Assessment 1: Socio-linguistic investigation

AN ANALYSIS OF CODE-SWITCHING IN TWO KOREAN SONGS

‘NO MORE DREAM’ & ‘YET TO COME’ BY BTS

INTRODUCTION

Entertainment is an integral part of human’s life. It contributes to our mental well-being and our
expansion in world knowledge in a diverting and interactive way. In the past two decades or
more, Korean entertainment media is one of the most influential sources in the world. In the
1990s, a ‘wave’ of Korean movies and music started to spread to other countries and develop its
popularity. This ‘wave’, which is called Hallyu (한류), literally means a ‘wave of Korea’, and
has thought to be a tsunami of Korean culture sweeping across different areas in the world
(Ganghariya & Kanozia, 2020). The impact which Hallyu has exerted is not on international
recreation only, but also on other aspects, namely, economy, tourism and the positive image that
Korea desires to show the world (Elaskary, 2018; Lee, 2020; Kim, 2014; Sung, 2010).

In Korea, entertainment is considered as an industry as it has thrived ceaselessly and flexibly

since its start. Consequently, Hallyu has evolved and transformed itself throughout time
according to the global trends. One of the prominent changes is how English is used in K-pop in
different periods of time.

As English is neither the primary nor second language in Korea, code-switching between English
and Korean is not too common and only occurs in some specific situations on a Korean’s daily
basis. However, as the Hallyu is not any regular daily situations, but instead, a cultural ‘flow’
which defines itself by both the nation’s rich culture and the dynamic trends of the world, code-
switching is viewed differently and has gained more and more popularity in the recent years.

BTS (or 방탄소년단) is a Korean boy band which consists of seven members, all of whom are
Korean. The septet was formed in 2010 and debuted in 2013. During nine years of their singing
career, BTS has accomplished different achievements involving their music and the positive
messages that the group desires to share with the world. In September 2021, BTS launched a
campaign called ‘Love Myself’ with UNICEF to promote self-love and end violence. From this
activity, they have gained more public recognition worldwide, and their music has evolved to be
more internationally accepted. In this analysis, code-switching will be studied in two specific
songs of the boy band BTS, which are ‘No more dream’ (2013) and ‘Yet to come’ (2022). By
analyzing the first and the latest songs of the same group:
 1. The differences and transformation in the way they code-switch between English and
Korean can be better understood.
2. The changes in the trends of utilizing CODE-SWITCHING in K-pop in a period of nine
years can be noticed.

LITERATURE REVIEW

When foreign languages become the indispensable communicative tool in the modern world, the
global citizens start to learn one or more languages besides their mother tongue. This
phenomenon is called ‘multilingualism’. The popularity of multilingualism equals the expansion
of code-switching. Code-switching occurs when the speakers decide to use two or more
languages alternatively in a conversation (Van Herk, 2012). As a conversation is being
conducted, if the speaker uses a certain language because it is more likely to fit the context of the
conversation, this code-switching is called ‘situational code-switching’. On the other hand, if
codes are used simultaneously to serve a certain social purpose, it is called ‘metaphorical code-
switching’. Even though there have been arguments going on about whether the speakers use
code-switching to cover their incompetence in their languages, this is not necessarily true. In
fact, speakers of two or more languages must be proficient at these languages in order to conduct
code-switching flexibly, because, according to Van Herk, the speakers must understand
thoroughly the meanings connotatively and denotatively in order to reach the final
communicative purpose (2012, p.131). There are three types of code-switching: tag-switching,
intra-sentential and inter-sentential. Tag-switching is the simplest. On the other hand, intra-
sentential and inter-sentential require more work to form and deal with. The former switches one
or more linguistic components as an insertion to the matrix language, while the latter changes to
another or other languages on the sentence level (Poplack, 1980).

English is among the most popular languages. It can be inferred that using a variety of languages
is one way to contribute to globalization (E. H. Kim, 2006). Therefore, implementing English
into daily life of the people, from education to cultural or entertaining activities is crucial to
encourage globalization. However, in Korea, English is not their second language though it is the
first foreign language that students have to study. According to Collins, using English in the
Korean society was viewed as a sign of revolution, accommodation, globalization, and anti-
Korean (2005). Nevertheless, this paper was published seventeen years ago, which might not be
applicable in this day and age, as there have been numerous changes going on. In fact,
globalization has lifted English to a higher status and improved its ubiquity in the Korean society
in different aspects.

