Korean A Linguistic Introduction

In this accessible survey, two leading specialists introduce a broad range of topics in Korean linguistics, including the general historical background of the language, its phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, and the interfaces between those areas. Expertly written and drawing on the authors' many years of experience, the book answers questions such as what languages is Korean related to, what is unique about the Korean sound system, and how are 'subject' and 'topic' distinguished in Korean. It guides the student through the major issues in Korean linguistics in a theory-neutral way, at the same time discussing the latest research on the language, and exploring its unique writing system, which has long been a topic of interest to linguists and to those interested in writing systems in general. It is the ideal introduction for students both at the beginning of their studies, and at a more advanced level.

1. Introduction; Part I. Background: 2. Historical background; 3. Writing system; Part II. Language Structure: 4. Phonology and phonetics; 5. Morphology; 6. Morphosyntax: case, grammatical relations and nominalization; 7. Syntax; 8. Syntax-semantics interface; Part III. Language in Context: 9. Language and society; 10. Language and gender.

Sungdai Cho is Professor of Korean Linguistics and Director of the Center for Korean Studies at the State University of New York, Binghamton. He is internationally renowned in Korean linguistics and its pedagogy, including his main research interest in Syntax, Morphology, Learning Motivation and Testing.
John Whitman is professor and current chair of the Department of Linguistics at Cornell University, New York. He has published extensively on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean – their history, relations, and structure. His theoretical foci are syntax and historical linguistics.