Linguistics
Why are there so many verbs in Korean?
앎의나무
2012. 9. 17. 23:26
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.