‘자다’류 동사의 통시적 변천에 대한 고찰

Abstract

Common words are the core of lexical system. They play an important role in ensuring the continuity of language and providing the basis for the creation of new words. In a certain sense, the change of the common words is the deep, essential change of the whole lexical system. The history of Chinese lexemes is the science of studying the diachronic change of Chinese lexemes. It should make research into the changes of the important common words in the lexical system. Without researching into the history of common words, one could not have an outlook of the lexis of the period. Precisely, he will lose the scientific evidence for the lexis history of different periods. Verbs are the most abundant and most complex words in Chinese. The most important of them is common verbs. The study of common verbs allows us to better understand verbs and Chinese. This study selects five commonly used verbs meaning ‘睡(shui)’, ‘寐(mei)’, ‘臥(wo)’, ‘寢’(qin), ‘眠’(mian) as the research objects. Verbs signifying sleep has the closest relationship with the people’s daily life. Ever since the appearance of the human being in the world, sleep is an essential inactivity and basic part of their life. The replacement of the verbs signifying sleep profiled among the changes of lexis. Every glosseme of the verb signifying sleep experienced a course of changing. In light of the historical documents, the paper makes an investigation on the changes of the verbs signifying sleep throughout the historical periods, and analyses the features and the causes of these changes.