A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF KOREAN-ACCENTED ENGLISH IN JOHN LEGEND’S ALL OF ME SONG SUNG BY KOREANS

Abstract

Abstract

This study aimed at analyzing Korean-accented English in John Legend‟s All of Me song sung by Koreans. The  study  first  identified  the  general  characteristics  of  Korean-accented  English  in  the  song  through  the orthography of the lyrics (the original English lyrics, the Hangeul version, and the Romanization version). Second, described and explained the pronunciation problems in terms of the position of the organ of speech, the word merger, the elimination of physical sound, and the phonetic feature. This study employed mixed methods. The finding of the study, first, there were only ten Korean consonants used as the equivalent of English words in the lyrics of All of Me song which categorized into three positions, which are initial, medial, and final. Second, there were four types of pronunciation problems faced by Koreans, the position of the organ of speech, the word merger, the elimination of physical sound, and the phonetic feature.

Keywords: sociolinguistics, accent, Korean-accented English, All of Me song