincreasing interaction across different linguistic and cultural boundaries leads to L I N G U I S T I C C O N S T R U C T I O N S O F M O D E R N I T Y Language in Society 35:1 (2006) 65 prevalent hybrid discursive practices; bilingual advertising in South Korea turns out to be a paradigmatic example of such practices. Prevalent use of localized English across different genres in popular culture such as music, TV shows, movies, magazines, and advertising is an indication of the development of bilingualism in public domains in South Korea, although it is still in the incipient stage. The combination of visible availability of English use in public domains and improved accessibility of English in schools via newly implemented English education policies enables Koreans to participate in the sociolinguistic process of modernity, accessible through the acquisition of English. The subsequent sections first present a brief history of English education in Korea to situate the status and presence of English in contemporary South Korea. In the remainder of the article, how English-knowing and English-using bilinguals in Korea flex their creative linguistic muscles in the construction of modernity will be demonstrated through specific examples from TV commercials. E N G L I S H I N K O R E A An overview of English in educational as well as commercial institutions in South Korea reveals three major characteristics of the powerful influence English exercises in contemporary Korean society: (i) the pervasiveness of the ideology that English is associated with modernity, (ii) its heightened visibility in public sociolinguistic domains in Korea, and (iii) its improved accessibility – in terms of recently implemented English language programs at the primary school level – and the great potential that this represents for improved English proficiency among young Koreans. It has been claimed that formal English education has existed in Korea for 120 years, since the establishment of the first English school, Dongmoonhak, in 1883 (Kwon 1995). English education through the modern public school system began with Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). However, English textbooks offered grammatical accounts in Japanese during this period. The teachers spoke either Korean or Japanese as their first language (Kwon 1995). By the end of World War II, after the liberation of Korea from Japanese rule, English became a required subject in all secondary schools (Choe 1996, cited in Shim 1999). Excluding the years of English education during the Japanese colonial period, Korea’s autonomous and modern English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education now has a history that spans more than 50 years. English education was offered until 1997 from the seventh grade upward. In 1997, the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development implemented a new English education policy which reinforces the introduction of EFL at the beginning of third grade. In order to expand foreign language education, English has been taught as a part of the regular curriculum one to two hours a week, beginning with third grade, since 1997. In 2002, a total of 856 native speakers of English had been invited by the government from the United States, Canada, Australia, J A M I E S H I N H E E L E E 66 Language in Society 35:1 (2006) New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Ireland and placed in elementary, middle, and high schools. In elementary schools, homeroom teachers are in principle made responsible for teaching English, but new methods such as exchanging classes and team teaching are also available to suit the individual schools. For the implementation of English education, native speakers have been assigned to middle schools since 1995. In another recent and ongoing effort to promote English education, the Korean Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development has maintained a policy to promote the establishment of close relationships between Korean schools and those in other countries, especially in the United States. Approximately 147 Korean universities and colleges have established sister-school relations with 584 U.S. universities and colleges. The English Program in Korea (EPIK) is a government program sponsored by the same ministry. EPIK invites foreign university graduates to enrich their lives and build a professional teaching career while sharing knowledge and culture with students and teachers throughout the Republic of Korea. In 1995, EPIK was implemented with the participation of 150 members to improve the Englishspeaking abilities of Korean students and teachers, to develop cultural exchanges, and to reform teaching methodologies in English. In 2002, the EPIK commission recruited approximately 120 new native-speaking English teachers. Anyone can apply for EPIK who has completed at least six years of secondary education and four years of college leading to a bachelor’s degree, and who is from one of six major English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Those selected for the program generally teach English in public secondary schools, train Korean English teachers, or assist provincial offices of education. Shim observes, “In South Korea, English has become not only the most important foreign language, but also an essential tool for education, power, and success” (1994: 225) and further notes that “the ability to speak it well is often associated with higher and therefore desired social status” (1994:238). She estimates that at least a half of the younger generation (aged 15– 40) are KoreanEnglish bilinguals, since “all Korean children are exposed to at least three years of formal English education during the mandatory education period, and since