중국어 역사문법의 최신 연구동향 분석 —2012년부터 2022년까지의 古汉语研究와 中国语文을 중심으로

Abstract

This article reviews recent research trends in Historical Grammar of Chinese based on 212 articles published in Research In Ancient Chinese Language(古汉语研究) and Studies of The Chinese Language(中国语文) from 2012 to 2022. In this field, ‘words’ are being studied more than ‘constructions’, and ‘adverbs’ are being studied the most. There are the most studies on the period of ‘Archaic Chinese’ among three periods of Ancient Chinese, that is Archaic, Middle Ancient and Modern Ancient Chinese. Diachronic research is more focused rather than synchronic research. Research methods of Historical Grammar of Chinese can be largely classified into two types: simple descriptions and theoretical interpretations, and we find more studies of the former than the latter. Theoretical interpretations studies can be subdivided into five types: (1) studies on mechanisms and motivations of grammaticalization, (2) linguistic typology based studies, (3) construction grammar theory based studies, (4) cognitive grammar theory based studies, (5) generative grammar theory based studies. Among these five types, (1) accounts for the highest proportion and (4), (5) accounts for a relatively low proportion. The article concludes by suggesting that theoretical interpretations studies should be conducted more actively, and the subjects should be more associated with Modern Chinese. There also should be a unified understanding of mechanisms and motivations of grammaticalization and the key elements should be found among these.