中韓 文獻 對照를 통한 한자 어휘의 통시적 意味 고찰 ― ‘방조(帮助/幇助·幫助)’를 중심으로 ―

Abstract

Chinese characters have been a significant linguistic heritage shared by China and Korea for centuries. This study focuses on the Sino-Korean cognate word "bangjo(帮助/幇助·幫助)" and examines how its meaning has evolved over time in China and Korea. Specifically, it conducts a diachronic analysis by comparing classical texts from the 15th to 17th centuries with modern texts from the 20th century, providing an in-depth exploration of how the meaning of this word has changed across different periods. The results reveal that "bangjo" was primarily used in positive and neutral contexts in both Early Modern Chinese and Middle Korean, though it was also employed in limited negative contexts. By the 20th century, while the term retained both positive/neutral and negative meanings in Chinese, it became predominantly used in a negative sense in Korean. These differences are attributed to the varying sociocultural backgrounds of the two countries and the emphasis on legal and moral responsibility. This study provides foundational insights for systematically understanding the semantic evolution of Sino-Korean words and contributes to a deeper understanding of the linguistic and cultural dynamics between China and Korea.