This article is a description of the
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
,
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
, and
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy
Philosophy (f ...
of
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
. For phonetics and phonology, see
Korean phonology
This article is a technical description of the phonetics and phonology of Korean. Unless otherwise noted, statements in this article refer to South Korean standard language based on the Seoul dialect.
Morphophonemes are written inside doubl ...
. See also
Korean honorifics
The Korean language has a system of honorifics that recognizes and reflects the hierarchical social status of participants with respect to the subject and/or the object and/or the audience. Speakers use honorifics to indicate their social rel ...
, which play a large role in the grammar.
Note on romanization
This article uses a form of
Yale romanization to illustrate the morphology of Korean words. The Yale system is different from the
Revised Romanization of Korean
Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Min ...
seen with place names.
Under the version of Yale used here, morphemes are written according to their
underlying form
In some models of phonology as well as morphophonology in the field of linguistics, the underlying representation (UR) or underlying form (UF) of a word or morpheme is the abstract form that a word or morpheme is postulated to have before any phono ...
rather than their spelling in the
Korean writing system
Korean (South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographically Ko ...
or
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
. Under this system, for example, the syllable which is written in Korean as is analyzed as ess even though the ss would be pronounced ''t'' before another consonant. To avoid confusion, bold type will represent the morphology (in Yale), and ''italics'' will represent Revised Romanization.
Classification of words
The modern standard of word classification and the one taught in public schools was chosen by
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
's 1963 Committee on Education. This is the ''9 pumsa'' () system, which divides words into nine categories called ''pumsa''.
The 품사(品詞) ''pumsa'', also called 씨 ''ssi'', are themselves grouped together according to the following outline.
*
Content word Content words, in linguistics, are words that possess semantic content and contribute to the meaning of the sentence in which they occur. In a traditional approach, nouns were said to name objects and other entities, lexical verbs to indicate acti ...
s
**
Substantives
***(名詞) ''myeongsa'' / ''ireumssi'' (
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s)
***(代名詞) ''daemyeongsa'' / ''dae-ireumssi'' (
pronouns
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts o ...
)
***(數詞) ''susa'' / ''semssi'' (
number words)
**
Verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s (broadly speaking)
***(動詞) ''dongsa'' / ''umjikssi'' (action verbs)
***(形容詞) ''hyeongyongsa'' / ''geurimssi'' (descriptive verbs or
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
s)
**
Modifier
Modifier may refer to:
* Grammatical modifier, a word that modifies the meaning of another word or limits its meaning
** Compound modifier, two or more words that modify a noun
** Dangling modifier, a word or phrase that modifies a clause in an am ...
s
***(冠形詞) ''gwanhyeongsa'' / ''maegimssi'' (determiners, prenouns, or indeclinable adjectives)
***(副詞) ''busa'' / ''eojjissi'' (
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s)
**Other content words
***(感歎詞) ''gamtansa'' / ''neukkimssi'' (
interjection
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...
s or exclamations)
*
Function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
s
**(助詞) ''josa'' / ''tossi'' (
particle
In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...
s or postpositions)
Both
cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
and
ordinal numbers are grouped into their own part of speech. Descriptive verbs and action verbs are classified separately despite sharing essentially the same
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
* Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
* Complex conjugation, the chang ...
. Verb endings constitute a large and rich class of morphemes, indicating such things in a sentence as
tense,
mood,
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
,
speech level (of which there are 7 in Korean), and
honorifics
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), ho ...
. Prefixes and suffixes are numerous, partly because Korean is an
agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remain ...
.
There are also various other important classes of words and
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
s that are not generally classified among the ''pumsa''. 5 other major classes of words or morphemes are:
*(語尾) ''eomi'' (
verb ending
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
s)
*(指示語) ''jisieo'' / (
demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
s)
*(接續語) ''jeopsogeo'' (
conjunction
Conjunction may refer to:
* Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech
* Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator
** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic
* Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...
s)
*(接頭語) ''jeopdueo'' (
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
es)
*(接尾語) ''jeommieo'' (
suffixes
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the Stem (linguistics), stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the Grammatical conjugation ...
)
Substantives
Postpositions
, ''josa'' (also called ''tossi'') are Korean
postposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s, also known as
case markers. Examples include (''neun'', topic marker) and (''reul'', object marker). Postpositions come after substantives and are used to indicate the role (
subject,
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
,
complement
A complement is something that completes something else.
