한국어 부사형어미 ‘-게’의 확장에 관한 통시적 고찰

Abstract

This paper examines the diachronic expansion and characteristics, and the subsequent synchronic condition of the adverbial ending “-ge”, attached to adjective stems. The adverbial ending “-ge” first appeared in the Korean language during the Middle Ages, in causative constructions attached to verb stems, then its usage was expanded to adjective stems. Constructions like “-ge hada” were first conjoined with possessive, symmetrical and psychological adjectives, the common factor of which is that they cannot assume the scale and consequence of a phenomenon or thing. The fact that the result-descriptive nature generated by the conjunction of causative constructions like “-ge hada” and verb stems was first attached to those adjectives of no result-descriptive ability shows that the expansion from the verb form to the adjective form was a supplementary process. The reason “-ge” in causative constructions then developed into the passive form of “-ge doeda” is because passive constructions shift the focus to the resulted condition. Through the 19th century and unto the present language, the adverbial ending “-ge” productively used in causative and passive constructions came to be conjoined with almost every adjective, to describe or signify the result of a phenomenon, and also gained the semantical nature of gradability when conjoined with adjectives containing gradability. This suggests that its expanded usage within the category of adjectives was based on similarity.