more than 60 percent of middle school graduates also finish high school education” (1994:237). Whether Shim’s observation that 50% of the younger generation are bilingual has empirical bearing on their daily English use is debatable and is dependent on how one defines “bilingual.” Nonetheless, differences in acquisitional patterns and pedagogical concerns regarding English in South Korea are not irrelevant to generational issues. This keen and robust interest in English is evident not only in pedagogical institutions but also in private sectors and government agencies. More than 700 major Korean companies, including conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG, and Daewoo, require English on their new-hire recruiting exams. After these L I N G U I S T I C C O N S T R U C T I O N S O F M O D E R N I T Y Language in Society 35:1 (2006) 67 employees are hired, they need to attend in-house foreign language programs run by either a human resource department or a training center to improve their conversational skills and TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) scores. If employees do not satisfy a minimum score requirement on their English test, they are excluded from company-wide overseas training and promotion (e.g., for assistant manager and manager positions). For instance, LG gives an additional monthly bonus of $50 to employees who score 730 or higher on the TOEIC. Ssangyoung excludes employees who scored lower than 600 on the TOEIC from the annual company-wide promotion. Since there is a two-year time limit for the official TOEIC scores to be considered valid, employees are required to retake the test once every two years. However, employees who score 850 or higher on the TOEIC are exempt from this requirement. Thus, in order for employees to be free from the hassle of taking the test on a regular basis, this kind of policy gives them extra motivation to score as high as they can. According to the Samsung public relations department, “A good score on the TOEIC guarantees additional bonus points for their job performance. The company does not have to force the employees. They themselves try to score high.” However incipient and unstable societal bilingualism is in Korea, no one can deny that the presence of English in the areas of education and employment is robust. M E T H O D O L O G Y This study is based on qualitative data taken from a total of four hours of videotaped Korean TV commercials. The corpus includes 720 advertising spots. These commercials were broadcast on the major Korean television stations – Korea Broadcasting System (KBS), Munwha Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), and Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) – during prime time on weekends in August through October 2002. The rationale for choosing weekend prime time for collecting data was to ensure the maximum number of viewers. A TV rating survey conducted by TNS Media indicates that the commercials analyzed for this study were aired for TV shows that ranked in the top twenty on the rating list. Ratings for these shows ranged from 18.7% to 33.2%. These rating statistics suggest that these advertisements were presented when a large number of TV viewers were tuned in. This study investigates how English mixing is used and what it is used for in Korean TV commercials. Previous studies of TV commercials have highlighted the multimodal nature of TV commercials and have stressed the importance of incorporating not only linguistic but also visual and auditory means of communication in them (e.g., Cook 1992, Geis 1982, Piller 2000). Following their argument, analyses presented in this article include not only linguistic features but also visual and sound effects, such as characters and music featured in each comJ A M I E S H I N H E E L E E 68 Language in Society 35:1 (2006) mercial. Therefore, whenever paralinguistic description is necessary for clear understanding of a given commercial, a detailed illustration of audio-visual effects will be provided. Two major categories, Korean-only (KO) and English mixed (EM), will be contrasted. KO includes commercials aired in exclusively Korean as well as SinoKorean (Hanca, or Chinese-character-based Korean). There was such a paucity of TV commercials with mixed second languages other than English that they were not included in the data. English-only commercials constitute only a fraction of the corpus, and therefore they are not discussed in this article. The analysis centers on EM, which constitutes the majority of the data, and its comparison with KO. This dichotomous treatment of KO and EM is critical in establishing evidence for my major argument that EM commercials are designed to engage viewers and consumers in the process of constructing identities of modernity, whereas KO commercials are not. The corpus of 720 advertising spots was first classified according to which language code was used, KO or EM. Then each category was investigated further regarding what product was featured. Since this study essentially draws on comparative aspects of KO and EM commercials, only the categories of products that were advertised in both KO and EM, found in a total of 267 advertising spots, were subject to further investigation in terms of their endorsed messages and featured characters. Three subcategories common to KO and EM emerged from the corpus. I call these technology, gender roles, and taste as a cultural form. Technology includes any industrial mechanical or electronic products, such as cars, computers, or cellular phones. Gender roles include commercials that contain statements or messages regarding gender differences and representations of males or females by using gender-related lexical items such as woman or man. Taste includes