Characteristics of the Korean language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
Generally, Korean has no gender. However, the AX NLG platform supports two genders (masculine and feminine) for the usage of personal pronouns. There are two numbers: singular and plural, which are needed to form accompanying determiners, numerals, and pronouns correctly. Additionally, Korean has around six cases for nouns.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| gender (pronoun) | masculine | 차는 그의 것이다. [chaneun geuui geosida] (The car is his.) |
| feminine | 차는 그녀의 것이다. [chaneun geunyeoui geosida] (The car is hers.) | |
| number (personal pronoun) | singular | 아이 [ai] (child) |
| plural | 아이들 [aideul] (children) | |
| cases (noun) | nominative | 아이는 [aineun] (child) |
| genitive | 아이의 공 [[aiui gong] (child's ball) | |
| dative | 나는 아이에게 공을 준다. [naneun aiege gong-eul junda] (I give the ball to the child.) | |
| accusative | 나는 그 아이를 본다. [naneun geu aileul bonda] (I see the child.) | |
| instrumental | 나는 어린아이로 선택되었다. [naneun eolin-ailo seontaegdoeeossda.] (I was chosen as a child.) | |
| vocative | 이봐, 아이야! [ibwa aiya!] (Hey, child!) | |
| adjectives (noun) | before noun | 빨간 집 [ppalgan jib] (red house) |
| verb tenses | present | 그는 먹는다 [geuneun meogneunda] (he eats) |
| present polite | 그는 먹어요 [geuneun meogeoyo] (he eats) | |
| past | 그는 먹었다 [geuneun meogeossda] (he ate) | |
| future | 그는 먹겠다 [geuneun meokgetda] (he will eat) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Korean is the following:
determiner + numeral + adjective + noun + preposition
See for example:
이 세 가지 인기있는 책에 대해
[i se gaji ingiissneun chaege daehae]
these three popular book about
DET NUM ADJ NOUN PREP
"about these three popular books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Korean nouns are inflected for number and case.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for 아이는 [aineun] (child) contains:
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | 아이는 [aineun] | 아이들은 [aideuleun] |
| Genitive | 아이의 [aiui] | 아이들의 [aideului] |
| Dative | 아이에*게 [aiege] | 아이들에게 [aideulege] |
| Accusative | 아이를 [aileul] | 아이들을 [aideuleul] |
| Instrumental | 아이로 [airo] | 아이으로 [aideula] |
| Vocative | 아이야 [aiya] | 아이들아 [aideuleuro] |
Adjectives
Currently, you can't create lexicon entries for Korean adjectives, since they are not inflected if used in the present tense. Contact support if you need to inflect adjectives for other tenses.
Verbs
Korean verbs inflect for tense. If a verb inflects incorrectly, you should add it to the lexicon.
Container settings
Determiner
The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Korean: demonstrative, medial, distal, and possessive. Korean does not have definite and indefinite determiners.
Numerals
The noun will automatically agree with the numeral number when a numeral variable is used. Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit.
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | 고양이 네 개 [goyangi ne gae] (four cats) | 네 번째 고양이 [ne beonjjae goyangi] (the fourth cat) |
| digit | 고양이 4 개 [goyangi ne gae] (4 cats) | 4번째 고양이 [ne beonjjae goyangi] (the 4th cat) |
For Korean, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 12 on the platform, otherwise (above 12) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:
펜 열두 개
[pen yeoldu gae]
(twelve pens)
vs.
펜 13 개
[pen 13 gae]
(13 pens)
If an ordinal is used in the noun container, the AX NLG platform will add the most common ordinal marker, "번째 [beonjjae]". If a cardinal is used in the noun container, the AX NLG platform will add the most common classifier, "개 [gae]". However, if different ordinal markers or classifiers are needed, they have to be added manually in plain text. Note that when cardinal numerals accompany a noun, the order of the noun phrase will change to: noun + numeral.
Vowel harmony
The last character of a word may change based on the preceding character. Korean vowels have either positive or negative values. The vowels that point up or to the right side are seen as positive/bright :ㅏ [a], ㅗ [o]. The vowels that point down or to the left are seen as negative/dark:ㅓ [eo], ㅜ [u]. The positive and negative vowels are generally used in pairs, which is called “vowel harmony”. It appears mainly in the stem or endings of verbs, as well as in mimetic words and onomatopoeia. We currently do not support automatic vowel harmony for Korean.