Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

Korean Adjectives versus English Adjectives

Banan M. Althowaini

Dr. Susan Strauss

APLNG 484

Pennsylvania State University

Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

Introduction

In this research paper, I will be examining and comparing Korean adjectives with English

adjectives. I will also be using children's books as my main discourse to analyze and apply the

previous knowledge and background information that I have gathered. I had particular interest in

Korean adjectives because, unlike English, they are not very formally defined. The meaning is

the same, but the form of Korean adjectives are rather very interesting when analyzing. Infact,

some linguistics have raised questions that adjectives do not really exist in Korean when they are

viewed syntactically (Kim, 2002). Of course, that is not true because while the adjectives are

inflected like verbs, the usage and meaning are clearly ones for adjectives. Nonetheless, having

this rationale in mind can hopefully help teachers be conscious on where Korean students who

are ELLs are coming from. This brings me to my aim for this paper, which is to bring and

propose a pedagogical implication that can help Koreans better understand and grasp English

adjectives and how they are syntactically used.

Background Information

In order to make an effective analysis, an overview on adjectives and their rules in

English and Korean is needed. There will not be an in depth overview of the adjective rules, but

rather I will bring in notable and distinctive aspects that will benefit the paper overall. Korean

especially, based on what I have gathered in English, I will bring in light some of the differences

that it has to better prepare and understand where things may distinct in the use of adjectives

when I analyze my discourse.

Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

Starting with English, English has three major types of adjectives: 1). Attributive

adjectives, which are adjectives that come before a noun. 2). Predicative adjectives, adjectives

that comes after a noun. 3). Participial adjectives, which are used with emotive verbs in its past

and present form to function as adjectives; they come in both positions, the predicative and

attributive order. We will look at the syntactic and semantic features of these adjectives and also

discuss particular use of adjectives (Celce-Murcia, Larsen-Freeman & Williams, 1983).

When observing attributive adjectives - also known as prenominal adjectives - they are

typically used to reference the noun. Thus, they can be used to describe many important features

of a noun. Attributive adjectives are the only one that can be used to describe the

importance/rank, identity, time reference, geographical feature, and uniqueness of the noun and

could also be used to intensify the head noun (Celce-Murcia et al., 1983).

On the other hands, there are also exclusively predicative adjectives; these include health

adjectives, adjectives that start with an a-prefix, and adjectives that requires a preposition to

follow it. There are also predicatives that can immediately follow a noun, known as postnominal

adjectives. These come in two forms; the first type is where the adjectives modifies the object of

the noun. The second type is considered to have derived from relative clauses due to the fact that

these adjectives phrases appear where a removable relative pronoun and copula be verb can be

done. We noticed this feature by seeing how the sentence still works when having the relative

pronoun and be verb added. Thus, It has been said that relative clauses and adjectives serve

similar functions in providing meaningful facts about the noun. Nonetheless, there are also

exclusively postnominal adjectives, and these include ones that are used to describe
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

measurements, ones in fixed expressions (president-elect), and finally ones that come after

indefinite pronouns (Celce-Murcia et al., 1983).

In terms of the forms of participles, they come in the past -en or present -ing form, and

they can be used to function as an adjective instead of a verbal function. It can be found in any

order of position - predicative and attributive. Furthermore, compound participial adjectives are

also possible when the participle gets modified by an adverb or noun. As for the types of verbs

that participle adjectives take, they are ones related to emotions, in other works emotive verbs.

A participle with an -en ending refers to the experiencer (the object of the active sentence with

the emotive verb). However, a participle that ends with -ing refers to the cause (the subject of the

active sentence with the emotive verb) (Celce-Murcia et al., 1983).

Some other structures to consider are ones relating to prepositions. It is possible for a

predicative or postnominal adjective to come before a prepositional phrase. There are also

exceptions where prepositions are mandatory and cases where some adjectives always co-occur

with certain or the same propositions. Also, relating to intensifiers, one or more intensifiers can

come before an adjective (Celce-Murcia et al., 1983).

