Phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are most definitely observed in the Korean language. Phonetics are important because the position of the tongue is crucial in pronouncing certain Korean words with certain characters. For example, the consonant “ji-eut” or “ㅈ”, you have to hold back your tongue when pronouncing the consonant. For Koreans, the “j” sound is a lot shorter and lighter than in English. There are several other phonetic rules, but that stood out to me the most during my Korean lesson because I struggle in not emphasizing the “j” sound as much, since I’m so used to the “j” pronunciation in English. Phonology is just as important because through sound patterning, you’re able to properly pronounce Korean words. For example, in the Korean double vowels 왜/외/웨 are pronounced “wae”. You don’t achieve the sound when reading each character individually, but when you say them all together a bit faster, you create the “w” sound. Syntax can also be seen in this example since the arrangement of the characters is important is spelling and pronouncing the words correctly. Lastly, semantics is evidently seen in the Korean language, or any language, because it provides the meaning of the words that are written and spoken.
I’m unsure as to how historical linguistics will provide a more holistic understanding of my target language since it’s about the changes in a language. I assume that it would help bring in aspects of history and culture about the language to originate the why and how the language has changed. The descriptive approach is important because it touches upon the structural aspect of language –a main component in learning a new language. Then, there’s the generative linguistics approach: grammar is perfectly explicit –it consists of a set of statements or rules that specify which sequences of a language are possible or impossible. This approach ties into the descriptive approach, just more specified. Since the different disciplinary perspectives touch upon history, language structure, and its rules, it’s able to create a more holistic approach by incorporating the different aspects of what makes the language. Although I prefer the generative linguistics and descriptive linguistics –as I’m learning the fundamentals of Korean—I can ask questions about the change in Korea’s language during my lessons to learn more about its history. My knowledge of language structures from D. Crystal’s book is not that different from my learning plan I have set, but it helps as I’m able to understand the structures of language more clearly.
Replies
I find the pronunciation of Korean to seem extremely difficult, because a lot of the consonants sound exactly the same to my ear, even though they are very different. I hope hat the IPA helped you with this, and in general our lessons on how to make the different sounds in different places of the mouth. That being said, it sounds like korean must be difficult to write out in IPA if the sounds change when the characters are put together, like with 'wae'. I agree that learning the history of a language could provide a more holistic and advanced understanding of the modern language, but it's hard to really use that knowledge when you're still trying to understand the basics of the language.