Compounding in Korean
정원돈 · Studies in Linguistics · 2010
This paper deals with compounding in Korean. Compounds are regarded as the combinations of words. In Korean, however, a root or a stem can be involved in compounding formation. As in other languages, compounds in Korean have the binary structure and the head. Most compounds can be analyzed as the binary structure with hierarchy. The head in compounds occurs on the right-hand element. Compounds inherit most of syntactic and semantic information from the head. Moreover, the head determines the properties of compounds. Compounds in Korean are classified into a noun compound, a verb compound, an adverb compound, and a postposition compound. We can find a number of noun and verb compounds. But there are a small number of adverb and postposition compounds. We can divide compounds into sub-compound and co-compound in terms of the head relationship. It is difficult to distinguish compounds from phrases because they consist of words. In order to make a distinction between compound and phrase, we mention phonological, syntactic, and semantic criteria.