A Comparative Study on the Semantic Similarities and Differences Between Chinese Modal Verbs and Korean Modal Constructions in Daily Communication

This study employs a mixed-method contrastive analysis to investigate the semantic similarities and differences between Chinese modal verbs and Korean modal constructions in everyday communication. Modal structures in both languages are categorized by their function (ability, obligation, desire) and systematically compared using corpus data, contextual examples, and learner feedback. Key findings highlight that while Chinese and Korean share these basic modal categories, they differ in structural expression (Chinese uses invariant modal verbs whereas Korean uses inflected modal constructions) and in pragmatic usage (Korean encodes politeness levels overtly, whereas Chinese relies more on context). These differences often pose challenges for learners, as evidenced by a survey and interviews, underscoring the need for explicit contrastive teaching. The study proposes pedagogical strategies for bilingual education to address these issues and improve learners’ accuracy and intercultural communicative competence.