earticle

한국어

The nominalized clauses in Japanese and the adnominal clauses in Korean are closely related in terms of their syntactic structure, as both of them modify the respective head nouns. However, they exhibit differences in the morphological patterns when embellishing the head noun in practical application. Japanese employs four forms: “ル․タ․テイル․テイタ” for conjugation, while Korean appears in combination with adnominal past tense suffixes such as “을/ㄹ․는․은/ㄴ․던” Notably, due to the fact that a single adnominal past tense suffix in Korean expresses multiple meanings, it is more complex than Japanese in this regard. Thus, a comparative study of tense and aspect in nominalized clauses between the two languages is essential. This paper attempts a Korean-Japanese contrast of nominalized clauses through the observation of actual examples and achieves the following outcomes: First, it systematically classifies semantic functions, which were not thoroughly addressed in previous studies, based on tense and aspect criteria, categorizing them as “state and action.” Furthermore, it explores the structured organization of these semantic functions through subcategories. Second, it conducts a detailed analysis of the correspondence and semantic functions between the Japanese “ル․タ․テイル․テイタ” forms and the Korean adnominal past tense suffixes, supplementing previous research by introducing unexplored correspondences. In summation, this paper bridges the gap between Japanese and Korean grammar by juxtaposing their respective mechanisms of nominalized and adnominal clauses. The study not only brings to light the syntactic and morphological intricacies but also advances the discourse surrounding semantic functionalities, culminating in a comprehensive cross-linguistic exploration that enriches our understanding of these linguistic structures.