Editing Agglutination (section)

== Slots ==

As noted above, it is a typical feature of agglutinative languages that there is a one-to-one correspondence between suffixes and syntactic categories. For example, a noun may have separate markers for number, case, possessive or conjunctive usage etc. The order of these affixes is fixed;<ref group="note>There may exist exceptions in a language requiring some affixes go in an unexpected slot.</ref> so we may view any given noun or verb as a stem followed by several inflectional and derivational "slots", i.e. positions in which particular suffixes may occur, and/or preceded by several "slots" for prefixes. It is often the case that the most common instance of a given grammatical category is unmarked, i.e. the corresponding affix is empty.

The number of slots for a given part of speech can be surprisingly high. For example, a finite [[Korean language|Korean]] verb has seven slots (the inner [[Bracket#Parentheses|round brackets]] indicate parts of morphemes which may be omitted in some phonological environments):<ref>Nam-Kil Kim: ''Korean'', p. 890–897 in Comrie (1990).</ref>

# honorific:                        ''-(eu)si'' ((으)시) is used when the speaker is honouring the subject of the sentence
# tense:                            ''-(eo)ss'' (었) for completed (past) action or state; when this slot is empty, the tense is interpreted as present (The 'ss' is pronounced as 't' if it is placed behind a consonant. For example, -었어(eoss-eo) is pronounced as (eosseo), but -었다(eoss-ta) is pronounced as (eotta). Please note that the same rule applies to all instances of the 'ss' ending.)
# experiential-contrastive aspect:  ''-(eo)ss'' (었) doubling the past tense marker means "the subject has had the experience described by the verb"
# modal:                            ''-gess'' (겠) is used with first-person-subjects only for definite future and with second-or-third-person-subjects also for probable present or past
# formal:                           ''-(eu)pni'' ((으)ㅂ니) expresses politeness to the hearer
# retrospective aspect:             ''-deo''; (더) indicates that the speaker recollects what he observed in the past and reports in the present situation
# mood:                             ''-da'' (다) for declarative, ''-kka'' (까) for interrogative, ''-ra/-la'' (라) for imperative, ''-ja'' (자) for propositive, ''-yo'' (요) for polite declarative and a large number of other possible mood markers

Moreover, passive and causative verbal forms can be derived by adding suffixes to the base, which could be seen as the null-th slot.

Even though some combinations of suffixes are not possible (e.g. only one of the aspect slots may be filled with a non-empty suffix), over 400 verb forms may be formed from a single base. Here are a few examples formed from the word root ''ga'' 'to go'; the numbers indicate which slots contain non-empty suffixes:

* 7 (imperative mood marker): imperative suffix ''-ra'' (라) combines with the root ''ga-'' (가) to express imperative:
*: ''ga-ra'' (가라) 'Go!'
* 7 (propositive mood marker): if we want to express proposition rather than command, the propositive mood marker is used: ''-ja'' (자) instead of ''-ra'' (라):
*: ''ga-ja'' (가자) 'Let's go!'
* 5 and 7: If the speaker wants to show respect for the hearer, he uses the politeness marker ''-(eu)pni'' ((으)ㅂ니) (in slot 5); various mood markers may be simultaneously used (in slot 7, therefore after the politeness marker):
*: ''gap-ni-da'' (갑니다) 'He is going.'
*: ''gap-ni-kka?'' (갑니까) 'Is he going?'
* 6: retrospective aspect:
*: ''Jon-i jib-e ga-deo-ra'' (존이 집에 가더라) 'I observed that John was going home and now I am reporting that to you.'
* 7: simple indicative:
*: ''seon-saeng-nim-i jib-e gan-da'' (선생님이 집에 간다) 'The teacher is going home. (not expressing respect or politeness)'
* 5 and 7: politeness towards the hearer:
*: ''seon-saeng-nim-i jib-e gap-ni-da'' (선생님이 집에 갑니다) or ''seon-saeng-nim-i jib-e ga-yo'' (선생님이 집에 가요) 'The teacher is going home.',
* 1 and 7: respect towards the subject:
*: ''seon-saeng-nim-i jib-e ga-sin-da'' (선생님이 집에 가신다) 'The (respected) teacher is going home.'
* 1, 5 and 7: two kinds of politeness in one sentence:
*: ''seon-saeng-nim-i jib-e ga-syeo-yo'' (선생님이 집에 가셔요) or ''seon-saeng-nim-i jib-e ga-sip-ni-da'' (선생님이 집에 가십니다) 'The teacher is going home. (expressing respect both to the hearer and the teacher)'
* 2, 3 and 7: past forms:
*: ''Jon-i hak-gyo-e ga-ss-da/gat-ta'' (존이 학교에 갔다) 'John has gone to school (and is there now).'
*: ''Jon-i hak-gyo-e gass-eoss-da/gass-eot-ta'' (존이 학교에 갔었다) 'John has been to school (and has come back).'
* 4 and 7: first person modal:
*: ''nae-ga nae-il ga-gess-da/ga-get-ta'' (내가 내일 가겠다) 'I will go tomorrow.'
* 4 and 7: third person modal:
*: ''Jon-i nae-il ga-gess-da/ga-get-ta'' (존이 내일 가겠다) 'I suppose that John will go tomorrow.'
*: ''Jon-i eo-je gass-gess-da/gat-get-ta'' (존이 어제 갔겠다) 'I suppose that John left yesterday.'