중국어 표현성 겸경형태소의 분류 및 의미자질 분석

Abstract

Chinese honorific expressions have received limited scholarly attention to date. It is primarily because, unlike in Korean or Japanese, where honorific systems are highly developed and grammatically marked, honorifics in Chinese are largely realized at the lexical level and occur relatively infrequently, primarily within formal registers. Chinese honorifics are predominantly expressed through honorific morphemes followed by a noun or a verb. This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of all expressive honorific morphemes listed in Liu Hongli (2001), examining their semantic properties. Nominal and adjectival honorific morphemes that modify nouns exhibit similar semantic features. They convey respect by elevating referents associated with the addressee or convey humility by lowering referents related to the addresser. For honorific morphemes that modify verbs, this study adopts a typological framework reflected in languages with highly-developed honorific systems, categorizing them into four types: subject honorification, object honorification, subject humbling, and object humbling. These verbal honorific morphemes, many of which originate from verbs, are grouped together according to their semantic and syntactic similarities. The definition and classification of honorific expressions in Chinese have long remained ambiguous. This study offers a systematic account of Chinese honorifics through cross-linguistic comparison, semantic feature analysis of honorific morphemes, and linguistic typology, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the honorific system in Chinese.