Complement may refer specifically to:
The arts
* Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave
** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...
, or
topic
Topic, topics, TOPIC, topical, or topicality may refer to:
Topic / Topics
* Topić, a Slavic surname
* ''Topics'' (Aristotle), a work by Aristotle
* Topic (chocolate bar), a brand of confectionery bar
* Topic (DJ), German musician
* Topic (g ...
) of a noun in a
sentence or
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
. For a larger list, see
wikt:Korean particles.
Case clitics
Case clitics ( ''gyeok-josa'') are
clitics that mark the grammatical function of the word. Both nouns and pronouns take case
clitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
s. Pronouns are somewhat irregular. As with many clitics and suffixes in Korean, for many case clitics different forms are used with nouns ending in consonants and nouns ending in vowels. The most extreme example of this is in the nominative (subject), where the historical clitic ''i'' is now restricted to appearing after consonants, and a completely unrelated (
suppletive In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even ...
) form ''ga'' appears after vowels.
*
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
– ''i/ga'' for the subject, ''kkeseo'' for the subject who is respected
*
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
– ''ui''
*
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
– ''e'' "to" place or "in" place (e.g. "go to the hospital" or "I am in the hospital")
:*
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
2 – ''eseo'' "at" place or "from" place (e.g. "I work at the hospital" or "I came from Korea")
:*
dative
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
– ''ege'' "to" someone, ''hante'' "to" someone in a casual manner, ''kke'' "to" someone who is respected
:*
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...
– ''egeseo'' "from" someone, ''hanteseo'' "from" someone in a casual manner
*
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
– ''eul/reul'' for the direct object
*
lative – ''ro/euro'' "onto" something or "with" something (e.g. "it is moving toward the city" or "I wrote with a pen")
:*
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
– ''rosseo/eurosseo'' "with" something
:*
essive
In grammar, the essive case, or similaris case, (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case.O'Grady, William, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, and Janie Rees-Miller. "Morphology: The Analysis of Word Structure." Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. 6th ...
– ''roseo/euroseo'' being "as" something (e.g. "as a teacher, I will help you")
:*
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...
2 – ''robuteo/eurobuteo'' something "from" source or origin (e.g. "modern cars are developed from carriages")
*
comitative
In grammar, the comitative case (; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role (other uses of "with", l ...
– ''wa/gwa'', ''rang/irang'', ''hago'' together "with" someone or something
*
vocative
In grammar, the vocative Grammatical case, case (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ...
– ''a/ya'', ''yeo/iyeo'' "hey" someone being addressed
Informational clitics
Informational clitics ( ''bo-josa'') provide additional meanings to the words that they attach to. They may override the case clitics, or be placed after other clitics.
* The topic and additive markers mark the noun phrase with case markers. They override the nominative and accusative case markers rather than being attached after those case markers.
Nouns
Korean nouns ''myeongsa'' (also called ''ireumssi'') do not have
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
, and though they can be made
plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
by adding the suffix ''deul'' to the end of the word, in general the suffix is not used when the plurality of the noun is clear from context. For example, while the English sentence "there are three apples" would use the plural "apples" instead of the singular "apple", the Korean sentence ''Sagwaga se gae itseumnida'' "(lit.) apple three(things) exist" keeps the word ''sagwa'' "apple" in its unmarked form, as the numeral makes the plural marker redundant. As Korean is a language with no grammatical gender, nouns do not have to agree with verbs.
The only agreement needed for Korean nouns would be the object and subject particles (이/가, 을/를, 은/는) added depending on if the noun ends in a vowel or consonant.
The most basic, fundamental Korean vocabulary is native to the Korean language, e.g. ''nara'' "country", ''nal'' "day". However, a large body of Korean
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s stem from the
Korean pronunciation of
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
e.g. ''san'' "mountain", ''yeok'' "station", ''munhwa'' "culture", etc. Many
Sino-Korean words have native Korean equivalents and vice versa, but not all. The choice of whether to use a Sino-Korean noun or a native Korean word is a delicate one, with the Sino-Korean alternative often sounding more profound or refined. It is in much the same way that Latin- or French-derived words in English are used in higher-level vocabulary sets (e.g. the sciences), thus sounding more refined – for example, the native Germanic "ask" versus Romance "inquire".
