Morphological Differences between Japanese and Korean: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This study aims to compare the morphological structures of the Japanese and Korean languages. Taking into account the historical context, where the country was under Japanese colonial influence, the research analysed how the Japanese language affected the linguistic system of Korea as a result of prolonged cultural interaction. The study is based on comparative lexicography, analysing changes in word meanings and their adaptation in both languages. The comparative analysis method is applied to the morphological categories of the Japanese and Korean languages, particularly focusing on how parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives) are expressed and analysing morphemic structures and their variations. The study draws on a wide range of lexical and grammatical resources to precisely analyse morphological phenomena.

The study results reveal that loanwords in both languages often undergo shifts in meaning, sometimes acquiring a negative connotation in Korean. It was found that in Korean, Japanese words undergo phonological transformations and changes in their morphological structure during the adaptation process. The most significant changes are in meaning, especially in Korean, where positive Japanese words take on a negative nuance. The study also identified several significant morphological differences between Japanese and Korean. While both languages have an agglutinative structure, the means of expressing grammatical categories differ considerably. Japanese employs more synthetic forms, whereas Korean has a more varied approach to forming noun and verb forms through suffix addition and root modification. Differences were also observed in the expression of numerals, tense, and modality, where Koreans use specific ways of forming case and tense categories. In conclusion, the results demonstrate that despite their shared historical heritage and the influence of Japanese, Koreans show different ways of adapting Japanese loanwords. This underscores the importance of each language's cultural context and linguistic peculiarities when interpreting foreign linguistic elements.