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A morpheme-based analysis of lexical bundles in Korean: an interface between corpus-driven approach and lexicography

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Lexicography

Abstract

This study proposes a new methodology for morpheme-based analysis designed to identify multi-word patterns in Korean, which is a typical example of agglutinative languages. The need for a new approach in corpus linguistics, which takes language typological characteristics into consideration, is also a crucial point of this paper. In Korean, functional words like prepositions or conjunctions are realized as bound morphemes (emi or cosa) that function as ‘minimal grammatical units’. When formulaic expressions in Korean are analyzed according to the morpheme unit, as it is the case in our study, the findings yielded show significant differences from those of previous studies. Based on this methodology, our results provide supporting evidence for the following: (1) lexical bundles are prevalent in Korean, just as in English; (2) computer-defined formulaicity might be language-universal; (3) finally, differences in distributions or discourse functions of morphemic bundles in various genres or registers can be language-specific. The external and internal language factors that may influence these differences are discussed.

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Notes

  1. The morphologically annotated corpus is the most frequently used version for the purposes of collecting word frequencies, extracting headwords for Korean dictionaries and selecting word lists for language education.

Abbreviations

ADNZ:

Adnomializer (suffix)

ADVZ:

Adverbializer (suffix)

AUX:

Auxiliary (verb/adjective)

CCM:

Complement case marker

CONJ:

Conjunctive (particle)

DCL:

Declarative (ending)

GER:

Gerund

HON:

Honorific (form)

INF:

Infinitive (suffix)

NOMZ:

Nominalizer

OM:

Objective marker

OBLG:

Obligative

PST:

Past tense (suffix)

POSS:

Possessive marker

QU:

Quotative (particle)

RET:

Retrospective mood (suffix)

SM:

Subjective marker

TOP:

Topic marker

VOL:

Volitional mood (suffix)

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2014S1A5B4038405).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehak-ro, Buk-gu, Daegu, 41566, Korea

    Kilim Nam & Jun Choi

  2. Keimyung University, 1095 Dalgubeol-daero, Dalseo-gu, Daegu, 42601, Korea

    Hyun-ju Song

Authors
  1. Kilim Nam
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  2. Hyun-ju Song
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  3. Jun Choi
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Correspondence to Jun Choi.

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Nam, K., Song, Hj. & Choi, J. A morpheme-based analysis of lexical bundles in Korean: an interface between corpus-driven approach and lexicography. Lexicography ASIALEX 3, 39–62 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40607-016-0026-y

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