Pronouns
Korean pronouns ''daemyeongsa'' (also called ''dae-ireumssi'') are highly influenced by the honorifics in the language. Pronouns change forms depending on the social status of the person or persons spoken to, e.g. for the first person singular pronoun "I" there are both the informal ''na'' and the honorific/humble ''jeo''. In general, second-person singular pronouns are avoided, especially when using honorific forms. Third-person pronouns are not well developed, and in most cases, a demonstrative ''geu'' "that" in combination with a noun such as ''saram'' "person" or ''geot'' "thing" is used to fill the gap. Also, only for translation and creative writing, a newly coined term, ''geu-nyeo'' (literally, "that woman"), is used aphoristically to refer to a female third person. A gender-neutral third person is covered by the demonstrative ''geu'' (originally "that"). For a larger list of Korean pronouns, see
wikt:Korean pronouns.
Numerals
Korean
numerals ''susa'' (also called ''semssi'') include two regularly used sets: a native Korean set and a
Sino-Korean set. The Sino-Korean system is nearly entirely based on the
Chinese numerals
Chinese numerals are words and characters used to denote numbers in Chinese.
Today, speakers of Chinese use three written numeral systems: the system of Arabic numerals used worldwide, and two indigenous systems. The more familiar indigenous sy ...
. The distinction between the two numeral systems is very important. Everything that can be counted will use one of the two systems, but seldom both. The grouping of large numbers in Korean follows the Chinese tradition of
myriad
A myriad (from Ancient Greek grc, μυριάς, translit=myrias, label=none) is technically the number 10,000 (ten thousand); in that sense, the term is used in English almost exclusively for literal translations from Greek, Latin or Sinospher ...
s (10,000) rather than thousands (1,000) as is common in Europe and North America.
Verbs (broadly speaking)
Processual verbs
Korean ''dongsa'' (also called ''umjikssi'') which include ''sseuda'' "to use" and ''gada'' "to go", are usually called, simply, "verbs." However, they can also be called "action verbs" or "dynamic verbs," because they describe an action, process, or movement. This distinguishes them from ''hyeongyongsa''.
Korean verb conjugation depends upon the tense, aspect, mood, and the social relation between the speaker, the subject(s), and the listener(s). Different endings are used depending on the speaker's relation with their subject or audience. Politeness is a critical part of the Korean language and Korean culture; the correct verb ending must be chosen to indicate the proper degree of respect or familiarity for the situation.
Descriptive verbs
''hyeongyongsa'' (also called ''geurimssi''), sometimes translated as "adjectives" but also known as "descriptive verbs" or "stative verbs", are verbs such as ''yeppeuda'', "to be pretty" or ''bukda'', "to be red". English does not have an identical grammatical category, and the English translation of a Korean ''hyeongyongsa'' is usually a linking verb + an English adjective. However, some Korean words which do not match that formula, such as ''aswipda'', a transitive verb which means "to lack" or "to want for", are still considered ''hyeongyongsa'' in Korean because they match the conjugation pattern for adjectives. For a larger list, see
wikt:Korean adjectives.
Copulative and existential verbs
The predicate marker (i-ta, ''ida'', "to be"'')'' serves as the
copula, which links the subject with its complement, that is, the role 'to be' plays in English. For example, (Taynamwu-nun phwul-i-ta, ''Daenamuneun purida'', "A bamboo is a grass") When the complement, which is suffixed by i-ta, ends in a ''vowel'', i-ta contracts into -ta quite often as in following example, (Wuli-nun chinkwu-ta, ''Urineun chinguda,'' "We are friends.") The past tense of 이다 is 이었다 (i-ess-ta, ''ieotda'', "was"). However, if it is attached after a vowel, it is ''always'' contracted into 였다 (yess-ta, ''yeotda'', "was"). If not, it ''cannot'' be contracted.