beverage commercials such as those for coffee and alcoholic drinks. Some commercials might fall into more than one category. For example, a gas oven commercial with female spokespersons can be classified in both technology and gender roles simultaneously. When this occurred, the decision was made based on the main advertising copy or voice-over. That is, if the main copy of a commercial for gas ovens made specific reference to female roles, it was classified as gender roles rather than technology. This occasionally arguable classification does not pose a threat to the main theoretical claim that knowledge and use of English in South Korea is a defining linguistic expression of modernity, since the association of English mixing with modern identity construction is maintained across all three domains of advertising discussed. Before delving into an individual discussion of the three domains (technology, gender roles, and taste as a culture form) of advertising discourse, I analyzed contrasting characteristics between KO and EM commercials, first in terms of the identities featured in each category. This overview of dissimilar identities L I N G U I S T I C C O N S T R U C T I O N S O F M O D E R N I T Y Language in Society 35:1 (2006) 69 serves as critical supporting evidence for a connection between language codes and their promoted identities. After establishing the general dissimilarities between KO and EM commercials, they were further compared according to the products advertised. To achieve a more or less fair comparison between KO and EM, only the ones that advertised the same product were contrasted. In the following discussion KO commercials will be introduced first, immediately followed by comparable EM commercials. Each sample is given first in the original orthographic representation (e.g., Hangeul ‘Korean’ and0or Hanca ‘Sino-Korean’), followed by its roman transliteration and English translation. English mixing – regardless of whether it is presented in the Korean orthography (e.g., ‘engineered jean’) or in roman script – is in boldface. All relevant observations about audiovisual effects are included in the discussion of each example. R E S U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N In the literature review section, I proposed integrating two approaches in the study of advertising discourse. The proposed merging of identity construction and globalization approaches will yield a sociolinguistically significant generalization about English-mixing advertisements in South Korea in which linguistic modernity is expressed via acquisition and use of English. In this section, I will demonstrate how modernity is indexed via English use in the following domains: (i) modernity and technology, (ii) modernity and gender, and (iii) modernity and taste as a cultural form. In each section, I will show how modernity is crucially interlinked with the use of English. There are certainly cultural forms to express modernity other than the use of English (e.g., clothing, hairstyle). However, what I argue in this article is that Korean TV commercials employ the English-mixing strategy as a main linguistic cultural form to index modernity. This type of discoursal hybridity is one key aspect of globalization (Bhatt 2003, Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999). My theoretical claim is that the use of English – however proportionately insignificant it might be in a given advertisement – is indexed to modernity. A specific prediction of the claim is that any conspicuous absence of English use must be unassociated with modernity. Following an adapted version of Piller’s (2001) typology, a total of 720 TV advertising spots were analyzed. The proportion of Korean-only (KO) versus English-mixing (EM) in the corpus is summarized in Table 1. A total of 603 EM commercials were further classified into the categories shown in Table 2. The largest segment in the EM corpus is realized in the linguistically mixed mode – that is, a combination of written and spoken modes. The ads in this category are presented both as a voice-over – either uttered by a main spokesperson or by a narrator – accompanied by the orthographic presentation of English mixing. A very small number of advertising spots rely J A M I E S H I N H E E L E E 70 Language in Society 35:1 (2006) exclusively on nonlinguistic tokens such as Western pop music and0or Western characters. Table 3 presents the top five products advertised in the KO category, in descending order. Food is an item mostly advertised in Korean only. Some products are spicy instant noodles, rice, and seasonings essential for Korean cuisine, such as soybean paste, hot pepper paste, and soy sauce. KO commercials for financial institutions frequently use lexical items such as wuli nala ‘our nation’, Tayhanminkwuk ‘Republic of Korea’, or wuli kacok ‘our family’. It is notable that the first person singular possessive nay is absent from the data. Instead, the first person plural possessive wuli represents a collective entity, whether it refers to a nation or a family. The top five products advertised in the EM category demonstrate an order different from that of those in KO. In order to establish a connection between English mixing and its role in fostering and reinforcing modernity in TV commercials, it is necessary to examine how EM commercials differ from KO commercials. In particular, the following questions are worth investigating: (i) What kinds of consumers do these commercials target? (ii) What kinds of identities associated with characters or spokespersons are featured? And (iii), what kinds of messages do they endorse or convey? TABLE 1. Proportion of KO and EM in a corpus of 720 Korean TV commercials. 720 TV advertising spots Korean only (KO) English mixed (EM)