The Department of Korean Language and Literature is largely divided into the Korean Language and the Korean Literature departments. The Korean Literature department is further divided into Modern Korean Literature and Classical Korean Literature composed of traditional Korean literature and Chinese-Korean literature. Modern Korean Literature explores all kinds of literary genres such as poetry, novel, essay, and drama, and Classical Korean Literature aims to study the literary arts that Korean ancestors have traditionally cultivated before modernization. Korean Linguistics begins with the ancient Korean language, covers the modern Korean language that is currently in use, and investigates all problems related to language, especially the Korean grammatical system, historical changes of the Korean language, the usage of language in real life, and the Korean letters, the means of spelling Korean.
The Department of Korean Language and Literature has a special and proud tradition and history. The fundamental framework of Korean grammar that is taught at various levels of schools is the one created and developed in the study rooms and classrooms of our Department. Professors and students of the Department play central roles in the Lexicographical Center for the Korean Language founded on campus, and the Yonsei Korean Dictionary that was released on Hangul Day in 1998 marks a new milestone in the history of the Korean dictionary The Lexicographical Center has since changed its name to the "Center for Language and Information Development," and responsibly for all scholastic studies in respect to language information and the role of lexicography. In addition, people who majored in the Korean language at are playing crucial roles in the Korean Language Institute.