≪高麗史≫白話文 중 方位詞 ‘上ㆍ上頭ㆍ根前ㆍ根底’의 특수용법 硏究

Abstract

This paper focuses on the localizers “Sang上, Sangdu上頭, Geunjeon根前, Geunjeo根底” in ≪History of Goryeo 高麗史≫. In Modern Chinese, “Sang上, Sangdu上頭” usually function as localizers in order to indicate the position or direction of objects (such as “up and upper”), and are placed behind nouns. However in these documents, “Sang上, Sangdu上頭” has a special function of representing the causes of related events, while “Geunjeon根前, Geunjeo根底” function as postpositions to indicate the object of action or the destination. This special usage of localizers as postpositions is a language phenomenon widely used in Written Vernacular Chinese(Baihua白話) during the Yuan Dynasty (Modern Chinese era), rather than in Written Classical Chinese(文語文,古文). While the language used in ≪History of Goryeo 高麗史≫ has been widely recognized as Written classical Chinese, this newly discovered phenomenon indicates that the document is written in the mixture of both Written Vernacular Chinese and Written Classical Chinese. To have a full understanding of the Written Vernacular Chinese in this document, it is very important to understand that these words in focus are functioning as postpositions of special usage rather than localizers. The study is significant in that the language used in ≪History of Goryeo 高麗史≫ could be re-defined accurately, and that further interpretation errors of mistaking Written Vernacular Chinese for Written Classical Chinese could be prevented.