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Linguistics

Why are there so many verbs in Korean?

by 앎의나무 2012. 9. 17.

There are about 500 one syllable-stem verbs (Primitive-like verbs) in Korean.

But the total number of verbs registered in a usual dictionary is over 12,000.

These are resulted from several very productive constructions.

Three of them are presented below:

A Predicative Noun + Light Verb Construction: 사랑하다, 공부하다, 참하다, 약하다 etc;

Serial Verbs Construction: 매달다, 꿇어앉다, 일어서다, etc;

Auxiliary Verb Construction: -어주다; -어가다; -어오다.