In terms of semantics, the attributive form seem to have a more permanent effect unlike

the predicative form. In addition, compound attributives formed with present participles give a

meaning of a habitual or typical action rather than "isolated events." Moreover, focusing on

general semantic meanings that can occur in any adjectival form, stative and dynamic means

should be considered. Most english adjectives are like nouns because they describe an obvious

permanent innate observation, and as we noticed, the attributive form creates this meaning. Thus,
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

this explains why it would be strange to have progressive aspects or imperatives being used with

adjectives. Of course, as stated in the book, "[s]ome adjectives, however, can be used

predictively to refer to a temporary state, a change in progress, or something immediate

(Celce-Murcia et al., 1983). Additionally, the book has also mentioned that to give a more

dynamic nuance to an adjective, the copular verb get + adjective can also be used to show a

change of state, unlike the copular verb be + adjective which shows the current state of

something. Another aspect to consider is about polarity. In English, there are positive and

negative contrasts (presence vs. absence). Adjectives with positive polarity are unmarked, and

thus are used more frequently since they can be used in neutral contexts. Adjectives with

negative polarity are marked, so they are reserved for unusual contexts (Celce-Murcia et al.,

1983).

Finally, gradability and restrictiveness/non-restrictiveness are, additionally, important

points to mention relating to semantics. Some adjectives can be used on an intensity scale, but

not every adjective can have such exceptions. These adjectives include reference adjectives,

adjectives that hold absolute meanings (e.g. dead), and also, in some cases, adjectives of

nationality. As for restrictiveness, a noun that is required is considered an adjective that is

restrictive. However, an adjective that is used for the purpose of providing additional information

about the noun is considered non-restrictive and therefore can pass if it were absent

(Celce-Murcia et al., 1983).

Moving on to use, an emphasis that I would like to focus on is the ordering rules of

adjectives. Typically two adjectives are the most typical style over more pairs. Also while
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

English adjectives are relatively fluid when more than one is present, a deemed order is

presented by Svatko (1979) where the order goes as followed: opinion -> size -> shape ->

condition -> age -> color -> origin -> noun. Furthermore, the way these adjectives are listed are

either through commas, and when there are two adjectives from the same category, the word

and is used to conjoin the two. Furthermore, Celce-Murcia et al. (1983) have mentioned that

"two or more attributive adjectives are sometimes separated by commas in writing if there is

repetition (intensification) or if the two adjectives are from the same class and are not

incompatible.

Shifting our focus to Korean, the adjectives are inflected just like verbs. In addition, like

English, Korean also has attributive (known as adnouns) and predicative forms of adjectives.

However, interestingly, it does not have any participial forms. Rather, Korean has adjectivized

verb forms which has very similar functions of English participles. However, unlike English, the

way they are used are not very clear, thus, they have a lot of different uses. The main similar idea

that ties to participles are through verbs in the passive and causative forms since, as noted, the

adjectivized causative form of verbs function like the adjective present participle, and the

adjectivized passive form of verbs work like the adjective past participle. Below is an example

that was excerpted from an interview with a Korean Linguist, Tony Kim (2016), to help

understand this concept:

Causative form: The actor fascinated her/ was fascinating to her

[or .

Passive form: She was fascinated by the actor

.
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

Notice that the adjective form is used in similar function of the

present participle "fascinating," and is used like the past participle word,

"fascinated". As Kim expressed, there would be an issue with this because

- and - are just one out of many cases. Moreover, he expressed that

[d]epending on the meaning and etymological derivation of the verb, there can

be no participle-like forms, more than one set of them, or even a phrasal

expression instead of verb or adjective form (Kim, 2016). A few examples to

grasp this:

Sports are interesting to Anna .

Anna* is interested in sports .

Notice that the adjective is actually based on which is the

noun form that means fun or interest. Therefore, this reflects how even this word

does not have a causative and passive form which makes the whole idea of

similarly functioned participles quite vague in Korean. Another aspect that I

would like to point out is that Korean seems to use nouns, too, to function like

participial adjectives:

The story impressed me .

