The first textbook to provide a student-friendly contrastive review of the grammars of English and Korean, authored by a leading field scholar

English and Korean in Contrast: A Linguistic Introduction provides a comprehensive yet accessible analysis of the main contrasts between Korean and English. Designed not only for English-language classrooms but also for Korean-language classrooms, this unique textbook describes and analyses the two languages at every level from sound, word, and grammar to figurative language and metaphors. Throughout the text, the author addresses common usage errors by learners of each language using an accessible descriptive-based approach that covers both core and peripheral phenomena of English and Korean.

Opening with an introduction to the fundamentals of linguistic differences, the textbook first describes key cultural and linguistic differences between English and Korean, offering insights into the major sources of difficulty in learning the two typologically unrelated languages. With an innovative approach to the comparative study of English and Korean linguistics, this textbook:

• Presents a systematic contrastive analysis of the linguistic structures of Korean and English
• Offers a useful introduction to linguistic concepts for speakers of English and Korean
• Covers a wide range of important linguistic aspects, including phrases, tense and aspect, auxiliary systems, questions, relative clauses, topic and focus constructions, and so forth.
• Identifies the major mistakes often made by L2 learners, invaluable for teaching and learning English and Korean
• Helps students apply contrastive knowledge of English and Korean to psycholinguistics, bilingualism, language acquisition, and other areas of applied linguistics

Written by an expert in English and Korean linguistics with experience teaching students in English- and Korean-language universities, English and Korean in Contrast: A Linguistic Introduction is an ideal undergraduate textbook for English-speaking students studying Korean language and linguistics, Korean-speaking students studying English language and linguistics, and instructors teaching linguistics and grammar courses in both languages.

Jong-Bok Kim is a Professor in the Department of English Linguistics and Literature at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. He is also a Visiting Research Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California-Davis, USA. His publications include Syntactic Constructions in English, The Syntactic Structure of Korean: A Construction Grammar Perspective, and numerous papers in top-tier domestic and international journals. He is also a winner of the Humboldt Research Award, an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Preface xiii

