E305/505 Korean Language and Culture


E305 Home | Syllabus | Resources

Questions on Korean kinship terms:

  1. How are kinship terms in Korean distributed between Sino-Korean (SK) words and native Korean (NK) words?


  2. What are the principles and parameters by which kin relations are defined in Korean?


  3. What factors are involved in differentiating sibling terms?

    Note: no native word for sisters, brothers, cousins, but onui (NK) 'brother & sister'
    Cf. hyông-je (SK) 'brothers', jamae (SK) 'sisters', sa-chon (SK) 'cousins'


  4. What's "kin degree"?

    How is it determined?



  5. Historical perspective: how have kin terms changed in Korea?; how do we know the kin terms have changed?