A Trial Study on the Re-establishment of Korean Word Classification Systems

In this paper, we discussed what should be considered when re-establishing the system of classifying Korean words by comprehensively reviewing various issues raised in the formal classification of Korean lexical words. The summary of the discussions in this paper is as follows. First, we pointed out that the concept of the morpheme is still valid when classifying Korean words, and it is more reasonable in many respects to view morphemes as listeme. Second, certain blends that blend formatives, which are difficult to judge synchronically as morphemes, make it challenging to determine whether they are simple words or complex words. To rationally describe such cases, we proposed the concept of simplexhood and pointed out that Korean blends can be classified as simple words, quasi-simplex, or compound words depending on their type. Third, certain compound words that directly contain elements such as affixoid, word-formation exclusive elements, blends formatives, functional verbs, and affix-like words are difficult to distinguish as either compounds or derivatives. We proposed the concept of affixhood to measure the degree of affixhood in various grammatical units in Korean and argued that some compound words in Korean, showing characteristics of both derivatives and compound, can be classified as quasi-derivative. Fourth, we pointed out that classifying words based on the concepts of simplexhood and affixhood is useful for synchronically describing units undergoing lexicalization or grammaticalization, or in explaining how words belonging to the same category may exhibit different characteristics.