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A Historical Study on Korean Adverb ‘nalro’ and ‘sesero’ Types

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2019, 76(3), pp.65-100
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.76.3.201908.65
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : April 22, 2019
  • Accepted : June 4, 2019
  • Published : August 31, 2019

JANG, Goeun 1 Kim Han Gyul 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study aims to provide a historical explanation on the Korean adverbs ‘nalro’ (‘날로’) and ‘sesero’ (‘세세(世世)로’) types, which mean the repetition of time intervals. Although the two types appear similar in terms of morphology and semantics, they have different features in word formation. The ‘nalro’ type, a syntactic unit of a temporal noun and the postposition ‘ro’, has the meaning of ‘per X’, repetition of X intervals, e.g. ‘nalro’ (daily), in Middle Korean, since the case marker ‘ro’ has temporal usage for one of its meaning. The ‘nalro’ type adverbs come to obtain the meaning of ‘X by X’, like ‘nalro’ (day by day) in the context of change of state; thus their non-compositional meaning may lead to the lexicalization of the whole construction. The ‘sesero’ type, on the other hand, has paradigmatic relations with the reduplicated form ‘X’, ‘Xye’ and ‘Xro’, which are combined with ‘ye’ (←e) and ‘ro’ to reduplicated form, and these words have almost same usage (e.g. ‘sese’, ‘seseye’, ‘sesero’; ‘from generation to generation). The interpretation of time intervals of ‘sesero’ type adverbs comes from reduplication, and given our diachronic perspective, the ‘Xye’ and ‘Xro’ can be identified as forms inherited from a time prior to Middle Korean.

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