1 Linguistic differences: Where do they come from? 1

1.1 Linguistic differences 1

1.2 Cultural differences 3

1.3 Why contrastive analyses? 4

1.4 What this book is about 5

2 Sounds and writing systems: How to speak and write 9

2.1 Introduction 9

2.2 English sound system 10

2.2.1 English consonants 10

2.2.2 English vowels 12

2.3 Korean alphabet ‘Hangul’ and Romanization 13

2.4 Korean sound systems 15

2.4.1 Korean consonants 15

2.4.2 Korean vowels 17

2.5 Syllable structures 18

2.5.1 English syllable structures 18

2.5.2 Korean syllable structures 19

2.6 Suprasegmental features 20

2.6.1 English suprasegmental features 21

2.6.2 Korean suprasegmental features 22

2.7 Contrastive notes 22

2.7.1 Consonants 22

2.7.2 Different vowel sets 23

2.7.3 Syllable and consonant clusters 23

2.7.4 Stress vs. nonstress 24

2.8 Conclusion 24

3 Words: Where every sentence begins 29

3.1 Introduction 29

3.2 English parts of speech 29

3.2.1 Nouns 30

3.2.2 Verbs: Main and auxiliary verbs 30

3.2.3 Adjectives 32

3.2.4 Adverbs 32

3.2.5 Determiners 33

3.2.6 Prepositions 33

3.2.7 Particles 34

3.2.8 Conjunctions 35

3.2.9 Complementizers 36

3.3 Korean parts of speech 36

3.3.1 Nominal 37

3.3.2 Adnominal 40

3.3.3 Verbal: Adjective and verb together 42

3.3.4 Adverbial 45

3.4 Expanding verbals and nominals 46

3.4.1 Verbal and nominal derivations and inflections in English 46

3.4.2 Verbal inflections in Korean 46

3.4.3 Nominal expansion in Korean 50

3.5 Contrastive notes 51

3.5.1 Different sets of lexical categories 51

3.5.2 Simple vs. rich verbal inflection system 53

3.5.3 Simple vs. rich nominal inflections 53

3.6 Conclusion 53

4 Phrases: Combining words and building larger expressions 59

4.1 Introduction 59

4.2 Main phrases in English 60

4.2.1 NPs 60

4.2.2 VPs 61

4.2.3 APs 63

4.2.4 AdvPs 64

4.2.5 PPs 64

4.2.6 CPs and Subordinating S (Conj-S) 65

4.3 Phrases in Korean 66

4.3.1 Nominal Phrases 67

4.3.2 Verbal Phrases: Stative and non-stative VPs 71

4.3.3 Adverbial Phrases 75

4.4 Complex phrases: Expanding the size of phrases 76

4.5 Contrastive notes 77

4.5.1 NPs vs. Nominal Phrases 77

4.5.2 VPs and Verbal Phrases 77

4.5.3 Adnominal Phrases 78

4.5.4 Prepositions and case marking 78

4.6 Conclusion 79

5 Grammar rules: Constructing sentences 83

5.1 Form and function 83

5.2 Grammatical functions 83

5.3 Mapping between grammatical function and form 87

5.4 English grammar rules 89

5.4.1 Grammar rules for English 89

5.4.2 Licensing simple English sentences 92

5.5 Korean grammar rules 96

5.5.1 Grammar rules for Korean 96

5.5.2 Licensing simple Korean sentences 99

5.5.3 Grammar rule for auxiliary constructions 101

5.6 Contrastive notes 102

5.6.1 SVO vs. SOV 102

5.6.2 Head-initial vs. Head-final 103

5.6.3 Fixed vs. free word order 104

5.6.4 Pro-Drop languages 104

5.6.5 Complement omission 105

5.7 Conclusion 106

6 Tense and aspect: Describing when and how a situation happens 111

6.1 Ways to describe an event 111

6.2 How to describe an event in English 114

6.2.1 Tense and verb inflection form 114

6.2.2 Aspects: Ongoing and completion 117

6.2.3 Situation types 119

6.2.4 Sentence types and mood 120

6.3 How to describe an event in Korean 121

6.3.1 Tense in Korean 121

6.3.2 Aspect in Korean 126

6.3.3 Situation types in Korean 128

6.3.4 Sentence types and mood in Korean 130

6.4 Contrastive notes 131

6.4.1 Tense 131

6.4.2 Aspect 131

6.4.3 Sentence types and mood 132

6.5 Conclusion 132

7 Auxiliary systems: Helping main verbs 137

7.1 Introduction 137

7.2 English auxiliary system 137

7.2.1 Modals 139

7.2.2 Aspectual verbs: be and have 140

7.2.3 Periphrastic do 142

7.2.4 Infinitival clause marker to 143

7.2.5 Auxiliary and negation 144

7.3 Korean auxiliary system 145

7.3.1 Types of auxiliary verbs and morphosyntactic properties 145

7.3.2 Three possible structures 148

7.3.3 Complex predicate formation 149

7.3.4 Auxiliary and negation 154

7.4 Contrastive notes 156

7.4.1 Syntactic similarities and differences 156

7.4.2 Number of auxiliary verbs 157

7.4.3 Types of auxiliary verbs and expressing modality 158

7.5 Conclusion 158

8 Passive: Performing an action or being acted upon 163

8.1 Introduction 163

8.2 English passive constructions 164

8.2.1 Canonical passive 164

8.2.2 Prepositional passive 167

8.2.3 Semantic and pragmatic constraints 168

8.2.4 Adjectival and get-passive 169

8.3 Korean passive constructions 171

8.3.1 Lexical and syntactic passives 171

8.3.2 Typical Syntactic passives 174

