Book chapter
An Introduction to the Korean Language and the Special Status of the Korean Alphabet
Handbook on the Korean Language and Literacy: Insights into Hangul and Text Processing, pp.15-42
Springer, 1st
27/08/2025
Appears in Recent Faculty of Health Publications
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Abstract
This chapter reviews the main characteristics of both spoken and written Korean. It first discusses a long-lasting debate over the genetic affiliation of the Korean language, followed by the lexical and sentential idiosyncrasies of Korean. Various types of case markers are discussed, which are unique linguistic features and allow for flexible word order in the sentence. Also reviewed are head-final or verb-final characteristics, topic-prominance in the sentence, pronoun-dropping or null-subject/object language, bare nouns, verb-framed language, and honorifics. As for the written language, the Korean alphabet is discussed in terms of the segmental and syllabic features as well as the unit of spacing (EoJeol). The impact of Hangul’s script-specific characteristics on reading and writing is finally examined.
Details
- Title
- An Introduction to the Korean Language and the Special Status of the Korean Alphabet
- Creators
- Hye K. Pae - University of CincinnatiHeather Winskel - James Cook University SingaporeSay Young Kim - Hanyang University (Korea (Republic of), Seoul
- Contributors
- Hye K Pae (Editor) - University of CincinnatiHeather Winskel (Editor) - James Cook University SingaporeSay Young Kim (Editor) - Hanyang University (Korea (Republic of), Seoul
- Publication Details
- Handbook on the Korean Language and Literacy: Insights into Hangul and Text Processing, pp.15-42
- Publisher
- Springer; Cham
- Edition
- 1st
- Number of pages
- 28
- Identifiers
- 991013342290602368
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
- Academic Unit
- Human Sciences; Faculty of Health
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter