Despite the conservative academic attitude and atmosphere of Korean linguistics, the world has been going through transformation caused by progressive development of science technology since late 20th century. For instance, advancement in transportation, communication and computer technology has directly influenced individual lifestyle and contact pattern between individuals as well as between social strata which lead to several changes in social structure. Following diversification and new technological environment is challenging Korean linguistic society with new academic assignments. Generally the demand for the practical solution to the problems caused by usage of language is increasing. This article especially focuses on the rise of sociolinguistics, critical discourse analysis analysis and computational linguistics and talk about the prospect of Korean linguistics. The subject of the sociolinguistics now can be widened from traditional subject namely language variation between different social status, race, gender and age to language variation between literary language and colloquial language, North Korean and South Korean language, and changes in Korean influenced by foreign language. Especially development in communication technology and media provided various types of communication environment which makephase of human contact intricate. In contemporary society, the mass media is outgrowing in size and number and overwhelming the public culture. Also, the ideology of the mainstream in the society is spreading and maintained via mass media. Thus critical analysis of mass media is becoming one of the most important subject to research. The computational linguistics, which is the new area and method in linguistics, is only at the first level when it comes to Korean. In fact it is at the verge of natural science and liberal arts thus it is can be stressful area for scholars of liberal arts. Yet computational linguistics must be studied as is a necessary sector. In 21st century, when it comes to linguistics, language in recognized to be placed in using environment, and to interchange in the world. Unlike formal syntax or formal semantics. language is not considered to be placed in vacuum tuberather it is belived that users and other circumstantial factors are also important part in interpretation and production of language.
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