To negate, a special adjective (ani-ta, ''anida'', "to not be") is used, being one of the two cases that take complement, the other being (toy-ta, ''doeda''). ''Two'' nouns take the nominative clitic (i/ka, ''i/ga'') before the negative copula; one is the subject, and the other is the complement. For instance, in (Taynamwu-nun namwu-ka ani-ta, ''Daenamuneun namuga anida'', "A bamboo is not a tree."), (taynamwu-nun, ''daenamuneun'') is the subject and (namwu-ka, ''namuga'') is the complement. The derived form (aniyo, ''aniyo'') is the word for "no" when answering a positive question.
and become (i-ya, ''iya''), often (ya, ''ya'') after a vowel and 아니야/아냐 (ani-ya/anya, ''aniya/anya'') at the end of the sentence in 해체 (''haeche'', "informal, non-polite speech level") form. In 해요체 (haeyoche. "informal, polite speech level") form, they become (i-ey-yo, ''ieyo''), often (yey-yo, ''yeyo'') after a vowel and 아니에요/아녜요 (ani-ey-yo/anyey-yo, ''anieyo/anyeyo'') as well as the less common forms (i-e-yo/ye-yo, ''ieoyo/yeoyo'') and 아니어요/아녀요 (ani-e-yo/anye-yo, ''anieoyo/anyeoyo'').
The copula is only for "to be" in the sense of "A is B". For existence, Korean uses the existential verbs (or adjectives) (iss-ta, ''itda'', "there is") and (eps-ta, ''eopda'', "there isn't"). The honorific existential verb for is (kyeysi-ta, ''gyesida'').
Supporting verbs/adjectives
Sometimes, just using an adverb is insufficient to express the exact meaning the speaker has in mind. The composition of a main verb (or adjective) and a supporting verb (or adjective) can be used in this case, alongside some grammatical features. Suffixes including ''-a/eo'', ''-ge'', ''-ji'', and ''-go'' are taken by the main verb (or adjective), and the supporting verb (or a.) follows it and is ''conjugated''.
=Examples using ''-eo/a''
=
* ''-a/eo gada/oda'': to continue to do, while getting away/closer
* ''-a/eo beolida'': to end up doing (and I feel sad, or distressed, to see the result)
* ''-a/eo boda'': to try doing
* ''-a/eo jida'' (''written without a space''): to be done; to become adj.
* ''-a/eo hada'' (''written without a space''): to feel adj.
=Examples using ''-ge''
=
* ''-ge doeda'': to be done; to end up doing
* ''-ge hada'': to make sb do
=Examples using ''-ji''
=
* ''-ji anta'', ( ''-ji anihada'', ''-janhda''): not to do; not to be adj.
* ''-ji malda'': not to do (in imperative, e.g. "Don't do that!")
* ''-ji motada'': to be unable to do
=Examples using ''-go''
=
* ''-go boda'': to do before realizing sth
* ''-go sipda'': to want to do
* ''-go itda'': to be doing
=Examples using other suffixes
=
* ''-eoya hada/doeda'': to have to do
* ''-ado doeda'': to be permitted to do
* ''-(eu)myeon hada'': to hope to do
* ''-(eu)myeon doeda'': to be okay or desirable to do
Modifiers
Determinatives
Korean ''gwanhyeongsa'' (also called ''maegimssi'') are known in English as "determiners," "determinatives," "pre-nouns," "adnouns," "attributives," "unconjugated adjectives," and "indeclinable adjectives." ''Gwanhyeongsa'' come before and modify or specify nouns, much like
attributive adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...
s or
articles
Article often refers to:
* Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness
* Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication
Article may also refer to:
G ...
in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. Examples include ''gak'', "each." Determiners also negate the use of pronouns in day to day sentences which also makes Korean a more ambiguous and context driven language.
For a larger list, see
wikt:Korean determiners.
Adverbs
Korean
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s ''busa'' (also called ''eojjissi'') include ''tto'' "again" and ''gadeuk'' "fully". ''Busa'', like adverbs in English, modifies verbs. For a larger list, see
wikt:Korean adverbs.
Other content words
Exclamations
Korean
interjection
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...
s ''gamtansa'' (also called ''neukkimssi'') as are also known in English as "exclamations". Examples include ''ani'' "not". For a larger list, see
wikt:Korean interjections.
Sentence structure
Korean is typical of languages with
verb-final word order, such as
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, in that most affixes are
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
es and clitics are
enclitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...
s,
modifiers
In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...
precede the words they modify, and most elements of a
phrase
In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
or
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
are optional.
