![Sample our Language & Literature journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5941/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Language-Literature.jpg"})
Abstract
The nominal group in Korean typically involves some combination of nouns (including common noun, proper noun, pronoun and bound noun), adjectives, numerals, determiners and clitics. In addition, the Korean nominal group has the potential to include embedded groups, embedded phrases and embedded clauses in its structure. These units realize a number of nominal group functions: Deictic, Epithet, Order, Thing; Qualifier, Orient; Quantity, Perspective and Function Marking. We begin by presenting nominal group systems and structures in three groups: first, systems that are realized by a word or word complex up to and including the Thing (i.e., classification, ordination, epithesis and deixis); second, systems that are realized by an embedded group, phrase or clause before the Thing (i.e., orientation and qualification); and third, systems that are realized after the Thing (i.e., quantification, perspectivisation and function marking). And we briefly consider the role played by nominal groups in clause structure, concentrating on transitivity, theme and participant deference. The question of the order of nominal group functions and the classes through which they are realized is then approached from a functional language typology perspective – highlighting the complementarity of ideational and textual specification.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 In some cases a speaker may need to draw on some of the nominal group resources outlined below to be specific about who he/she is addressing or referring to with a pronoun. Example (i) is a constructed example involving a sergeant calling upon a specific addressee among a group of trainee soldiers in a military camp; example (ii) comes from a pop song by Bae Il-ho.
2 With respect to the romanization in row 2, for this paper we use Revised Romanization of Korean (RRK) because it allows the reader an easier access to natural Korean pronunciation than the other existing systems such as the Yale system. It has an official status in the Republic of Korea; and it is useful for learners of Korean as a foreign language who visit Korea, where all the names of streets and places are romanized using this system.
3 We will not precisely follow the spacing conventions for Hangeul practiced in Korea in our examples since the boundaries between elements in our nominal group structure do not always coincide with the spaces required when writing in Hangeul. For instance, 전기자동차, jeongijadongcha ‘electric car’ is defined as one word in 표준국어대사전, pyojungugeodaesajeon ‘Standard Korean Language Dictionary’ by the National Institute of Korean Language (1999) and thus there would be no space between 전기, jeongi ‘electricity’ and 자동차, jadongcha ‘car’. In Example (3) however we align the Hangeul with our analysis.
4 Note that we will avoid using definite or indefinite articles (the/a) in our glossing when deixis is not specified in Korean nominal group examples.
5 We will abbreviate common noun as c. noun from this point in the paper.
6 For further discussion of this issue see the introduction to this special issue.
7 In [named] nominal groups the Thing can be realized by a word complex involving a specialized naming grammar (e.g., given name, family, name, title etc.); this structure is beyond the scope of this paper.
8 We have made the Thing an obligatory function because Korean prefers to deploy a bound noun rather than ellipsis when the Thing function is interpretable from the co-text or non-verbal context; in relation to (8) below, for example, ‘electricity car’ can be replaced with 것, geot or 거, geo when its reference is clear.
There are a handful of bound nouns that can be deployed for this purpose. 것, geot or 거, geo are used for non-humans. For humans, there are various possibilities – 분, bun is used towards a respected person, 사람, saram or 이, i towards any adult, and 아이, ai towards children. Bound nouns such as 자식, jasik or 놈 nom are derogatory terms.9 A group like 마지막 자동차, majimak jadongcha ‘last car’ would be a positional example.
10 The notation (으)ㄴ, (eu)n means that the suffix is either 은, eun after a consonant or ㄴ, n after a vowel.
11 In SFL the term Participant is used to refer to “agentive”, “affected” and “benefactive” arguments in the transitivity structure of a clause (Halliday Citation1985); they are complemented in this structure by Circumstances (of extent, location, manner, matter, role and so on).
12 Bound nouns are nominal elements which, unlike other nouns, cannot occur by themselves; they are dependent on an accompanying element of some kind (e.g., the head noun in 19 and 20). See Sohn (Citation1999, 205–6), Kim et al. (Citation2005, 354–67) for details.
13 Using the Orient function to realize pronominal possession clearly influences sequencing; alongside (24) note the following Orient Deictic Epithet Thing sequence: 너의 그 작은 어깨, neo ui geu jag-eun eokkae, ‘your (the) small shoulders’. See further our discussion of ideational and textual specification in Section 4 below.
14 These function marking clitics will be explained in Section 2.3.3. below.
15 Korean grammarians generally identify the embedded clause realizing the Qualifier function in our analysis as a 관계절 ‘relative clause’ (see in particular Lee and Chae (Citation2013, 386–7) and Kwon (Citation2012, 212–3)).
16 Lee and Chae (Citation2013, 141–2) classify Korean's approximately seventy unit nouns into six categories: (1) general – the use of 개, gae ‘item’, (2) clothing, (3) food, (4) housing, (5) reading and writing, and (6) machines and furniture.
17 Recall that we do not in fact recognize a Classifier function in our description, preferring to treat what other grammars analyze as Classifiern Thing structures as a Thing function realized by a word complex.
18 The first four cardinal numerals 하나, hana ‘one’, 둘, dul ‘two’, 셋, set ‘three’ and 넷, net ‘four’ become 한, han, 두, du, 세, se and 네, ne respectively when used with a bound noun indicating a measure unit.
19 In colloquial spoken Korean, where interlocutors share understandings and expectations based on shared experience and/or the language in action mode, this function is often elided.
20 In Korean school grammars, what we call clitics belong to a class labelled as 조사, josa, which literally means ‘assistance part of speech’; this term is commonly translated into English as “particle”, “postposition”, and so on. In this study, most of these ‘josa’ are called clitics because they are operating at group rank and realizing Function Marking or Linking functions. We reserve the term “particle” for those ‘josa’ operating at clause rank (for example the particle 요, yo, realizing the Politeness Marker function).
21 Participant deference in Korean has been discussed widely in the literature, often termed “subject honorification” for “agentive” Participants. The reader is referred to Sohn (Citation1999, 414–417) and the references cited therein. Deference marking for “benefactive” Participants is also possible (께, -kke).
22 Educated Korean speakers would be able to write such words in Chinese characters as well as Hangeul (e.g., 建物主 (Chinese characters) alongside 건물주 (Hangeul)).