A Comparative Study of Middle Chinese and Middle Korean Wh-expressions

Nogeoldae and Bak Tongsa are Middle Chinese (MM) textbooks established in the late 14^th century. They were revised twice in the late 15^th century and the mid-18^th century. These revised versions were written in Early Middle Chinese and Late Middle Chinese, respectively. During the revision process, the translations into Middle Korean (MK) were also carried out (cf. Ota 1991).

These bilingual texts enable systematic comparisons of the wh-expressions of Middle Chinese and Middle Korean along the clausal spine. For example, in these texts, sentence-final (SF) MM zěnme ‘do what’, zěnshēng ‘do how’, and rúhé ‘be how’ were translated into MK musum-ho ‘do what’, esti-ho ‘do how’, and esteho ‘be how’, respectively, all of which were also located in SF positions, see (1) to (3).

Meanwhile, in Modern Mandarin (ModM), zěnme ‘how’ in sentence-medial (SM) positions is divided into two subtypes, that is, H(igh)-HOW and M(id)-HOW (cf. Tsai 2008; Stepanov and Tsai 2008). H-HOW, such as causal zěnme, precedes grammatical particles such as cái ‘now’andjiù ‘just’ and auxiliaries such as néng‘can’ andgǎn ‘dare’, whereas M-HOW, such as instrumental/method how, follows them (see Stepanov & Tsai 2008; Tsai 1999, 2008, 2023, 2024 for further examples and definition of causal how as a wh-expression for eventuality causation).

In MM, zěnme was also used in SM positions and construed as either causal how or instrumental/method how. However, similar to ModM M-HOW, MM instrumental/method zěnme in Nogeoldae and Bak Tongsa never preceded any particles or auxiliaries such as cái ‘now’, jiù ‘just’, and néng‘can’. On the other hand, MM causal zěnme always preceded them whenever they were present, similar to ModM H-HOW, see (4a). This suggests that these two zěnme are distributed in two separate domains. Interestingly, their MK translations were also distinct from each other. Causal zěnme was translated with esti-hoy-e ‘for doing what’ or esti ‘how’ (or esci with palatalization) in the pre-modal position as exemplified in (4b), but was never translated with ei, whereas instrumental/method zěnme was frequently translated with ei, see (5).

            Based on these strict correspondences between Middle Chinese and Middle Korean wh-expressions, this paper proposes the structure in (6). In this structure, causal how (4), which meets the criteria of H-HOW, are positioned within the CP-domain, preceding auxiliaries and modal adverbs. Instrumental/method how (5) are positioned at Spec,vP, following auxiliaries. This division accounts for the aforementioned separate distributions of H-HOW and M-HOW of Middle Chinese and Middle Korean. The three SF wh-expressions, (1) to (3), are analyzed as VPs along with each of their MK translations.

            In this way, this paper conducts a systematic comparison between Middle Chinese and Middle Korean wh-expressions and discovers clear correspondences between the two. Theoretically speaking, the division of H-HOW and M-HOW in these two languages indicates that Tsai’s (2008) division of H-HOW and M-HOW is extendable to historical languages as well.

(1)   a.  xué    tā    hàn'ér    wénshū  zěnme? (Middle Chinese)

            learn that Chinese text        do.what

            ‘What do you learn Chinese for?’ (Revised Nogeoldae 刪改本老乞大 1483)

       b.  hanin-ui            kul             poyhw-a     musum-ho-l-ta? (Middle Korean)

            Chinese-GEN  language  learn-and   what-do-will-Q

            ‘What do you learn Chinese for?’ (Translated Nogeoldae 飜譯老乞大 1517)

(2)   a.  tā  chī  de      fàn    què    zěnshēng? (Middle Chinese)

             he eat  MOD meal but     do.how

            ‘What should we do about his meal?’ (Revised Nogeoldae 刪改本老乞大 1483)

       b.  tye-uy    mek-ul               pap-on       stwo  esti-ho-lye-nywo? (Middle Korean)

            he-GEN  eat-FUT.MOD  meal-TOP again how-do-will-Q

            ‘What should we do about his meal?’ (Translated Nogeoldae 飜譯老乞大 1517)

(3)   a.  rújīn   jiàqǐan rúhé? (Middle Chinese)                                     

             now   price       be.how

            ‘How is the price now?’ (Revised Nogeoldae 刪改本老乞大 1483)

       b.  icey kaps-i           esteho-nywo? (Middle Korean)

            now price-NOM  be.how-Q

            ‘How is the price now?’ (Translated Nogeoldae 飜譯老乞大 1517)

(4)   a.  zěnme néng  shuō     women   de     guānhuà? (Middle Chinese)

              how     can    speak   we          GEN  Mandarin

            ‘How come you speak our Mandarin?’ (New Edition of Nogeoldae 老乞大新釋 1761)

       b.  esci   nenghi     uli    han         mal-ul                  nilo-non-ta? (Middle Korean)

            how   possibly  our  Chinese language-ACC   speak-PRS-Q

‘How come you speak our Mandarin?’

            (Korean Translation of New Edition of Nogeoldae 老乞大新釋諺解 1763) 

(5)   a.  féng        zì         zěnme    xiě? (Middle Chinese)

              sew        letter   how       write

            ‘How do you write the character “sew”?’ (Revised Bak Tongsa 刪改本朴通事 1483)

       b.  pongca-lul          ei       ssu-no-nywo? (Middle Korean)

            sew.letter-ACC  how   write-PRS-Q

‘How do you write the character “sew”?’ (Translated Bak Tongsa 飜譯朴通事 1517)

(6) [_CP zěnme         [_IP Aux [_vP  zěnme                   [_VP  zěnme       zěnshēng     rúhé           ]]]]
             esti/esti-hoy-a               esti/esti-hoy-a/ei        musum-ho esti-ho         esteho

             Causal how                    Inst./Method how          ‘do what’ ‘do how’       ‘be how’

^* This research is funded by National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan (NSTC 113-2410-H-007-043-MY3, 113-2410-H-001-036-MY2)