Compound sentence
A compound sentence is a sentence where two or more independent clauses are equally connected. The verb endings used for connecting the clauses include ''-go'' "and", ''-(eu)myeo'' "and", ''-(eu)na'' "but", and ''-jiman'' "but".
* "The winter is now gone and the spring has come back, but the weather here still remained cold."
Complex sentence
A complex sentence is a sentence where one or more dependent clauses are subordinatedly connected to the independent clause. A lot of endings are used to indicate a wide variety of meanings, making the clause suffixed by one of them subordinate to the other clause. The difference from an adverb clause is not very apparent.
* "I was walking along the street when I suddenly stopped to look up at the sky; the moon was there which was truly beautiful."
Noun clauses
Followed by noun clause marker ''-(eu)m'' or ''-gi'', a sentence can serve as a noun. The markers are attached to the last verb of the sentence. For example, if you want to include a sentence (Ku-ka kapcaki ttena-ss-ta., ''Geuga gapjagi tteonatda.'', "He left all of a sudden.") into another sentence (''Mwuenka''-lul chinkwu-ka na-eykey ally-e cwu-e-ss-ta., ''Mueongareul chinguga na-ege allyeo jueotda.'', "My friend informed me of ''something''."), then the verb (ttena-ss-ta, ''tteonatda'') combines with (-(u)m, ''-(eu)m'') to make a noun clause (ttena-ss-um, ''tteonasseum''): the resulting sentence is (''Ku-ka kapcaki ttena-ss-um''-ul chinkwu-ka na-eykey ally-e cwu-e-ss-ta., ''Geuga gapjagi tteonasseumeul chinguga na-ege allyeo jueotda.'', "My friend informed me ''that he left all of a sudden''.").
Note that ''-(eu)m'' is used in more formal settings, meanwhile ''-gi'' is used casually.
* "I didn't know that he was already dead."
* "That she is the criminal is clear."
* "I don't feel like working."
* "vegetables chopped for the convenience of eating"
Adjective clauses
This is the most widely used subordinate clause, even substituting the aforementioned noun clause by taking part in the form ''-neun geot'' "the thing which". ''-neun'' marks the present tense, ''-(eu)l'' stands for the future tense, and ''-(eu)n'' and ''-deon'' are for the past tense, though ''-(eu)l'' also acts without meaning any tense as in (''-l ttae'' "when"). ''See
Korean verbs
Verbs in the Korean language come in last place in a clause. Verbs are the most complex part of speech, and a properly conjugated verb may stand on its own as a complete sentence. This article uses the Yale romanization in bold to show morphology ...
''.
* ? "Do you remember where we had chicken when we were in Seoul?"
* "My homeland where I lived was a mountain town in which flowers bloomed."
Accompanied by several ''dependent nouns'', adjective clauses can comprise idiomatic expressions, such as ''-l kkeos-ida'' for the future conjugation, ''-l kkeot gatda'', "I suppose...", ''-l ssu(ga) itda/eopda'' "It is possible/impossible...", ''-l liga eopda'' "It makes no sense that..."
* 것이다. "He has never been late so far. Today, as usual, he'll be on time."
Adverb clauses
Endings like ''-i'', ''-ge'', ''-dorok'', and so forth derive adverbial clauses. ''-i'' is not commonly used in making ''clauses'' except for ''eops-i'' "without"; ''-ge'' is in common use in this sense instead.
* "He looked at me without a word."
* "Please bring a cup for me; I need some water."
* "children playing with fun"
* "See gold as if seeing a stone."
A lot of caution is needed when faced with ''-ge hada'' and ''-ge doeda'', which may mean just "do -ly" and "become sth -ly", but also can make causative and passive verbs, respectively, which consist of main and supportive verbs.
* (causative) ↔ (adverbial; causative if intended)
* (passive) ↔ (adverbial; passive if intended)
Verbal clauses
Usually in the form , the whole clause serves as one adjective predicate. Just look at the examples.
* "A rabbit has big ears and a giraffe has a long neck.", or word-for-word, "A rabbit is big-eared, and a giraffe is long-necked."
* "Instant ramen is cheap and tasty but not healthy."
* "I like pears, but my friend appeared with apples."
It is also important to note that with this examples, the dictionary form of verbs are being used. When speaking to another person, take note of the language's honor system in order to show respect and use the correct verb forms. There is an honorification agreement with Korean's syntax system that must always be in mind when speaking to another.
