Korean Neologism Compounding: The Structural Composition and Semantic Functions Analysis

Fuze, Muhammad Farris Imadi

doi:10.30961/lr.2026.62.1.21

Lang. Res. 62(1):21-54

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2026.62.1.21

Article

Korean Neologism Compounding: The Structural Composition and Semantic Functions Analysis

Muhammad Farris Imadi Fuze ¹ ^, ^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Chungnam National University

^†Corresponding author: Graduate Student Department of Linguistics Chungnam National University 99 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34134, Republic of Korea E-mail: elementfarris@gmail.com

ⓒ Copyright 2026 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jan 03, 2026 ; Revised: Mar 05, 2026 ; Accepted: Mar 23, 2026

Published Online: Apr 30, 2026

ABSTRACT

Lexical borrowing has significantly altered the Korean compounding process over time. This study aims to analyze the formation of Korean neologism compound, focusing on structural composition and semantic functions they serve in the language. 313 instances of compounding were retrieved from the 2018 Neologism Survey (2018년 신어 조사) and 2019 Neologism Survey (2019년 신어 조사) reports. The results indicate that Korean compounds can be a mix of English, Sino-Korean, and native Korean elements. Loanwords exhibit phonological alternation, and components of the compound may take the form of truncated words, acronyms, blends, or with foreign affixes. Korean compounds display three functional types: subordinative, coordinative, attributive. Study suggests that word formation in Korean has become increasingly diverse compared to the past. Multiple morphological processes may operate simultaneously in the creation of new words, although loanwords are still subject to the phonotactic constraints. It is hoped that this study will contribute additional value to the existing research, also serve as foundation for future studies.

Keywords: neologism compound; loanword; phonological alternation; compound structure; semantic function

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