Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language [Hardcover]

Samuel E. Martin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0804837716 | ISBN-13: 978-0804837712 | Publication Date: October 15, 2006 | Edition: Hardcover with Jacket

By one of the leading scholars of East Asian languages, this is the first comprehensive book on Korean grammar in English. With a detailed analysis of modern Korean as it's used in both North and South Korea, Professor Martin provides explanations and translation tips for virtually all puzzling grammatical structures. In addition, modern usage is traced back to the fifteenth century, making this book essential to anyone reading older Korean texts.

Including character tables and an appendix of the radicals and their names A Reference Grammar of Korean will prove indispensable to students and is the definitive reference work for all those involved in Korean studies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Samuel E. Martin received his undergraduate and master's degrees in Oriental Languages from the University of California at Berkeley and his PhD in linguistics from Yale University. He is the author of A Reference Grammar of Japanese.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1056 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; Hardcover with Jacket edition (October 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804837716
• ISBN-13: 978-0804837712
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,141,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Korean

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The authoritative reference grammar for Korean, February 14, 2010

By 

S. Henderson (Daegu, South Korea) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language (Hardcover)

As other reviewers have noted, this is not a useful tool for beginning or (most) intermediate learners of Korean. However, if you are looking for an authoritative guide to modern Korean grammar, there is no English-language work that compares to Martin. The lack of hangul is regrettable, but common in technical linguistic publications, of which this is one.

I have searched long and hard for authoritative treatments of Korean grammar in both Korean and English. Not only does Martin's work have no peers in English, it has few peers even in Korean.

Again -- do not buy this book if you are looking for something that will help you learn Korean. Buy it only if you are looking to work on the Korean language that is the functional equivalent of Smyth for ancient Greek, or CGEL for modern English.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Warning: very difficult to read, August 6, 2008

By 

Dr C. R. WRIGHT (Oldham, Lancashire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language (Hardcover)

My copy of this book just arrived today, so I cannot review its contents thoroughly. However, I am able to register massive initial disappointment. Korean text is not written in hangul, but is romanized. This makes the text extraordinarily difficult to read and will result in the reader making a mental translation into the correct hangul form every time he reads a piece of Korean text in the book. Given the depth and scope of this book, nobody who cannot read hangul will ever use it. I cannot understand why the author should make things so difficult for the reader by romanizing the Korean text. Regardless of what other virtues the book might have (and judging from the contents I am convinced that it has many) I can only give it three stars because the Korean text is romanized.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thank goodness for Amazon's Previews..., February 10, 2010

By 

H. Kim "Hugo Kim" (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language (Hardcover)

...because I would have regretted buying this book. How can you discuss a language in such great depth without using its proper alphabet? With such an in-depth exploration into the language, it would be safe to assume that one who is interested in this book would already know how to read Hangeul. Latin characters in inadequate in expressing the Korean pronunciation.