Quotation clauses
Although the example above might be used in a novel, it is unbearably awkward to say in more-general situations. Quotation clauses as in (direct quotation) or in (indirect quotation) are used instead. The particle ''(i)rago'' is for direct quotation, and the verb endings like ''-dago'', ''-(neu)nyago'', ''-rago'', and ''-jago'' are used for indirect quotation, for declarative, interrogative, imperative, and suggesting sentences respectively. Exceptionally, sentences employing a verbal particle ''ida'' and an adjective ''anida'' are suffixed with ''-rago'' in place of ''-dago'' for declarative ones.
* "What?" or "What did you say?"
* "The police announced that they are investigating the details."
The last syllable ''-go'' is often dropped. Furthermore, if the verb ''hada'' means 'to say' and is right next to the syllable ''-go'', then ''-go hada'' is abridged, becoming ''-da'', which of course can conjugate.
*
* "Do you remember what I said? You only got tired for nothing."
Subordinate clauses
Verbs can take
conjunctive suffixes. These suffixes make subordinate clauses.
One very common suffix, -ko ''-go,'' can be interpreted as a
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
if used by itself, or, with a subject of its own, as a subordinating conjunction. That is, mek.ko ''meokgo'' means approximately "eating," koki lul mek.ko ''gogireul meokgo'' means "eating meat," and nay ka koki lul mek.ko ''nae-ga gogi-reul meog-go'' means "I eat meat and..." or "My eating meat."
Another suffix, somewhat similar in meaning, is se ''-seo'' which is, however, attached to long stem of a verb. The long stem of a verb is the one that is formed by attaching - ''-eo''/''-a'' after a consonant.
Both sometimes called
gerund
In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiable ...
s, the verb form that ends in se and the one that ends in ''-ko'' juxtapose two actions, the action in the subclause and the action in the main clause. The difference between them is that with se the action in the subclause necessarily came first, while -ko conveys more of an unordered juxtaposition. se is frequently used to imply causation, and is used in many common expressions like manna se pan.kapsupnita ''Manna-seo bangapseumnida'' (literally, "Since I met you, I'm happy" -or- "Having met you, I'm happy"). If -ko was used instead, the meaning would be closer to "I meet you and I'm happy," that is, without any implied logical connection.
These are both subordinating conjunctive suffixes and cannot (in the more formal registers, at least) derive complete sentences of their own without the addition of a main verb, by default the verb iss . (''Nay ka koki lul mek.ko issta, naega gogireul meoggo issda'') therefore means "I am eating meat." The difference between this and the simple sentence (nay ka koki lul meknun ta, ''naega gogileul meogneunda'', "I eat meat") is similar to the difference in Spanish between "Estoy almorzando" and "
Almuerzo," in that the compound form emphasizes the
continuity of the action. The -se form is used with the existential verb iss for the
perfect. (Mwuni yellye issta, ''mun-i yeollyeo issda'', "the door has been opened") can be the example, although it would convey different meaning if the very syllable se were visible, 'because the door is opened, it exist', meaning of which is not clear, though.
Questions
Questions in Korean are formed using interrogatory verb endings such as ''-(seu)mnikka''. The verb ending usage varies according to the
speech level.
Imperatives
Imperatives in Korean are formed using imperative verb endings such as ''-(eu)sipsio''. The verb ending usage varies according to the
speech level.
Suggestions
Suggestions in Korean are formed using suggestion verb endings such as ''-(eu)psida''. The verb ending usage varies according to the
speech level.
Exclamations
Exclamations in Korean are formed using exclamatory verb endings such as ''-guna''. The verb ending usage varies according to the
speech level.
Negation
The negation in Korean can be expressed in the following three forms.
* Negation using ''an'', ''ani'', ''-ji anta'', and ''-ji anihada''
** This form of negation signifies the absence of volition. It may imply that the agent did not act even though the situation allowed to do so.
* Negation using ''mot'' and ''-ji motada''
** This form of negation signifies the absence of ability. It may imply that the agent could not act even if the agent intended to do so.
* Negation using ''-ji malda''
** This form of negation is used for imperatives and suggestions.
In addition, the negation can be achieved through the use of verbs with negative meaning, such as ''anida'', ''eopda'', and ''moreuda''.
