A Historical Study of ‘ari(あり)’ in Cheophaeshineo(捷解新語)

This paper focuses on the term ‘ari (あり)’ as it appears in the Japanese language textbook Cheophaesineo(捷解新語) in both the “first edition” (1676) and the “first revision” (1748). The study examines the meaning, usage, and revision patterns of ‘ari’ from a diachronic perspective. It also discusses the various correspondences between ‘ari’ and its Korean counterpart ‘issta (있다)’, particularly in their functions as both main and auxiliary verbs. The analysis of cases where ‘ari’ remained unchanged between editions provides insights into the scope, strategy, or objectives during the revision of Cheophaesineo. It suggests that the core task of the revision was not to improve the Korean target words but rather to refine the Japanese text. Furthermore, the analysis of cases where the Korean equivalents were changed despite the Japanese text remaining unchanged indicates a strategy that involved segmenting the Japanese text into morphemes and aligning them with Korean counterparts in sequence, or considering word combinations to enhance the correspondence between the two languages. This strategy suggests that when no suitable Korean vocabulary was available, the revision process employed a detailed approach to improve language alignment. Additionally, the replacement of ‘ari’ with ‘gozaru (ご ざる)’ in the first revision, while partly related to the distinction between main and auxiliary verbs in Japanese, appears to have been primarily motivated by efforts to reflect nuances of respect within the Japanese language, without other significant intentions. The fact that these changes in Japanese were not actively reflected in the Korean equivalents further clarifies the nature and direction of the revisions, hinting at the possibility that the distinction between main and auxiliary verbs may not have been particularly meaningful in contemporary Korean.