Korean: An Essential Grammar

by Young-Key Kim-Renaud

An Essential Grammar is a concise and convenient guide to the basic grammatical structure of standard Korean. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging Grammar uses clear, jargon-free explanations and sets out the complexities of Korean in short, readable sections. Key features

Genres: Linguistics

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dr. Young-Key Kim-Renaud is Chair of the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department, Professor of Korean language and Culture and International Affairs, and a faculty member of the Linguistics Program at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. She is the initiator and a co-convener of the annual Hahn Moo-Sook Colloquium in the Korean Humanities series at GW. Before joining GW, Dr. Kim-Renaud served as Assistant Program Director for Linguistics at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). In 1986-87, she taught at Harvard University as a visiting lecturer. She is past President of the International Circle of Korean Linguistics (ICKL) and has been the Editor-in-Chief of its journal, Korean Linguistics, since 2002.

Dr. Kim-Renaud has received major research awards and grants, including three Fulbright awards, twice for Korea and once for Jordan. She has won individual research grants from the Korea Foundation, the Korea Research Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council, the Academy of Korean Studies, and the ROK Arts and Culture Foundation. She has received program and institutional grants for GW from the Korea Foundation, the Korea Research Foundation, as well as the ROK Ministries of Education, of Information, and of Culture. She has also won support for GW's Korean program from the Consortium of Universities of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area.

(from https://elliott.gwu.edu/kim-renaud)

Reviews

[xxmoonagestardustxxx · Rating 3 out of 5]

става за начинаещи като мен, които изучават корейски, но по-добре да се търсят други източници за научаването на граматиката

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

KOREAN: An Essential Grammar by Young-Key Kim-Renaud is a sketch of the Korean language starting from the hangul writing system and proceeding to the minute details of phonology, morphology and syntax. All Korean text is represented in hangul and in transliteration.

Kim-Renaud describes Korean grammar in a vigorous manner, wielding linguistic terminology expertly and showing an awareness of the latest syntactic theories. That's rather a problem. Routledge's "Essential Grammars" line is generally meant for everyday students who want a lightweight grammar they can carry to class with them. Kim-Renaud's grammar, on the other hand, will prove daunting for ordinary students. (I am a linguist and even I found his description challenging). It's not a matter of Korean grammar being remote from that of English and therefore requiring more depth; a look at Routledge's HUNGARIAN: An Essential Grammar shows that you can describe grammatical concepts alien to English speakers without a sea of specialist terminology.

The bottom line is that there's nothing wrong with Kim-Renaud's description of Korean, but it's curious that Routledge decided to issue this in the "Essential Grammars" series, and students are better off purchasing another, more friendly grammar to accompany their studies.