공동연구 : 국어 선어말어미 배열순서의 역사적 변화

Abstract

This paper aims to give an explanation about the historical change of the order of pre-final endings in Korean. In Modern Korean, `honorific` ending ｛-si-}, which is used to honor the subject of the sentence, comes first, that is, is located nearest to the stem of a verb. And {-i-｝, which is used to honor the hearer, comes last, that is, is located before sentence-final endings. We can say from the above observation that the order of pre-final endings is determined by `the structural distance` between the verb, the nucleus of the proposition, and the element that is related to the function of the pre-final ending. In the history of Korean, there have been some changes in the order of pre-final endings : for instances, `-s∧β-+-si- > `-si-＋-s∧β-`. We cannot find any phonological motivations which are thought to have resulted in these changes. On the other hand, there are sufficient evidences showing that the functions of them have changed before the changes of the order. This means that the change of the order resulted from the change of the function. Another interesting change of `-t◎-+-si- > `-si-+-t◎-` has also been studied by many researchers. Some of them contend that this change resulted from the change of the function of {-t◎-} after 15th C. But it is almost certain that the change of {-te-} after 15th C took place in the late 18th C(Choi 1995). If so, this view cannot explain the examples of 15th C which reflect the change of the order. We assume that there had been another change of {-t◎-} before 15th C, and the change of `-t◎ -+-si-` > `-si-+-t◎-` resulted from that change. Our view can be supported by the fact that the change of `-t◎-+-si-` > `-si-+-t◎-` was accompanied by the change of `-k◎-+-si-` > `-si-+-k◎-`, and there are many usages which suggest early opposition of {-t◎-} and ｛-k◎-}.