Hallyu is known as a successful cultural phenomenon of Korea. According to Kim, Hallyu is

divided into four stages, from Hallyu 1.0 to 4.0, which are equivalent to the rise of K-drama, K-
pop, K-culture and K-style respectively (2015). In his article, he also analyzes the motivations
for Hallyu’s burgeoning, including: (1) Hard power – Korean competence in economy has
decided the success of its cultural technology industry; (2) Soft power – Korean culture’s
attractiveness has captivated the hearts of culture enthusiasts around the world and brought their
culture closer to the other cultures; (3) Criticism – It is believed that Hallyu can only be
successful under the condition that it is a ‘niche market’ under the lead of US cultural order.
Theory (2) is stressed by Kim as the primary force which has brought the affection of global
fans. They love the identity of these so-called ‘idols’, and expect themselves to somehow
‘imitate’ the identity of the Korean style (p. 158). This theory will be mainly focused in this
analysis as well. It is no exaggeration to say that the utilization of English in Korean shows or in
K-pop is one efficacious way to bridge the culture gap between fans and their idols.

Hence, code-switching between English and Korean, especially in Hallyu’s cultural products,
namely K-drama and K-pop, is a popular topic to be discussed these days:
According to Baratta’s paper about the relationship of code-switching between English
and Korean in Korean drama, a majority of Korean wish to learn and use English owing
to its high status as a foreign language (2014). This code-switching is believed to depict
one’s novelty and superiority. He also infers that the choice of code-switching usually
depends on how the character wants to reflect their identity of power and authority.
Generally, each language plays its role in a certain multilingual society in order to serve a
specific communicative purpose and portray a specific identity. In other words, the
languages do not contradict each other, but instead, complement each other so that the
final goal is reached.
As stated in a survey conducted by Octaviani and Yamin on the opinions of viewers of a
Korean program called ‘Immigrants’, K-pop idols using more English brings some
significant benefits (2020). Specifically, on this show, K-pop idols have to use English to
communicate with each other when they are in the middle of the interview. Viewers –
both fans and non-fans – opine that the better the singer’s English is, the smarter he or
she looks, which betters their public impression. Moreover, English – whether it is used
fully as a sentence or code-switch, is viewed as an effective communicative tool to help
idols publicize themselves globally.
Lawrence, in his rigorous study, analyzes three primary factors of code-switching in K-
pop: ‘Where’, ‘Why’, and ‘How’ (2010). He concludes that the position which code-
switching occurs the most is in the chorus, intro and title. He also notices one of the most
common causes for Korean pop songs to use code-switching is to convey explicit
messages which cannot be done in Korean due to the cultural conservatism of Korean.
Finally, to answer the question of ‘how’ is code-switching utilized in Korean pop songs,
Lawrence states that English is switched in an appropriate manner regarding both the
grammar of both languages, and the song’s rhythm.
Code-switching, in general, and in K-pop, in particular, has made numerous changes in the past
decade. Comparing Collin’s paper about English in Korea, which was conducted seventeen years
ago and Octaviani and Yamin’s analysis in 2020, there is a huge gap in people’s attitudes
towards the use of English mixed or switched with Korean.

BACKGROUND TO THE TEXTS

Both of the two songs chosen for this analysis are sung by the Korean band BTS. The reasons for
choosing these texts were mentioned above.
‘No more dream’ is the first song of BTS, which was released in June 2013, and was written by
the producer team and four members of the band. This song is to highlight the burdens that the
society and family are putting on young people’s shoulders, which slowly kills their dreams. The
message of the song is to embrace your dream and encourage the young people to do what they
love.
‘Yet to come’ is the latest song of BTS, which was released in June 2022 – exactly nine years
since their first song release. The song is also written by some members of the producer team and
the same members who wrote ‘No more dream’. The message of the song is to state that after all
things that have happened to them in the past years, they have changed and grown up, but what
remains in them is their passion for music, which is the force motivating them to work till now.
The target audience of both songs are quite similar: fans who have been with them since day one.
One difference is ‘Yet to come’ also targets wider range of audience, including global fans, as
they are now international stars.
Both of the songs’ lyrics have been translated into English and will be presented fully in the
analysis section.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF TEXTS

This analysis will study these certain aspects of code-switching based on some of the
aforementioned papers in the Literature review:
1. Based on Lawrence (2014), Baratta (2014), and Octaviani & Yamin (2020)’s papers,
the analysis discusses (a) where and (b) why code-switching is used in the two songs ‘No
more dream’ (2013) and 'Yet to come’ (2022).
2. Based on Van Herk’s paper (2012), the analysis discusses what types of code-
switching are used mostly in each song and in some specific instances.
The two songs in both English and Korean versions will be put side-by-side for better
comparison. The whole songs will be divided into nine sections (title, intro, verses 1-4, pre-
chorus, chorus, bridge and outro) and analyzed as sections individually, based on the two
primary aforesaid questions.

