Han Jeong-Han, Han Hee-Jung. 2013. A study on dictionary description of world class conversions in Korean. Korean Semantics, 40. The purpose of this paper, first, lies to comparing the current six major Korean dictionaries as to how they deal with word class conversions, and second, to show why it is so important to express ostensive criteria in determining word class of each lemma, and which is so helpful for dictionary users, especially Korean learners.
After having compared the six major Korean dictionaries, we have known the fact that many dictionary users have difficulties not by the misunderstanding of word class conversion, but by the misunderstanding of the fact that on what condition a word class becomes another word class, along with the criterion of selecting lemma/sub-lemma.
Therefore in order to solve out these problems, we had to provide with clear-cut standards with which word class of a word becomes another word class of it. For that matter, we suggest 5 criteria with which to determine word class conversions; form, distribution, function, meaning, and orthography, respectively. Together with it, we also provide with the lemma selecting principle based on function and meaning in addition to form of lemmas, which we believe help easier dictionary users understand word class conversions in Korean.