고대중국어 ‘則’의 접속사 용법 연구

초록

Typologically, there has been a lack of diachronic research on the coordination and subordination properties of conjunctions, as well as on their relationship. Furthermore, studies that attempt to connect these aspects with the historical shift from coordination to subordination in sentence structure are exceedingly rare. The transition from coordinated to subordinated clauses may be linked to changes in the ways humans produce language. Such changes in linguistic structure are not merely syntactic but are also associated with broader shifts in human modes of linguistic expression. This paper, building on this perspective, investigates the diachronic process by which the ancient Chinese conjunction '則,' known as a key marker of subordination, was initially employed predominantly in coordinated structures and subsequently evolved. In conditional complex sentences, '則' functions as a subordinating conjunction that connects the protasis and apodosis. However, early textual evidence shows a preference for its use in coordinated structures, a usage that diminishes in later texts. Specifically, the conjunction '則' was initially used to express both contrastive and conditional meanings, but over time, its function in contrastive structures declined, resulting in a shift towards expressing conditionality exclusively. This linguistic phenomenon, previously underexplored, also appears to relate to the broader transition in Chinese sentence structure from coordination to subordination. This study further explores the interplay between contrastive, topical, and conditional relationships. The findings offer insights into previously overlooked aspects of the diachronic evolution of conjunctions and may contribute to broader cross-linguistic studies in this area.

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