退溪 李滉의 漢文 文章의 文脈파악 기법

Abstract

This Article explored the method how Toegye Yi Whang(1501~1570) grasped the contexts of sentences through the meaning of a character(字義), the meaning of a word(語義), the meaning of a sentence(文義), the general idea of a passage(大義), an emphasis placed on a word(語勢), and an emphasis placed on sentences(文勢). Languages reflect the communication styles of the cultures that use those languages. Context refers to the linguistic environment associated with the connection of the meanings in the text. The context of language is divided into low-context culture and high-context culture according to the method of communication. In high-context culture such as Korea and China, the more educated and sophisticated you are, the greater your ability to both speak and listen with an understanding of implicit, layered messages. By contrast, in low-context cultures such as the United States and Canada, the most educated and sophisticated people are those who communicate in a clear, explicit way Toegye said that scholar reading the text can catch the implicated meaning of the sentence only after quietly searching and acquiring the meaning of a character(字義). He also said that if there is no reliable basis for identifying the meaning of a word(語義) in sentence, it is better to leave it as it is without trying to change it. When scholar reads the text, he must follow the meaning of the sentences, and then look at the commentary but he should not be confined to sentence only. Also, when scholar grasp the general idea of a passage(大義), he explains the former scholars’ words in the present ones and first makes himself clear, as if he were talking to them. Toegye said, “scholar gets to the heart of each passage from the beginning to the end, and he reads the above letter as if he does not know that there is a letter below, and he reads the above phrase as if he does’t know that there is a letter below, he can understand the emphasis placed on words(語勢).” And if the writing of the text starts to shine in the first place and then becomes lulled afterwards, the emphasis placed on sentences(文勢) will be clogged and then the meaning of the context should be checked so that the letters do not interfere with each other. To do this, he also said, "In reaching a point of precision enough to study the name and reason of things, scholar should consider the similarities among the clues and the origins of the contexts.