以의 문법화 과정 고찰(下) — ≪詩經≫에 나타난 용례를 바탕으로

Abstract

This paper is a follow-up of the previous paper ＜The grammaticalization path of yǐ (以) -Based on its occurrences in The Book of Odes (Shijing ≪詩經≫)＞. In the previous paper, it is illustrated that yǐ is originally a verb meaning ‘to lead’, and from its verbal usage, it is grammaticalized into an adposition with a wide range of usages. This paper investigates how yǐ is further grammaticalized from a postposition into a conjunction and what the conjunctional usages are. First of all, the widely-believed hypothesis that the conjunctional yǐ was derived from the form [VP₁+以之+VP₂] through the elision of zhī 之 was rejected. Rather, it originated from the form [[VP₁+以]PostP+VP₂], where VP₁ is used as a nominalized object of the postpositional yǐ. This argument is supported by the fact that an adposition and a conjunction often share the same form in other languages and they are considered as the same part of speech. English before and after are such examples. As a conjunction, yǐ has a wide range of usages, such as cause and result, purpose, time sequence, and manner. It is also used as a noun phrase conjunction(NP-AND). The conjunctional yǐ which expresses cause/result or used as a purpose marker (all of which are often grouped as ‘consequence’ in the literature) all developed from the postpositional yǐ which expresses reason. Yǐ expressing time sequence was derived directly from the verbal yǐ meaning ‘to lead’. Yǐ expressing manner was derived from its postpositional usage meaning instrument. Yǐ used as an NP-AND originated from the postpositional yǐ indicating instrumental/comitative, a development which is broadly observed across languages.