Ye의 thou代替에 관한 사회언어학적 고찰 = A Sociolinguistic View on Yo-Substitution for Thou

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The question why Middle English thou was substituted by you in Modern English has not been convincingly clarified. Yet, it is said that there are evidences for 'reverential - ye" in Middle English. This study intends to show how the mysterious disappearance of thou can be better explained in sociolinguistic perspective.
Middle English, spoken by the lower class people, was in a state of continuous flux by being mixed with neighboring languages, while Norman French was the language of the nobility. "Reverential - ye" is supposed to have been borrowed from Norman French usage, but there are counter - evidences against its regular usage even in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and in Everyman, a century later. Some parts of Marlow's and some others' texts also suggest a suspicion that the 'solidarity - thou" argument is rather shallow rooted These facts converge on nothing less than that the thou- ye difference was probably a dramatic device irregularly adopted by some artists.
Since Middle English could not be free of Norman French influence, including the du-vous differentiation of the latter, it can be said that the common people in the medieval Anglo-Saxon society must have been unsusceptible to such honorific device, though advocated by some. The condition that produced this indifference may reasonably have come from multiple social conventions and thoughts that were prevalent in that era. The relevant factors can be concluded to have been unconsciousness of or distance between social classes, preacher - congregation relation, nationalism and egalitarianism. Together with linguistic (phonological) confusion, the medieval religious life seems to have played the primary role. Thus sociolinguistics can help solve linguistic enigmas.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 서론
• Ⅱ. 중세영어시대사회에서의 영어의 위상
• Ⅲ. 敬語적 단수로 쓰인 ye의 연구
• Ⅳ. 사회언어학적 관점
• 1. Danelaw의 봉건사회의 영향
• 2. 기독교의 영향
• 3. 영국국민이라는 의식의 영향
• 4. 사회불안과 평등사상의 영향
• Ⅴ. 결론