A Diachronic Study of the Image Construction of U.S. Forces Korea after the Cold War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61360/BoniGHSS262020180305Keywords:
U.S. Forces Korea, media image construction, systemic functional linguistics, transitivity, appraisal theoryAbstract
This study examines how U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has been represented in The Chosun Ilbo after the Cold War. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and Socio-Cognitive Discourse Analysis (SCDA), it develops a media image-construction framework that integrates transitivity analysis and appraisal theory. A corpus of 2,043 news reports published between 1992 and 2023 was constructed, and 742 reports were selected for clause-level annotation. The findings show that the image of USFK changed across seven interrelated dimensions: South Korean security, military deployment, stationing costs, regional peace, relations with the United States, military capability, and civil-military relations. USFK is repeatedly represented as both a stabilizing security force and a source of political, financial, and social tension. The reports construct this ambivalent image through material processes, elite quotation, relational attribution, mental-process representation, and explicit attitudinal evaluation. The study demonstrates the usefulness of corpus-assisted functional discourse analysis for examining the other-construction of overseas military forces.
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