Reference Grammar of Korean: A Complete Guide to the Grammar and History of the Korean Language (Hardcover)

by Samuel E. Martin (Author)
Key Phrases: eight winds, ancient buddha, prospective modifier, Reference Grammar of Korean, Middle Korean, Reference Granunar of Korean (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.


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; Revised edition (October 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804837716
• ISBN-13: 978-0804837712
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #781,428 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 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 (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book needs hangul., October 4, 2008

By	Walt Whitman Fan (Buffalo, New York United States) - See all my reviews

The previous review is quite correct about the lack of Hangul in this book. More Chinese characters would also be nice. It is, however, helpful to explore the Yale system used by Martin if you want to read certain kinds of linguistics articles on Korean.

3.0 out of 5 stars Echoing the opinions of others, not targetted at Korean learners, June 23, 2009

By	xFlibble (Australia) - See all my reviews

As others have said, the content is thorough, however, the layout is awful, and the romanisation impenetrable for Korean students. This seems to be designed to be a field guide for a linguistics student.

I don't know much about linguistic texts, but it would seem that the hangeul is just as relevant to grammar as the phonetics, and having both hangeul and standardised phonetics would make this a much more broadly useful reference than it is.

If you want a grammar reference for self study, check out Korean Grammar for International Learners from Yonsei University and Using Korean: A Guide to Contemporary Usage