8.3.3 Light-Verb pseudo syntactic passive 177

8.3.4 Inchoative and stative pseudo syntactic passive 181

8.4 Contrastive notes 182

8.4.1 Similarities 182

8.4.2 Structural differences 183

8.4.3 Non-canonical passives 183

8.5 Conclusion 184

9 Interrogative constructions: Asking a question 189

9.1 Clausal types and interrogatives 189

9.2 English interrogatives 190

9.2.1 Yes-No questions and answering system 190

9.2.2 Tag questions 193

9.2.3 Alternative questions 193

9.2.4 Direct wh-questions and syntactic structures 194

9.2.5 Indirect wh-questions 199

9.2.6 Infinitival wh-questions 201

9.2.7 Multiple wh-questions 201

9.3 Korean interrogatives 202

9.3.1 Yes-No question and response particles 202

9.3.2 Wh-questions 203

9.3.3 Indirect questions 208

9.3.4 Multiple wh-questions 210

9.3.5 Questions with a different illocutionary force 211

9.4 Contrastive notes 212

9.4.1 Polar questions and response particles 213

9.4.2 Wh-questions: in-situ or not 213

9.4.3 Interpreting wh-expression 214

9.5 Conclusion 214

10 Relative clauses: Building bigger nominal expressions 219

10.1 Modifying an NP in the postnominal position 219

10.2 Relative clauses in English 220

10.2.1 Wh-relative clauses 220

10.2.2 Wh- vs. that-relative clause 225

10.2.3 Reduced relative clause 226

10.2.4 Finite vs. infinitival relative clause 226

10.2.5 Restrictive vs. Non-restrictive relative clauses 227

10.3 Relative clauses in Korean 229

10.3.1 Complex NPs 229

10.3.2 Canonical relative clauses 231

10.3.3 Internally headed relative clause 234

10.3.4 Pseudo-relative clause 236

10.4 Contrastive notes 239

10.4.1 Relative pronoun or not 239

10.4.2 Types of relative clauses 239

10.4.3 Context-sensitive relative clauses 241

10.5 Conclusion 241

11 Topic and focus: Specifying given and new information 245

11.1 Introduction 245

11.2 Topic constructions in English 246

11.3 Topic constructions in Korean 249

11.3.1 General properties 249

11.3.2 Semantic/pragmatic classifications: Aboutness, contrastive, and scene-setting 250

11.3.3 Syntactic classifications and structures 252

11.4 Focus constructions in English 257

11.4.1 General properties 257

11.4.2 Cleft constructions in English and their syntactic structures 258

11.5 Focus constructions in Korean 262

11.5.1 General properties 262

11.5.2 Cleft constructions in Korean 264

11.5.3 Multiple nominative focus construction 268

11.6 Contrastive notes 271

11.6.1 Subject-prominent vs. topic prominent 271

11.6.2 Types of topic 271

11.6.3 Focus constructions: cleft and multiple nominative 272

11.7 Conclusion 273

12 Comparative constructions: Comparing two things and situations 277

12.1 Introduction 277

12.2 English comparatives 278

12.2.1 Clausal and phrasal comparatives 278

12.2.2 Coordination vs. Subordination properties 278

12.2.3 Comparative deletion and ellipsis 280

12.3 Korean comparatives 282

12.3.1 General properties 282

12.3.2 Structure of the phrasal comparatives 285

12.3.3 Structure of the clausal comparatives 287

12.3.4 Context-dependent comparatives 290

12.4 Contrastive notes 291

12.4.1 Types of comparatives 291

12.4.2 Comparative morpheme and standard marker 292

12.4.3 Comparative deletion and comparative ellipsis 292

12.4.4 Context dependency 292

12.5 Conclusion 293

13 Agreement: Harmonizing together 297

13.1 Introduction 297

13.2 Agreement in English 298

13.2.1 Agreement features in English 298

13.2.2 Determiner-Head agreement 298

13.2.3 Pronoun-antecedent agreement 299

13.2.4 Subject-verb agreement as morphosyntactic agreement 299

13.2.5 Subject-verb agreement as index agreement 300

13.3 Agreement in Korean 301

13.3.1 Subject-verb agreement as honorific agreement 301

13.3.2 Addressee agreement 303

13.3.3 Multiple honorification 303

13.3.4 Agreement in auxiliary constructions 304

13.4 Contrastive notes 306

13.4.1 Subject-verb agreement 306

13.4.2 Other types of agreement 306

13.5 Conclusion 307

14 Figurative languages and metaphors: those we live by 311

14.1 Literal vs. figurative uses in English 311

14.2 Metaphors in English 313

14.2.1 Conceptual metaphors in English 313

14.2.2 Structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors in English 314

xii / ENGLISH AND KOREAN IN CONTRAST

14.3 Figurative speech in Korean 316

14.4 Metaphors in Korean 317

14.4.1 Conceptual metaphors in Korean 317

14.4.2 Structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors in Korean 318

14.5 Contrastive notes 321

14.6 Conclusion 323

Bibliography 327

Index 335