문언, 백화 그리고 백화소설 - 전통시기 중국의 문학 언어에 관한 탐색 시론

Literary language, Vernacular language and Vernacular story - An Essay on Chinese Literature Language in Traditional Era

There are two kinds of language in Chinese written language. Those are Literary language (文言) and Vernacular language(白話). Vernacular language originated from the language of 先秦 兩漢 and was independent from natural language. In contrast, vernacular language depended on and reflected natural language. These two written languages existed together, at least from the late Tang era, but functioned in different, social and cultural area. The coexistence, contradiction and change of two languages can be seen cleary in the literature, especially in the novel. Vernacular language grew and developed as a language of the novel genre. The vernacular story was a kind of reflection of the structure of vernacular language and also the best instument which the novelists made use of with naturalistic spirit. Therefore the unique grammar of the vernacular story was formed, which is different from that of classical tale(文言小說). The vernacular story and vernacular language was inseparable and vernacular language affected the development of the vernacular novel and vice versa. After the nineteenth century, when the ideological conversion occurred in China, vernacular language and the vernacular novel became one of the essential concepts which helped to discern between the traditionality and the modernity.