현풍 곽씨 언간의 ‘선어말어미 생략’에 대한 고찰

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to examine the grammatical tendency to omit prefinal endings appearing in the letters of the Hyeonpung Gwak family written in pure Korean in the early 17th century. Omission of endings is a phenomenon often found in Middle Korean, but is especially rampant in today's Internet communication. In the Korean language, in which a mechanical combination of a stem and an ending produces a grammatical function, the omission of endings is a very notable phenomenon. Out of the three functions of prefinal endings--honorific, temporal and intentional indicators--this study focuses on the first two functions, and briefly deals with the third suggesting the possibility of its retained use until the 17th century. In the letters under examination, when prefinal endings function as an honorific indicator, the subject-honorific ending "-시-“ is hardly omitted but is used consistently and appropriately according to the speech level. As for the object-honorific endings, their substitutes are simpler here than those of Later Middle Korean. The politeness ending "--” appears in varied forms, such as "-이-,“ ”-ㅣ-,“ or "-ㅇ-," but the degree of politeness marked by these endings is presumed to be lower. As for the prefinal endings that function as a temporal indicator, the appearance of the past ending "-엇-" is highly noteworthy. When past events are described, temporal endings are omitted in some cases, and "-앗/엇" is used in others with a similar frequency of the two cases. This shows that "-앗/엇" was fully recognized as a past ending when the letters were written. The future ending "-리-" is omitted arbitrarily when it is combined with the ending structure "-로쇠." This practice makes sense considering that both "-리-" and "-로-" originated from the same gerundial ending "-ㄹ." Although the function of prefinal endings as an intentional indicator is known to have gone obsolete in Pre-modern Korean, these 17th-century letters have a few examples. Further studies are needed to find out whether the "-오/우-" functioned as an intentional indicator or just existed as its fossilized form.