記述焦點의 관점에서 본 與의 기능

Abstract

與 is one of the frequently used expletives in Chinese classics as a noun, a verb, an adverb, and a modal particle. In specific, 與 is used in many cases as a preposition and a conjunction. Thus, a variety of meanings and functions of 與 have been fully reviewed in existing studies. However, the previous studies have left much to be desired in a way that how a preposition and a conjunction are classified. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assort the part of speech of 與, based on the focus of description and to discuss the way of sorting is helpful to understand the meaning of a sentence correctly . First of all, for the most cases when the agent of behavior of the verb predicate is located both before and after 與 in subject, 與 is mostly a preposition. In this case, the noun before 與 is a single subject; while the noun after 與 is an accompanied agent. As the antecedent noun is the only subject, the focus of description becomes different when the nouns before and after 與 are replaced. Moreover, not only the focus of description is different but also the meaning can be completely different depending on cases. Next, for the case when 與 of predicate is just used to list plural objects, 與 is mostly a conjunction. However, more caution should be taken in changing the position of plural objects when they are connected with 與. In particular, when the object is a noun denoting a person, changing the position can result in violating writer's intention of respecting the revered one as the revered one is located previously. Also, when the type of object is a final clause, as mentioned above in 與 in subject, the part of speech of 與 should be decided by allowing for the focus of description. Whether 與 should be classified as a preposition or a conjunction can determine the subject of a sentence, make the focus of description different, and even change the meaning of a sentence. Therefore, it is vital to figure out the part of speech of 與 correctly in order to comprehend writer's intention of description squarely.