(How it is translated: The story gave me a deep impression)
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

I was impressed by that story

. (How it translated: I received a deep impression from the
story

As you have observed, the word impression was used because in Korean there are no

direct words that means impress. Hopefully from these points it becomes clear how

Korean suggest varied and fluid ways of working with participial-like functions - at least

the closest functions that look like participle adjectives. As presented, there are only a

few instances where there are truly notable parallels with English.

Now, moving on to the important semantic points about Korean, it is more or

less the same idea as in English, however something that may be questioned is whether

or not the position of adjectives differ in meaning. I can say that, generally, it may be

perceived that way, or it might also be the case that in Korean one would choose a word

that has a more permanent or innate effect that the attributive form in English seems to

suggest. Take a look at the example below:

/ The kind-hearted
person/The person is kind-hearted.

/ The nice person/ The

person is nice.

When observing the example, both words mean nice but in a different nuance.

Moreover, the adjectives still carry the same meaning in the attributive or predicative

form. It could be argued that the attributive form does have a slight innate and
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

permanent nuance in meaning, but thinking about it in English, this is a facet that is very

subtle and not much thought about. In addition, attributive adjectives are more

commonly seen being used in written language over oral language.

As with gradability and restrictiveness/non-restrictiveness, these are also

semantics aspects that are apparent in Korean as they are in English. The same with

polarity, but it is not as heavily used in Korean as it is used in English.

Finally, relating to use and some structures in Korean; like English, determiners

are the first word that should be used ( , , ...) and quantity follows directly after

(if any are used). Furthermore, it is a typical pattern to see opinion being stated

after, and then the rest are for descriptive adjectives. Unlike English, the

descriptive adjectives are not clearly defined, so they have flexible placement.

Of course, English also has a flexible placement, too.. Now, in terms of how

often more than one adjectives are used, typically more than two is not common.

In fact, it is considered to sound awkward and too monotonous if a writer has a

long line of adjectives. Instead, a strategy to use a word that carries more than

one of the meanings that the writers intends is much more preferred. On the

other hand, there are ways to make listing adjectives creative using different

and particles such as ~, ~, ~, ~ (Kim, 2016). Below is an

example excerpted from the interview:

. (too
repetitive)
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

. (Better)

Notice how adding the particles have added character to the sentence. This is not

necessarily something that English has, and while the two sentences look different they

are both translated the same, so the difference is the style. This is not a required style,

but rather a recommended one.

Data

For English, I analyzed The little Mermaid by Michael Teitelbaum and North Woods

Girl by Aime Bissonette. For Korean, I have analyzed the Korean version of The Little

Mermaid, and The Red Shoes. I have organized everything broadly in three tables - one

set for English and another set for Korean. I will then discuss in depth on notable

comparisons and details on the use of adjectives of both of the languages.

English:

Attributive adjectives Predicative adjectives Participles adjectives

- the human objects - King Triton was furious - He was so worried

- wrecked ships*
-.the Sea King
- his trusted friend
- A few days late
- a handsome young sailor
- Heavy rain
- the terrible storm
- a beautiful love song
- the still-dazed prince
- the most beautiful voice
- Collection of human - (an) amazing change
treasures* - (the) delighted prince
- human treasures*
- It should be easy
- He had been lovesick
- Ariel, who seemed lost and
all alone
- Prince Eric felt sorry for
Ariel
- Prince Eric grew fond of
Ariel.
- Ariel was heartbroken
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

- his youngest daughter - - Growing bigger and

- disobedient child angrier
- Human treasures - she looks pretty good
- the mighty Sea King - shes bony
- Evil forces - winter is best of all
- evil witch - the moon is full
- A wicked Sea Witch - She keeps it clear
- Crystal ball
- The little mermaid
- Beloved princes
- lovesweet child
- The third day
- Human being (2)
- pretty face
- magic spell
- Great excitement
- A young maiden
- A lovely young girl
- Special wedding ship
- Her two loyal friends
- A deadly bolt
- Three days
- magic trident
- a good-looking woman
- old flannel shirts
- Gooey berry pies
- oversized boots
- Walking stick
- A hundred little paths
- The wood frogs
- fat red tomatoes and green
string beans
-The cold shade
- A north woods girl
- woods pine scent
- large flocks of canada geese
- The fat cattails
- Their fuzzy seeds
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

