‘가능’의미를 표현하는 ‘會’의 기원과 그 변화경로에 대한 고찰

Abstract

This paper discusses the origin and the development path of the ‘hui(會)’ which expresses ‘possibility’ in Chinese. After looking through historical corpus and analysing previous studies, we arrive at the following conclusions: (1) The origin of the ‘hui(會)’ expressing ‘possibility’ is the original meaning of ‘hui(會)’―that is ‘to meet with (something)’―but not ‘ability’, because the ‘possibility’ meaning appeared among Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties, while the ‘ability’ meaning appeared among Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. (2) There may have been two development paths from ‘to meet with (something)’ to ‘possibility’. One is ‘to meet with (something)’→‘to accord with’→‘possibility’ through two consecutive metaphor changes, and the other is ‘to meet with (something)’→‘to meet with (a certain situation)’→‘possibility’ through metaphor and reanalysis.