Tense and aspect
The
tense and
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
can be expressed using a variety of non-terminal suffixes and special constructions. The tense is expressed differently when the verb is used at the end of the sentence and when it is used to modify other phrases.
In addition, the progressive aspect can be expressed using ''-go itda'' and ''-(neu)n jung-ida'' forms for procedural verbs. The perfect aspect can be expressed using ''-a/eo itda'' form.
Number
Korean has
general number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...
. That is, a noun on its own is neither
singular
Singular may refer to:
* Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms
* Singular homology
* SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS)
* Singular or sounder, a group of boar, ...
nor
plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
. It also has an optional plural marker - ''-deul'', which is most likely to be used for
definite
In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...
and highly
animate
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
nouns (primarily first- and second-person pronouns, to a lesser extent nouns and third-person pronouns referring to humans, etc.) This is similar to several other languages with optional number, such as Japanese.
However, Korean ''-deul'' may also be found on the predicate, on the verb, object of the verb, or modifier of the object, in which case it forces a
distributive plural
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...
reading (as opposed to a
collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...
reading) and indicates that the word is attached to expresses new information.
For instance:
In this case, the information that the subject is plural is expressed.
To add a distributive meaning on a numeral, ''ssik'' is used.
Now "balloon" is specified as a distributive plural.
Subject–verb agreement
While it is usually stated that Korean does not have
subject–verb agreement, the conjugated verbs do, in fact, show agreement with the logical subject (not necessarily the grammatical subject) in several ways. However, agreement in Korean usually only narrows down the range of subjects. Personal agreement is shown partly on the verb stem before the
tense-aspect-mood suffixes, and partly on the sentence-final endings.
Korean distinguishes:
*
Honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
subjects from non-honorific subjects in the second or third person via a verb suffix. See
Korean honorifics
The Korean language has a system of honorifics that recognizes and reflects the hierarchical social status of participants with respect to the subject and/or the object and/or the audience. Speakers use honorifics to indicate their social rel ...
.
*Korean distinguishes first person from non-first in emotion verbs, in that the form "" ''A dislikes B'' for example is hardly used for 3rd-person subjects in most registers, and only used inside questions in case of 2nd-person subjects. (A prominent exception is in novels or stories, where it is understood that the narrator is omniscient and can authoritatively describe what's going on inside A's mind.) On the contrary, the form "" can be used freely for 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-person subjects.
*first person from third person, partially, in the
future
The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
and the
past
The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience t ...
tense.
*inclusive first person from exclusive first person, and first person from third person, in the
jussive
The jussive (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood. The mood is similar to the ''cohortative'' mood, which typically a ...
mood
[ Pak, Miok et al. http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/portnerp/nsfsite/CSSP_handout.pdf "
What Korean Promissives tell us about Jussive Clause Type" ''Colloque de syntaxe et sémantique à Paris 2005'', retrieved on 3 December 2011]
Korean does not distinguish:
*singular from
plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
on the verb (though this is systematically marked on pronouns)
*second person from third person in statements
*second person from first person in questions
The following table is meant to indicate how the verb stem and/or the sentence ending can vary depending on the subject. The column labeled "jussive ending" contains the various
jussive
The jussive (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood. The mood is similar to the ''cohortative'' mood, which typically a ...
sentences endings in the
plain style.
Valency
Valency in Korean
* An intransitive verb, an adjective, or a noun plus the predicate particle 이다 ''-ida'' requests one argument, the subject, though it may be omitted.
*: "It is raining."
*: "The sky is blue."
*: "It is morning now."
* A transitive verb needs two arguments; one is the subjects, and the other can either be an object, a complement, or an essential adverb.
*: "A cat catches a mouse." (object)
*: "He came to me and became a flower." (adverb, then complement)
* A ditransitive verb carries three arguments, which always include an essential adverb.
*: "I got 3 boxes of kimchi from my mom."
*: "My brother told me "Everything's gonna be okay.""
See also
*
Korean postpositions
*
High-context and low-context cultures
In anthropology, high-context culture and low-context culture are ends of a continuum of how explicit the messages exchanged in a culture are and how important the context is in communication. The continuum pictures how people communicate with ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korean Grammar