• 중국학논총
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• no.61
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• pp.49-75
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• 2019

Three types of plural forms are discovered in the ancient literature 《Chung-ui-jig-eon》: propositional plural markers placed in front of the main word - either noun or pronoun, postpositional plural markers placed behind the main word, and pro-/postpositional mixed plural markers. The Mongolian Rule in China during Yuan Dynasty caused the osmotic linguistic imperialism of the Mongolian over the Chinese language. Mongolian language - an Altaiian language which is postpositional - dominantly influenced the Chinese language - which is a propositional language. In addition, the previous usage of '輩', '等', '伟', '满' in Ancient Chinese, made it easier for '每' to be accepted and grammaticalized as a plural marker. The grammaticalization of '每' had been progressed through the reinterpretation of '每' in the structure of 'S(NP)+每+VP'. As a result, '每' had started to be widely used as a postpositional plural ending behind noun or pronoun, regardless of its position in the sentence.