한중 색채어 은유 양상 대조 연구 ― ‘푸르다’ 계열 어휘를 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the patterns of meaning expansion through conceptual metaphor and metonymy from the perspective of cognitive linguistics focusing on the color terms for “blue” in Korean and Chinese: “푸르다”, “파랗다,” and “초록색” and “青,” “蓝,” and “绿.” To this end, the semantic items in dictionaries were compared and corpus usage examples were analyzed. Next, the patterns of meaning expansion found in the examples were categorized and the cognitive systems were explained. Through this, the semantic characteristics of the color terms were examined and the effects of the experiences of Korean and Chinese speakers and their cultural and cognitive differences with respect to the languages were analyzed.BR The Korean and Chinese color terms for “blue,” which can be found in nature in items such as the sky, plants, and the ocean, are semantically expanded to objects with similarity and vicinity. In general, they are expanded to the meaning of lush plants, clear and clean, youth, immaturity, hope, anxiety and fear, coldness, anger and rage, embarrassment and surprise, environmental protection, and smoothness and safety. On the other hand, those in Korean and Chinese show different patterns due to cognitive differences. For instance, enormous vitality and strong vigor only appear in Korean, while youth, favor and respect, organic vegetables, convenience, and disparage are expanded meanings only shown in Chinese. As such, the different perceptions of speakers with different languages and cultures have an effect.BR This study found that color terms are widely used in both Korean and Chinese because they can efficiently convey abstract concepts or characteristics and that language is very closely related to our experiences and perceptions.