226 Ho-min Sohn
2.2. MEMBERSHIP OF THE ADJECTIVE CLASS
Yu (1998: 29) indicates that a dictionary of Korean adjectives has a total of 13,000
entries of which some 2,500 are commonly used. The number of monomorphemic
adjectives, which are all native words, is relatively small and closed. My own count
in the fifty-eight-page Korean-English part of the concise Hippocrene Practical
Dictionary (New York, 1998) shows that some 100 words are monomorphemic
adjectives out of a total of 335 adjectives (or some 8 per cent of the entire entries,
compared to over 50 per cent of nouns and some 25 per cent of verbs).
Where did thousands of polymorphemic adjectives come from? Some repre-
sentative derivational sources are illustrated below (for the derivation of nouns,
verbs, adjectives, and other word classes, see Sohn 1999: 218-31).
The most productive and open pattern is of the form: adjectival noun + native
-hata 'be. Adjectival nouns are nouns morphosyntactically but adjectives seman-
tically, denoting a certain property or a state. They include not only free or bound
nouns but also noun-like sound symbolic words (frequently in reduplicated form),
most of which are from the native stock. Sino-Korean nouns maybe single-syllabic
and monomorphemic but much more frequently bi-syllabic and bi-morphemic.
When such adjectival nouns compound with the native predicate hata 'do, be', the
resultant words are regular adjectives both morphosyntactically and semantically.
Adjectival nouns are of three kinds as illustrated in (2): native, Sino-Korean, and
loan, with Sino-Korean ones being predominant.
(2) Native
kkaykkus-hata (cleanness-) 'clean ttak-hata (pity-) 'pitiful'
ttattus-hata (warmth-) 'warm' ttokttok-hata (cleverness-) 'clever'
SK
chincel-hata (kindness-) 'kind' kantan-hata (simplicity-) 'simple'
phikon-hata (fatigue-) 'tired' yak-hata (weakness-) 'weak'
Loan
hayphi-hata 'happy' sumathu-hata 'smart'
thephu-hata 'tough' theykhunikhel-hata 'technical'
Another frequently occurring pattern is of the form: abstract noun + native -loptal
-sulepta Tike, characterized by'. In general, the suffix -lopta occurs after a vowel and
-sulepta occurs after a consonant. Loanwords do not have this form.
(3) Native
oy-lopta (singleness-) 'lonely' say-lopta (newness-) 'new'
sulki-lopta (wisdom-) 'wise' salang-sulepta (love-) 'lovely'
SK
i-lopta (profit-) 'advantageous' hyangki-lopta (fragrance-) 'fragrant'
kothong-sulepta (pain-) 'painful' sang-sulepta (commonness-) 'vulgar'
Another derivational pattern is of the form: noun + native -tapta Tike, worthy of.