This chapter describes the grammar of groups and phrases in Korean – covering nominal groups, verbal groups, adverbial groups and co-verbal phrases. The function structure of each unit is introduced and their meaning potential is formalised in system networks. The realisation of systems by function structures and their realisation in turn by words and morphemes or by embedded groups or clauses is outlined. Korean morphology is brought into the picture to clarify the realisation of choices for meaning at group/phrase rank.

This chapter focuses on grammatical resources for construing experience – transitivity. It begins with a basic introduction to experiential clause structure, covering participants, processes and circumstances. It then presents the distinctive structures of material, mental, relational and verbal clauses. The meaning potential of each clause type is consolidated in a system network whose realisation in structure is specified. Following a discussion of diathesis (covering voice and causatives), a range of types of circumstance are surveyed.

This chapter focuses on grammatical resources for composing information flow, focusing on theme. It begins with a basic introduction to textual clause structure – Theme and Rheme. It then describes the different types of Theme (Topical Theme, Interpersonal Theme and Textual Theme) and their grammatical realisation. The contribution of each type of Theme is illustrated in short texts illustrating their role in managing texture. The chapter concludes with a discussion of thematic progression and introduces guidelines for recognising types of Theme in discourse.

This chapter introduces the appliable linguistics theory, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), informing this grammar of Korean. The three basic theoretical dimensions of SFL are outlined – stratification (levels of language), rank (constituency) and metafunction (kinds of meaning). The approach to the distinctive relation of system to structure in SFL is then explained, including the formalisation of paradigmatic relations in system networks. The chapter closes with an outline of the book as a whole.

This chapter focuses on grammatical resources for construing logical relations between clauses. The chapter begins by clarifying the distinction between a clause simplex and a clause complex and the distinction between a clause complex and a verbal group complex. Subsequently the basic oppositions between parataxis and hypotaxis on the one hand and between projection and expansion on the other are introduced and relevant resources are then presented, section by section, in more detail. A sample analysis of a longer clause complex rounds off the discussion.

The final chapter explores the relevance of this grammar of Korean to two particular contexts of application (i) teaching Korean as a foreign language and (ii) translation and interpreting (T&I). It begins with a discussion of traditional approaches to teaching Korean as a foreign language and then illustrates the way the grammar can be drawn on to inform a pedagogic practice based on Reading to Learn (R2L) – focusing on locative relational clauses. The chapter then turns to relevance of the grammar to the field of translation and interpreting, beginning with an interpretation example and moving on to a translation example. The chapter concludes with a brief note on additional fields of application.

This chapter focuses on grammatical resources for enacting social relations – mood. A basic distinction is drawn between the systems of formal mood and addressee deference on the one hand and the systems of informal mood, stance and politeness on the other. Subsequently the systems of polarity, modality, participant deference, highlight, comment and expletion are outlined. For each system the relevant choices for meaning are consolidated in system networks and their realisation in structure at clause, group/phrase and word ranks is specified.

Chapter 9 discusses the SO preference observed in the domain of language production, i.e., that sentences with SO orders are more frequently produced than sentences with OS orders in many languages. Although the language production mechanism is often assumed to be universal, the range of languages investigated so far is typologically quite limited. We conducted a sentence production experiment with a picture description task to clarify word order selection in Kaqchikel. In this experiment, participants verbally described the target pictures with a simple sentence. Speakers of Kaqchikel had a general preference for producing the SVO order over the VOS order. This is consistent with the prediction of the UCV, but not with that of the IGV. Therefore, the SO word order might be a universal preference in sentence production, which is in line with the results of previous studies.

Chapter 2 sketches aspects of the grammar of Kaqchikel relevant to the discussions in the subsequent chapters. Kaqchikel is a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala. It is a head-marking and morphologically ergative language in which subjects and objects are not overtly case-marked for grammatical relations. Rather, grammatical relations are obligatorily marked on predicates, e.g., a verb with two sets of agreement morphemes, one set for a transitive subject and another for a transitive object and an intransitive subject. The word order of Kaqchikel is relatively flexible, and all of the logically possible six word orders are grammatically allowed. Among these, VOS is considered the basic word order of Kaqchikel by many Mayan language researchers.