The Linguistic Methodology of Korean Linguistics : based on the comprehension of the historical inquiry

국어학의 언어학적 방법 -연구사적 이해를 중심으로-

In this paper I have considered the subject related with 'the identity of Korean linguistics.' When I have pondered upon the subject I found that all the researches should not be regarded as a part of Korean linguistics only because they followed the scientific methodology. Moreover, it isn't right to accept any of the studies of Korean linguistics only because they relied on the tenet of western linguistic methodology. Although till 1960's various western linguistic methods were introduced to Korean scholars and applied to account for Korean language, abruptly, since 1970's, most theories have inclined to follow tendency of American linguistic trend. Pupils who want to study modem linguistic theories prefer to study at the universities of America rather than other countries in Europe. However, it is necessary to blow that the history of American linguistics isn't really as long as that of European nations and that the humanities has developed fur a long time since the Greek period. If we attempt to contemplate the procedure of the invention of Korean alphabetic system (Hun-Min-Jung-Um) it will be easy to find the fact that the theoretic approaches used to observe and analyze Korean language in 15th century are as good as the most up-to-date theories which have been introduced recently. Therefore, I tried to show that the historical awareness of linguistic theories deserves special emphasis in order to understand the reality of Korean linguistics correctly.