근대계몽기 한자 훈독식 표기에 대한 연구

Abstract

Yi In-jik wrote Hyeoleui Nu (Tears of Blood), Korea’s first new novel, while Yu Gil-jun wrote Daehanmunjeon (Korean Grammar), the first modern grammar book by a Korean author. Both authors seem to have considered carefully how they should write, breaking away from Chinese sentences. Instead, they followed the syntactical structure of the Korean language, engaging in experiments to create distinctly ‘Korean’ sentences. One of these exercises was Chinese writing based on Korean reading. Using the Korean language to interpret Chinese characters was as difficult then as it is now. Accordingly, these authors’ efforts were regarded as a simple imitation of the Japanese reading of Kanji (gun’yomi) and, in fact, have never been discussed in depth. The present study suggests that Chinese writing based on Korean reading in early modern Korea was a viable method of creating a consistent composite of Korean and Chinese characters, allowing writing based on Korean syntax. Chinese writing based on Korean reading consisted of distinguishing Chinese sentences and characters and making heavy use of Korean reading of Chinese characters. To write using the syntactical structure of Korean and apply Korean and Chinese characters in combination to predicates (such as verbs and adjectives), there would have been no other method than Chinese writing based on Korean reading. Therefore, while it is not certain whether Yu Gil-jun or Yi In-jik ultimately aimed to use hangeul (‘Korean characters’) exclusively, it is clear that they were sensitive to the syntactic layers of the Korean language and adopted them as a standard for a new writing style.