earticle

영어

The purpose of this paper is to classify the conventional dictions in the letters of gentry class and examine their characteristics. Letters are different from self-sufficient literary works because particular writers send them to the particular receivers. Letter required certain formalities and used different dictions according to the status, age, social and family relations. The ideal of Confucian gentry was ruling people based on moral training and they had to read a lot to pass the Gwageo test to be government officials. The books they had to read were the classical books from China: the Four Books and Five Classics of Ancient China. So most letter dictions of the gentry class were from these classical books. Common dictions are classified into humble speech, respectful diction, euphuistic diction, dictions according to title, kinsfolk, greeting, praying, safety, health, disease, mourning, government office, deed, shape, condition, place name, weather and season, etiquette, Gwageo, name of things, and age. The characteristics of the letter dictions of the gentry class are as follows: 1) implicative 2) pedantic 3) literary 4) idiomatic 5) different from common language 6) courteous and modest 7) use of different dictions according to the status, age, relation of the sender and receiver