Both titles are in English and can deliver partly the meaning of the songs. English is used here to
encourage the audience to remember the songs’ names, as well as the message that they deliver.

Here, in the Intro, it is quite transparent to see that ‘Yet to come’ uses more English than Korean
(70% of the Intro is written in English), whereas ‘No more dream’ uses Korean as their primary
language here (100%).
All of the code-switched sentences in ‘Yet to come’ are categorized as inter-sentential code-
switching as they occur beyond the sentence boundary. English is used more here, which might
be related to the chorus and the song title. These sentences are later repeated in the chorus as the
key message which opens the theme of the song; therefore, they are constantly repeated as a way
to engrave the audience these words in their memory. Regarding the difficulty of the structures,
the Korean sentences convey more complex meanings than those in English, which makes it
more arduous to translate them

Regarding ‘No more dream’, code-switching occurs more often and in different positions of the
sentence. To be exact, code-switching only takes place in the first two sentences of Verse 1.
 The first line of Verse 1 is classified as inter-sentential code-switching. Both of the
English structure and vocabulary are simple, which can ensure the majority of their main
audience who are Koreans can clearly understand them.
 The second line of Verse 2 is intra-sentential as code-switching occurs in the middle of
the sentence. This sentence is a little different compared to the others, as English is
considered to be the matrix language here. The whole sentence is using English as their
dominant language here, with only one utterance of Korean, which is ‘사실은’. Korean is
switched back and forth pretty accurately in terms of grammar in this this case, as ‘
사실은’ is an adverb, and it is also used as a sense of an adverb to replace the word
‘honestly’ or ‘actually’ in English in this sentence. Moreover, ‘사실은’ is a common
phrase used in daily conversations of the Koreans. Hence, altering the English word with
this Korean phrase can familiarize the English sentence without changing its meaning.
On the other hand, code-switching in Verse 1 of ‘Yet to come’ is simpler.
 The word ‘names’ is inserted at the end of third sentence. Comparing the Korean and
the English versions of the songs, it is transparent that the meaning of the songs is not
 changed at all with this switch. In other words, this intra-sentential code-switching is only
to switch the word ‘names’ in Korean into English. The possible cause behind this is to
keep the rhythm of the song, as in Korean, the word ‘names’ is ‘이름들’, which is three
syllabled, while ‘names’ in English only has one syllable.
 The last sentence of Verse 1 is an inter-sentential code-switch. This sentence is
properly structured with the correct use of different grammar points. Furthermore, the
meaning of this sentence is also connected with the two previous ones, which are used in
the Past and Present Continuous tenses in Korean.

