President
"There would be many other problems in developing our linguistics. Scholars in this field should strive to develop the linguistics of our country."
To have a correct understanding of root word is an important issue in explaining the national features of the scheme of the Korean vocabulary and positively preserving them.
Root word is a concept in the area of word building and forms the fundamental basis in making branch words.
It constructs branch words as material for word building that already exists in the language.
For example, "son(hand)" in such words as "son-jil(mending)", "hot-son-jil(fumbling)", "son-pal(hand and foot)" and "son-karak(finger)" is a word already existing in the language and forms the basis in making these branch words. Therefore, "son" is called a root word in the sense that it is a word forming the fundamental basis in constructing branch words.
We should not confuse root word with word root. Occasionally, there are some tendencies to mix up root word with word root in word building and educational practice.
Of course, root word and word root are different names for the identical object.
This one object is called differently when it is seen from different angles conceptually. In other words, it is called "word root" as morpheme when its structure is viewed in the light of components of word and "root word" as semanteme when viewed in the light of the process of word building.
Like this, root word and word root are notions of different order.
Root word has a series of characteristic features.
First of all, it is an essential and core material for building new words.
There should be material matter and combining scheme for any object to come into being. It is also obvious that there should be a material basis, or material, for a new word to form. There can be no materiality called a new word with only a combining scheme and rule and without material.
Root word is just the material for new word, indispensable and essential material.
Different grammatical rules such as compounding, affixation, sound changing, conversion and repetition are the methods of word building that are applied with root word as the basic material.
As for compounding that is common to language at large and word building based on it, there are attributive, connective and subordinate combinations and other grammatical rules, but these will all be meaningless apart from root word, the object to which these rules are applied.
The other feature of root word is that it forms the basis of material for building new words.
This material or means of forming new words is a meaningful unit that has existed before relevant words are formed.
Without such material, there can be no formation of new words, except loaning of words. An absolute majority of new words are made with the material, mostly with root words and affixes with lexical meaning and partially with tho ― a particle in Korean language with grammatical meaning.
But here, tho cannot be claimed to be material for building new words. Actually, lots of Korean words have been made with a variety of tho such as definitive tho "-n,-r" (nulkuni(old person), orini(child), toenjang(bean paste), ssulmo(usage), ibul(quilt), ton(money)…), possessive tho "-ui" (poluijip(beehive)), dative tho "-e" (kwiegori(earring)), connective tho "-a(o/yo)" (ttorojida(fall), sarasaengjon(during one's lifetime)…) and concluding tho "-ja,-ra" (porajanggi(slow-moving chess game), mokjaphan(spree)). In the course of being fixed as words with the passage of time and with the frequent use of them, from the state of combined words, these tho underwent changes in their meaning and became fossilized, with the result that they lost their original function of taking grammatical form and melted into the integral whole of word structures.
Tho is a word unit that cannot be neglected in word building, but it is only a mark of grammatical form, not material for building new words. As material for new words there can only be root word and affix with lexical meaning. As seen above, root word forms the basis of root word and affix that are material for word building.
Firstly, root word, forms the basis in making new root words.
Among Korean root words there are lots of root words whose certain sound underwent changes and which obtained new meanings and differentiated utterly different root words.
This is evidenced by "mat(taste)", the root word in "matkal(taste of food), matkamgak(the sense of taste), matnada(delicious), matnaegi(seasoning)…", which differentiated the other root word "mot" in many words such as "motjokta(awkward), motjida(smart), motjaengi(beau), motkori(dandyism), motkorijida(dandy), motttada(showy)…".
There are also many (root) words that constructed new root words by changing certain sound within those words including "nukta(grow old)-nakta(get old)", "salda(half-boiled noodle)-solda(half-boiled rice)", "maru(ridge)-mari(top)-mori(head)", etc.
Secondly, root word constitutes the basis in forming affix.