- Her blue eyes

- winter nights*
- Snowy woods
- The bright moon
- Inky shadows
- A red fox

Korean:

Attributive Forms Predicative Forms Other/Nonspecific Forms

Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

- - -
-
- -
- -
-
- - ,
- -
-
- -
-
- -
- - ()
- -
- - ()
- - ,
- -
- -
-
- -
- -
-
- -
- ! -
- - ()
-
-
-
-

One of the biggest difference you may have noticed is the emphasis on English reliance

on attributive adjectives as opposed to predicative adjectives. Korean, on the other hand, seems
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

to equally use both attributive and predicative forms. Furthermore, not a lot participles were

used, and I could not find like-participle forms in Korean either. This is interesting because in

The Grammar Book, it has stated that predicative adjectives are used more than attributive

adjectives. So, it may be safe to say that based on this observation, attributive forms are

commonly used more in children's books. I try to see why this might be, so when I attempt to try

and make the attributive forms in predicative forms the meaning does differ in a way that could

change the focus of a sentence.

My grandma says she is not a good-looking woman versus My grandma says she
is not good-looking

He rushed to the cave where his disobedient child kept her collection versus,
He rushed to the cave where his child, who is disobedient, kept her collection

For the first example, removing woman changes the sentence slightly, because it was initially

focusing on the point that she is not good-looking enough as a woman. For the second example,

notice how the sentence felt interrupted, and the focus on disobedient was emphasized when

turning it into the predicative form. It also seems out of place, considering the context of the

passage as well. It is a small difference, but has a noticeable impact.

Another consideration is that sometimes using predicative forms can make a sentence

unnecessarily wordy and at times confusing:

When grandma tucks her pants into her oversized boots and grabs her walking
stick, I run to catch up. versus, When grandma tucked her pants into her boots, that
are oversized, and grabs her walking stick, I run to catch up.
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

Similar to what I have mentioned earlier, the focus is not meant to be about the boots, so the

clarity is lost, too. Another final point to help understand the reliance of attributive adjectives is

that they can create different meanings depending on position:

She never bakes cookies or gooey berry pies versus She never bakes cookies or
berry pies that are gooey.
Her slimy eel servants versus Her eel servants that/who are slimy

When you look at the first example, the narrator was intending to say that her grandmother does

not make berry pies in general, so the additive of gooey is meant to make the noun descriptive.

So, by making it the predicative form, it sounds like she makes berry pies but not the gooey

kind. The same idea with the second example; the text meant to use slimy to describe the

servants obsequiousness. Thus, when having this in the predicative form, it creates a rather

different meaning - that the servants outside characteristic is slimy, in other words slippery or

sticky. This is a point that was not discussed in the research part, so discovering that attributive

and predicative forms of the same adjectives can also create these types of meanings is a matter

to consider.

As for Korean, I noted that while I have analyzed the same book in the English and

Korean version, there are surprisingly some difference in style. I say surprisingly because

Korean adjectives are relatively similar in use and meaning. In the Korean version the little

mermaid is only referred as the the little mermaid - continuously giving the notion of her

naivety, youthness, and the fact that she lives up to her title as the youngest of the mermaids (the

Korean book mentions that she is the youngest). The other difference I have noticed is that both
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

Korean books are in past tense, but the English books are in present tense. Since Korean

adjectives are inflected like verbs, all of the adjectives are in past forms.

. The little mermaid was the most

prettiest and nicest

The little mermaid was sad.

If you observe the first one, it sounds very strange in English, because it gives the impression

that she used to be the nicest and prettiest, but reading the whole book shows the contrary. Of

course, in English past is used with adjectives, but usually with instances such as the second

example. That sounds more natural because she was only sad due to an event that had happened.

