9 The Adjective Class in Korean 2252.1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE ADJECTIVE CLASS
Although not as extensive as the noun and verb classes, there is a large class of un-
derived, as well as derived, words in Korean that can be classified as the adjective
class as per Dixon's proposal (in Chapter i). First, the Korean adjective class is dis-
tinct from the noun class in that the former functions as head of VP, inflecting just
like the verb class, while the latter is head of NP, inflecting only in number. It is
grammatically distinct from the verb class, however, in morphological, syntactic,
and semantic functions, as will be seen in detail in §3 and §4.
Second, the adjective class contains a large number of underived, as well as
derived, words in all four prototypical adjective semantic types. Underived, mono-
morphemic native adjectives are illustrated in (i).
(i) i. DIMENSION
khuta 'big' cakta 'small'
kilta 'long' ccalpta 'short'
nelpta 'wide' copta 'narrow'
kiphta 'deep' yathta 'shallow'
twukkepta 'thick' yalpta, yelpta 'thin
nophta 'tall' nacta 'low' (as in high-rise, low-rise building)
- AGE
elita 'infant, young' celmta 'young'
nalkta old' (things) - VALUE
cohta good' napputa 'bad, wrong'
ssata 'cheap' pissata 'expensive'
kwiyepta 'cute' musepta 'scary'
kopta, yeypputa 'pretty' mipta 'ugly'
nasta 'better, preferable' akkapta 'precious' - COLOUR
kemta 'black huyta 'white'
pulkta 'red' phuluta green, blue'
nwuluta 'yellow'
Third, Korean adjectives function as intransitive predicate of clauses. They can-
not function as copula complement within a copula clause. On the other hand,
the Korean copula is similar to the English copula in that they function as head of
predicate. While adjectives in English and many other languages are used as pre-
nominal modifiers without any formal change, Korean pre-nominal adjectives are
always in the form of a relative clause, being connected to the head noun by a rela-
tivizer suffix such as -(«)«, as in khu-n/cak-un salam 'big/small person'.^3
(^3) There is a set of adjective-like words that are used only pre-nominally, such as say 'new', oy only',
mat 'oldest', oyn 'left', and all numerals (e.g. han 'one', twu 'two', sey 'three'). These constitute a separate
category called specifier or pre-noun, a sub-set (along with demonstratives) of the determiner class,
and are not treated as adjectives in Korean grammar in that they do not inflect and are not used as
predicate head (e.g. Sohn 1999).