Affix in Korean language is one of important materials for building up many derivatives through affixation. As a matter of fact, affixation and compounding can be claimed to form the two pillars in word building and play the most important role next to root word in constructing a lot of new words, and still at present many derivatives are produced by word building through affixation.
Originally, affix was an independent root word that came into being as certain words were affected by the abstraction of their meanings and changed in form while taking the ability to combine with other words. This abstraction of the meanings of those words is the prerequisite to the emergence of affix and it is unthinkable to discuss affix apart from such words.
The fact that the formation of affix is the result of abstraction of independent (root) word can also be seen through the process of formation of prefix. As it is lower in the degree of abstraction than suffix, prefix in many cases is not clearly distinct from root word in form and function.
As the standard by which to distinguish between root words and affixes lies in the degree of independence and abstraction of the lexical meaning, the meaningful unit whose independence in lexical meaning is recognized to some extent and whose lexical meaning can easily be understood for its low degree in abstraction, can rightly be claimed to be root word. Korean language has many such affixes, notably prefixes.
"me(wild)", which formed such derivatives as "memil(buckwheat), medak(black grouse), medwaeji(wild boar) and metokki(hare)" as a full prefix, was low in the degree of abstraction in terms of independence of the meaning that was used in the form of "moe/mo(mountain)" in medieval Korean.
"moe", as a changed form of "moro" that meant "mountain", was used independently with its own proper meaning along with its variety "mo", while being used in front of compound word or as affix with the character of prefix.
Case 1. moehae turo iropsi isyo (Worinsokpo 1, 5)
Case 2. moetkisuk (foot of mountain)
moetkol (valley)
Case 3. momil (buckwheat)
In the examples above, "moe" was used independently in the first case and in front of compound word in the second case while "moro/mo" was used as an affix abstracted in the meaning of "barren and wild" in the third case.
As seen above, one root word was used as both an independent word and affix, which is a vivid example showing that affixes are made as independent words become abstract, i.e. as independent words lose concreteness in lexical meaning and become abstract. After all, it has been demonstrated that although abstraction of lexical meaning is the condition for becoming an affix, its basis, or material, is root word.
Another feature of root word is that it is the smallest unit in meaning and structure. In other words, it is the smallest unit that cannot be divided any more in meaning, form and structure.
Root word is, first of all, the smallest meaningful unit.
This signifies that root word is the most general and abstract in meaning.
Compound or derivative is individual and concrete in meaning as compared to root word.
For example, root word "bi (rain)" has the general and abstract meaning of "condensed moisture of the atmosphere falling visibly in separate drops".
But its branch words such as "karangbi(drizzle), kaulbi(autumn rain), kapjakbi(sudden rain), kujunbi(vicious, untimely rain) and nunbi(sleet)" have been expanded and concretized, importing definite and separate meanings.
Root word is also the smallest structural unit.
In other words, it is the smallest unit that cannot be divided any more in form and structure as well as the smallest meaningful unit.
In Korean language, affixes are combined with other root words to form branch words on the basis of root words. Needless to say, root words form the basis of compound words. Derivative also presupposes affix which derives from root word. In consideration of this, root words exist before anything else and more complex and bigger words are made on the basis of them. This is a very general and universal process in word building and the law governing the development of language.
The fact that root word is the smallest unit in meaning and structure serves as the standard by which to correctly prepare statistics of root words in vocabulary and scientifically elucidate the etymology of relevant words.
Actually, in Korean vocabulary there are many root words that cannot be divided any more in meaning and structure both in modern and medieval Korean. Lots of words underwent the process of simplification with the passage of time. As a result, they became the simple smallest unit in meaning and structure－and "root words" that constructed many branch words. When such root words are also analysed etymologically on the basis of the fact that root word is the smallest meaningful and structural unit, their entities can correctly be ascertained and statistics of them can correctly be prepared.
It is necessary to deepen the study of root words so as to correctly sort them out from Korean vocabulary and make new words on the basis of them, thereby contributing to preserving the national character of Korean language.
