I've come across the sentence "저는 이 책을 아주 조금 밖에 읽지 못했습니다" apparently meaning "I've only read a small part of this book" , and I don't really see how it would make any sense..
Could anyone explain to me how I should interpret it? Or is it just a Korean-kind of way to say it?
저는 이 책을 조금 읽었습니다.
I read a little bit of this book.
Here, the word 조금 can be thought to used as an adverb. It modifies the verb 읽었습니다.
저는 이 책을 아주 조금 읽었습니다.
I read a very little bit of this book.
Here, the word 조금 is also used as an adveb. And it is modified by another adverb 아주.
저는 이 책을 조금밖에 읽지 못했습니다.
I couldn't read anything but a very little (amount) of this book.
In this case, however, the word 조금 can be thought to be used as either a noun or an adverb because the word 조금 can be used in both ways.
So, the above sentence is equivalent to the following sentence.
저는 이 책을 조금만(-을) 읽었습니다.
I've only read a little bit of this book.
조금-밖에, 조금-만
In genereal, aux particles can be freely attached to any constituent in a sentence. And the objective/accusative case particle can be often omitted in a sentence, too.
Especially, the aux particle '-밖에' is always used with negatives so that it emphasize the preceding word. There are several different ways to emphasize the word using aux particles.
For exampke
이 일을 (오직) 너-밖에 할 수 없어. (aux particle, -밖에)
Any one can't do this but you.
이 일을 (오로지) 너-만(이) 할 수 있어. (aux particle, -만)
Only you can do this.
이 일을 할 수 있는 사람은 (오직) 너-뿐이야. (aux particle, -뿐)
There is no one who can do this except for you.