ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

In this paper, it was examined whether Hangeul can be described by using the term ‘grapheme’. There have not been many discussions that clearly suggested the analysis criteria for the grapheme. In this paper, the graphemes of Hangeul were analyzed by using the analysis criteria which were suggested in Meletis(2019). Meletis(2019) presented three criteria for analyzing graphemes: (1) lexical distinctiveness, (2) linguistic value, (3) minimality. According to these criteria, German and English writing systems, Abugidas, Abjads, Chinese characters, and Korean alphabets were analyzed. However, the analysis of the Korean alphabet was brief, so in this paper, the criteria of Meletis (2019) were specifically applied to the analysis of the Korean alphabet, hangeul. Grapheme analysis was not smooth with only lexical distinctiveness, linguistic value, and minimality. In fact, Meletis(2019) noted that the size of the Chinese characters which were the constituents of other Chinese Characters became smaller than when they appeared alone. Although the Chinese character <請> can be analyzed as a grapheme cluster composed of <言> and <靑>, both <言> and <靑> are reduced in size compared to when they appear alone. They fit into the square of the Chinese character and lose their function. Therefore <請> was considered as a single grapheme. This can be said to be a different analysis from the analysis of <ng> of the alphabet which is analyzed into two graphemes. When these criteria are introduced into the analysis of the Korean alphabet, the consonant letters <ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ ㅈ ㅊ ㅋ ㅌ ㅍㅎ> are analyzed as one grapheme respectively. Letters <ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ>, the doublings of <ㄱ ㄷ ㅂ ㅅ ㅈ>, have the same shape as the graphemes used alone, but their size is reduced and their function is not maintained, so they are analyzed as separate graphemes. The combined graphemes like <ㄳ ㄵ ㄶ ㄺ ㄻ ㄼ ㄽ ㄾ ㄿ ㅀ ㅄ> have the same shape as the graphemes used alone. Though their size is reduced, their function is the same, so they are analyzed as a combination of two graphemes. The vowel letters <ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ> are analyzed as a grapheme respectively. The vowel letters which look like combinations of these graphemes in the shape of letters are not easy to analyze. This is because their size is not reduced as clearly as the consonant letters. Then, they can all be regarded as a combination of two or more graphemes because they do not satisfy three criteria of Meletis(2019).

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