Generally, nouns refer to a name of thing, place, person, quality or action. In Korean Hangul, nouns always associated as subject and/or object of verbs and/or adjectives (as being descriptive verbs).
Formation of Nouns
Korean nouns comprises of three components: native Korean words (about 35%); Sino-Korean words (about 60%); and loan/borrowed words (about 5%). Actually, Korean nouns in general can be consisted of either a single morpheme (as a significant unit) or multiple morphemes (combination of numerous single morphemes).
Single Morpheme Multiple Morpheme
화 “anger” 화산 “volcano” ( 화 “anger” + 산 “mountain”)
산 “mountain” 돼지고기 “pork” ( 돼지 “pig” +고기 “meat”)
돼지 “pig” 빵집 “bakery” ( 빵 “bread” + 집 “house”)
고기 “meat” 코피 “nosebleed” ( 코 “nose” + 피 “blood”)
Nouns with multiple morphemes are usually formed through either in a compound or derivational process. Compound nouns are consists of two or more independent morphemes which are divided into native and Sino-Korean compound nouns.
Native Compound nouns:
- noun + noun
여행가방 “luggage” = 여행 “travel” + 가방 “bag”
책방 “bookstore” = 책 “book” + 방 “room”
- adverb + noun
나쁜바람 “strong wind” = 나쁜 “bad” + 바람 “wind”
오늘밤 “tonight” = 오늘 “today” + 밤 “night”
- noun + verb + nominalizer
귀걸이 “earrings” = 귀 “ear” + 걸 “hang” + 이“act”
본보기 “model” = 본 “example” + 보 “look” + 기 “act”
- adjective + noun
앞머리 “bangs” = 앞 “front” + 머리 “hair”
찬물 “cold water” = 찬 “cold” + 물 “water”
- verb + noun
잠옷 “nightclothes” = 잠 “sleep” + 옷 “clothing”
Sino-Korean Compound nouns:
- Sino-Korean word + Sino-Korean word
부모 “parents” = 부 “father” + 모 “mother”
천지 “world” = 천 “sky” + 지 “earth”
On the other hand, nouns form from derivational process takes an affix (i.e., either a prefix or suffix) which usually appears in a noun and/or a predicate (i.e., verb and/or adjective).
Derivational Prefixes
- Native Korean prefix (e.g., 맏 “eldest”)
맏아들 “the eldest son” = 맏 “eldest” + 아들 “son”
맏딸 “the eldest daughter” = 맏 “eldest” + 딸 “daughter”
- Sino-Korean prefix (e.g., 신 “new”)
신학기 “new semester” = 신 “new” + 학기 “semester”
신인 “new comer” = 신 “new” + 인 “person”
Derivational Suffixes
- Native Korean suffix (e.g., 꾼 “doer”)
정사꾼 “businessman” = 정사 “business” + 꾼 “doer”
일꾼 “worker” = 일 “work” + 꾼 “doer”
- Sino-Korean suffix (e.g., 학 “study”)
한국학 “Korean studies” = 한국 “Korean” + 학 “study”
수학 “mathematics” = 수 “math” + 학 “study”
- Noun derived from verbs (e.g., 이/기 “act”)
벌이 “income” = 벌 “earn” + 이 “act”
먹기 “eating” = 먹 “eat” + 기 “act”
- Nouns derived from adjectives (e.g., 이/기 “quality”)
크기 “size” = 크 “big” + 기 “quality”
길이 “length” = 길 “long” + 이 “quality”
Thus, derivation is helpful to understand the development of a word into another word through an affix which carries an additional meaning.
Special Nouns
Korean Hangul has this group of special nouns that always appear before other nouns to modify or describe its following nouns. For an instance,
무슨 ㅒ기 “what kind of story”
이 꽃 “this flower”
그 아이 “that child”
어느 책 “which book”
These nouns (i.e., “what kind of”, “this”, “that”, “those” and “which”) are called in English as prenouns.
Meanwhile, there is another group of special nouns which is dependent to prenouns that cannot be used by themselves but always with those English demonstratives (e.g., “those”, “that” and so on). These special nouns are called bound nouns. Some instances of these nouns are the following,
그 분 “that person”
이 곳 “this place”
그 들 “those people”
저 것 “that thing”
The detailed discussion of these special nouns will be tackled in Unit 36.
Some Attributes of Korean Nouns
Marking Plurality
Korean has a suffix 들 used to mark the plurality of an item or a countable noun. In English, the noun must be attached with letter “s” in the end to indicate its plurality. However, Hangul is not very particular with respect to number since it does not have grammatical class for number. Hence, a 책 “book” can be translated in Korean as book, a book, some books, the book, the books and books. Though, the usage of –들 is not mandatory for marking plurality, thus its function is rather in highlighting the plurality of the noun.
Position of Nouns
Korean nouns could appear in a sentence in the following ways: [1] by itself, [2] before or with particles, [3] before another noun, and [4] before or with copula. Consider this following instance,
교수님, 스티브가 필리핀 대학생이에요.
“Professor, Steve is a Philippine university student.”
Notice that 교수님 “professor” appears by itself; 스티브 “Steve” appears with the subject particle 가 ; 필리핀 “Philippine” appears before another noun 대학생 “university student” ; 대학생 “university student” appears before the copula 이에요 (polite speech level).
The Korean copula in the aforementioned sentence is 이다. Korean copula is like be-verbs in English such as “is”, “are”, “am” and so on. Consequently, Korean nouns can serve as the predicate of the sentence with the copula. For instance,
재미가 의사이에요. “Jimmy is a doctor.”
의사이에요 “is a doctor” is the predicate of the said sentence. Meanwhile, the copula becomes remarkable since it attaches to a noun firmly as if it were a particle. For instance, notice that there is no space between 의사 and 이에요 in the sentence predicate.
Noun Usage with Verbs
There are nouns that people tend to use with certain verbs. For instance, the word “message” collocates with the verb “send” and “letter” collocates with the verb “write” in English. Even though the use of the verb is grammatically correct, the usage of noun with a verb that is not conventionally collocated (e.g., Carlo sends you a message vs. Carlo writes you a message) results in awkward setting. In similar principle, Korean nouns tend to collocate with certain verbs. Consider the following instances,
찰리가 야구를 놀아요. “Charlie plays baseball.” (X)
찰리가 야구를 해요. “Charlie plays (lit. does) baseball.” (O)
The verb 놀아요 literally means “play”, while 해요 means “do”. However, 야구 “baseball” does not collocate the verb 놀아요, but 해요. Furthermore, a different verb 쳐요 “play” or “hit” is used to collocate for playing musical instruments like guitar or piano instead of 놀아요 and 해요.
찰리가 기타를 놀아요. “Charlie plays guitar.” (X)
찰리가 기타를 해요. “Charlie plays (lit. does) guitar.” (X)
찰리가 기타를 쳐요. “Charlie plays (lit. plays/hits) guitar.” (O)
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