The Analysis of Kinship Terminology Between Korean and Japanese –Focused on Personal Suffixes ‘-nim(님)’ and ‘-san(さん)-

Abstract

In this paper, we compare and contrast the linguistic features of ‘-nim’ and ‘-san,’ which are representative personal suffixes in Korean and Japanese, respectively. Although there are so many similarities between Korean and Japanese in terms of linguistic typology, contrary to our expectations, comparative research studies focused on the similarities and dissimilarities among personal suffixes have not attracted the attention of researchers. Therefore, by weighing the grammatical properties of ‘-nim’ and ‘-san’ in Korean and Japanese, we will reveal that both personal suffixes are parallel to each other, especially in terms of kinship terminology.