In ‘No more dream’, there is only one utterance which is code-switched (‘I gotta say’). This
utterance happens at the end of the sentence and does not change the meaning of the whole
sentence, as the speaker is only trying to mix the English code with the Korean sentence. As this
is within the sentence boundary, this code-switching is considered as intra-sentential code-
switching.
On the other hand, another inter-sentential code-switching is utilized in ‘Yet to come’. The
whole last sentence is switched into English, as a complete and grammatically correct sentence
which repeats the Intro and Title.
In this part of the lyric, ‘No more dream’ only uses intra-sentential code-switching. To be exact,
only vocables – words that does not convey meanings but rather focus on forms – are used.
These utterances include: ‘boy’, ‘stop’.
‘Yet to come’, in contrast, have both intra-sentential and inter-sentential code-switching. In the
fifth sentence, inter-sentential code-switching is used with a vocable (‘yeah’) at the end. This
sentence is ‘You’ll say it’s all a lie’ and it is quite easy to translate and understand. Besides this,
on the seventh line, an intra-sentential code-switch is used. The phrase ‘a new chapter’ is mixed
in this sentence with the purpose of opening a new idea for the audience. This phrase connects
the idea of the previous sentence, which is in the Past and Present tenses with the concept of the
future (‘a new chapter’). Another vocable is also used at the end of Verse 2 (‘huh’) to add
rhythm to the song.
In verse 3 of ‘No more dream’, there are only two instances where code-switching is used. Both
of these are intra-sentential code-switching. Similar to how other intra-sentential code-switching
is used in the previous parts, the phrase ‘same day’ in the first sentence is grammatically correct
and altered its equivalence in Korean. However, the second utterance of code-switching in this
part of ‘No more dream’, which is the word ‘profile’, does not actually carry any specific
meanings. This might be explained that the writer want to rhyme ‘profile’ with the Korean words
before that (‘물어봐’).
In ‘Yet to come’, code-switching is mainly located at the beginning of the sentences, with one
utterance constantly repeats itself: ‘We ain’t about it’. This code-switching is used like a formula
of ‘We ain’t about it’ + a Korean / an English noun or noun phrase. The eighth sentence of this
part is inter-sentential code-switching with the latter of the aforementioned formula is fully in
English. The last sentence is a mix between English code, Korean code and English code. In this
instance, the phrase ‘We ain’t about it’ is changed to ‘We so about it’ to emphasize the contrast
between what is and is not their true aim. The in-between Korean code is more complex in both
meaning and form compared to the two English codes at the two ends. The English code at the
end is used to stress the idea which is already mentioned in the Korean code again.
Regarding the chorus of ‘No more dream’, two utterances are recorded as code-switching. The
first one occurs at the end of the first sentence: ‘You such a liar’. This is not grammatically
correct due to the lack of verb in the sentence; however, considering its meaning, it has
succeeded in conveying the message. Half of the first sentence, which is in Korean, is about a lie,
and the second half delivers the similar meaning (‘liar’). The second sentence contains another
code-switch (‘see me see me, ya’), but this one does not have any meanings. Again, this instance
is similar to the one in verse 4 of the same song, where code-switching occurs to help rhyme the
words only. ‘Lalalalala’ can be viewed as vocables.
The chorus of ‘Yet to come’, on the other hand, contains more meaningful and more than one
type of code-switching. The majority of code-switching instances repeat the Intro and the title.
The fifth sentence of this part use some nonstandard forms of some English words, such as
‘gonna’ and ‘‘fore’, this is also a full sentence with almost accurate grammar. The last sentence,
once again, is a mix of English, Korean and English codes, with the first utterance is simply a
vocable, the second part is a more complex Korean code, and the last part, which is in English,
repeats the main meaning of the Korean code.
As there is no bridge in ‘Yet to come’, only the bridge of ‘No more dream’ is analyzed.
Throughout this part, there is only one utterance where code-switching occurs. At the end of the
bridge, ‘wassup’ is mixed in without changing the meaning of the whole part. In fact, in the
song, it is only sung softly to keep the rhythm of the song.

There is only one sentence in the outro of ‘No more dream’, and it is also code-switched to
English. This inter-sentential code-switching is like the final message for the young people. One
possible reason for this sentence to be switched to the English code is because the writer wants to
highlights that this song is for all the young people who do not have their own dreams yet,
regardless of their nationalities.
The last part of ‘Yet to come’ is written mostly in English. The outro repeats most of the intro
and the chorus, with only a few more additional sentences mixed with the Korean utterances.
The outro is opened with a yes-no question, and in the middle of the outro, the answer is well
stated together with some more details: ‘Yeah, the past was honestly the best, but my best is what
comes next. We’ll be singin’ till the morn’. All of the code-switching utterances are all inter-
sentential. Moreover, the structures have become more complex and the final message has also
been delivered in a more graceful way. At the end of the song, the title is once again repeated in
English.

All in all, based on the nine analyses of the two songs of BTS, it can be seen that more English
with more complex structures and meanings have been introduced in ‘Yet to come’, compared to
the simple structures, words or phrases and vocables inserted within the sentence boundary in
‘No more dream’. The analysis also records the types of code-switching used in the songs. It is
noticeable that ‘Yet to come’ utilizes more types of code-switching and the writers also use these
utterances in an appropriate way to deliver the meaning of the song, whereas in ‘No more
dream’, there are still meaningless utterances which are used to add rhythm to the song only and
most of the code-switching utterances are intra-sentential ones.
CONCLUSION

Overall, both music and language are living concepts: they change over time. Language is a
powerful communicative tool used for different purposes, and one of which is to connect people
together. With the comparison of the two K-pop songs of the same artist in two different stages:
at the beginning and at the most recent time of their career (2013 and 2022), it is apparent to see
the differences between the use of code-switching of English and Korean between these two
stages to serve different purposes. South Korean is an Asian country, and this accounts for their
conservatism culture, which greatly affects how the Korean interacts with other cultures and
languages in the beginning phase of Hallyu; however, with the globalization trends, it is
impossible for them to maintain the same old way. Hence, a growth in the use of English as a
global language has been witnessed in K-pop songs in general and in the two studied songs of
BTS in particular. This is especially true, considering BTS’s role as the role models of the
younger generation worldwide; their songs are not only appreciated by domestic fans but also
their international ones. In other words, the use of English in Korean songs and movies which
was once viewed as ‘anti-Korean’ (Collins, 2005), is now believed to be an effective
communicative tool (Octaviani & Yamin, 2020), and an efficient use of soft power (Kim, 2015)
for better public promotion.
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