일제강점기 외솔 최현배 국어 연구 방법론의 국어학사적 의미

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the significance of Choi Hyeon-bae's Korean language research during the Japanese colonial period within the history of Korean linguistics, considering the developmental trends of linguistics. More specifically, it focuses on objectively describing the trends in linguistic research during the 1920s when Oesol's works began to emerge, the tendencies in Korean language research among modern Japanese scholars, and the characteristics and limitations of Oesol's Korean language research, which inherited Ju Si-gyeong's work. It also seeks to clarify the significance of his research methodology within the developmental context of Korean linguistics. The world linguistics and Japanese linguistics of the 1920s, when Oesol began publishing papers related to Korean linguistics in earnest, were closely connected to comparative and historical linguistics. Concepts such as ‘language family’, ‘comparison’, and ‘historical method’ were major research methodologies of this era and were also closely related to Oesol's research methodology. Specifically, the three major areas of Oesol's Korean language research (Sorigal=phonetics, Ssigal=parts of speech theory, and Wolgal=syntax) can be seen as building upon prior research and establishing a unique theoretical framework adapted from foreign studies to the Korean context. The articulatory phonetics in ‘Sorigal’, and the synthetic approach in ‘Ssigal’ and ‘Wolgal’, represent methodologies that consider the function, structure, and system of language. Moreover, it is evident that Oesol's frequency measurement and dialect collection are closely connected to sociolinguistic research methodologies. In fact, there are quite a few aspects of Oesol's methodologies in each field that require more detailed analysis and description. Furthermore, certain aspects of Oesol's grammar, such as treating passive and causative suffixes as ‘auxiliary stems’ or discussions related to the spelling of loanwords, show limitations when viewed through the lens of current Korean grammar descriptions. These limitations are tasks that must be addressed by meticulously analyzing the fundamental logic underlying Oesol's comparative (or contrastive) methodology.