Another observation I have made is the specific word choices to create a specific

meaning. For example, in the book The Red Shoes, the mother of Karen and also the

grandmother who took care of her both died. When they were ill, they used a specific

word that would equivalently mean a dying or really ill person. The mother was referred

twice as ... as well as the grandmother, ... A typical word for

someone who is temporarily sick is . According to Naver dictionary, the

meaning of is: painful, sore; sick, ill; hurt, ache. As for : get[fall] sick[ill],

be taken ill, get diseased, lose one's health, be sick[ill]. Therefore, it shows that a

specific word that can relay a specific meaning is more cared for as opposed to focusing

on the attributive and predicative forms to find these meanings.

Gradability is also present in my observation as well:

() . The knife is so, so scary.

() . Oh, the shoes are very pretty.
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

She has the most beautiful voice

He was so worried

I do notice an equal use for intensifiers, but I do notice that in Korean they were more used in the

predicative forms; barely any in the attributive form. It could be due to a choice of style, but also

in English you wouldnt say the scary knife, since doing so seems to enchant or personify the

object.

Since polarity was barely used, I could only find one In Korean but none in English.

Seeing this example, it could show the use of polarity is possible even though it may not be as

well used in English as it is in Korean:

If I wore these shoes and

danced in them, how pretty it would be..

Instead of saying how would they look? a positive approach creates that positive polarity that
is commonly seen in English.

Pedagogical Implication

Korean is very known for its fluid ability in forming sentences, which can be an issue

when learning English. However, to see that adjectives in Korean do have rules and structure in a

lot of areas goes to show that Koreans who are ELLs may not have much difficulties with

adjectives when transitioning to English. Afterall, out of all the grammar points, adjectives can

be the easiest to grasp.

However, this is not to say that complications are impossible, because there are areas

where it is important as teachers to help clarify points with Koreans. The first and most obvious
Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

difference that I would like to focus on is on the the lack of participial adjectives in Korean. This

would be the most challenging for Koreans (and many ELLs as well), and they always get

confused with this. This is usually because they lack exposure to in-context situations that uses

participles. Therefore, relying on discourse will be the best approach. Teachers can give students

a story that describes a problem and how that main character is dealing with it. After letting the

students read or watch the discourse, asking questions that would force the students to generate

answers using participles can help students work on perfecting their use with participles and

when and how to use them. Another activity could be done through drills and warm ups such as

How was the book?,How was the weather? and How was your weekend? and many other

questions. Questions that will, again, make the students use participle adjectives. If the teacher,

however, wanted a bilingual approach, especially targeting Koreans, possibly showing the

similar participle-like functions in Korean ( just like the comparisons I have made in this paper)

can be useful. This can hopefully help students understand the meaning of participle adjectives

and how to use them.

Another implication I have is on the consideration of grouping up similar adjectives in

different groups and showing how each word is different from another through discourse and

even pictures. For example, as we have noticed in the analysis part, sick and ill are both the same

meaning but slightly different from each others. One is less formal than the other, but ill also

sounds more serious than sick. So, to show these subtle aspects, taking advantage of in-context

related discourse accompanied by pictures can be useful.

Running Head: KOREAN ADJECTIVES VERSUS ENGLISH ADJECTIVES

The last suggestion I would like to give is related to polarity. Since polarity is not too

commonly used in Korean, an exposure on these points could be helpful. This can be through

discourse that focuses a lot on dialogue because they are most commonly seen used in questions.

Also, pairing students and asking them common questions that are not marked, such as How old

are you or How tall are you etc., can help student familiarize themselves with them since

most of them do require memorizing them to know the correct or common use.

References

Celce-Murcia, M., Larsen-Freeman, D., & Williams, H. A. (1983). The grammar book: An

ESL/EFL teacher's course.

Kim, M. J. (2002). Does Korean have adjectives. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, 43, 71-89.

Kim, T. (2016). Email Interview.