Dual developmental mode: the top-down and bottom-up progress of language change in the Korean community of China since 1948

Abstract

The language change resulting from outside contacts in the Yǒnbyǒn Korean language in China possesses distinctive characteristics. Unlike studies of language contact and change in most contexts, which often observe unidirectional contact-induced changes, the linguistic variation within the Chinese Korean community reveals a dual developmental mode. Ethnic Koreans in China have actively engaged with the Chinese language due to its sociopolitical dominance in China, resulting in significant top-down impacts on the Korean language. Conversely, the cognate Korean language has exerted an increasing influence on Yǒnbyǒn Korean speakers through a bottom-up mode. This research argues that the evolution of the Yǒnbyǒn Korean language possesses a distinctive characteristic: it can potentially be redirected and contested by social factors. Firstly, the sociopolitical landscape plays a pivotal role, exerting top-down influence stemming from modern standard Chinese. Secondly, sociocultural and economic factors, as experienced in the daily lives of ordinary Korean speakers, act as a bottom-up force, drawing influence from South Korean and English language. This research offers insights into the interplay of sociopolitical influences, sociocultural dynamics, economic forces, and individual preferences, by examining the dual developmental mode, driven by social contexts and mechanisms. The research sheds light on the contact-induced changes that affect the lexical, semantic, and structural dimensions of this minority language. The study has made methodological contributions by establishing a specialised corpus containing language data from Yǒnbyǒn Korean spanning the period between 1948 and 2020, filling a substantial gap in data related to this minority language in China that has been influenced by cross-border cognate languages. The research employs the Open-source Korean Text Processor, highlighting its appropriateness for studying the Korean language in the Chinese diaspora.