Abstract

There has been abundant research on semantic networks of polysemous units but far less of such research on sign languages, despite the fact that polysemy is far more prevalent in the latter. As a case study, this paper observes a polysemous word meaning ‘oil’ in Korean Sign Language and demonstrates how the prototypical meaning ‘oil’ is extended to various meanings through conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. The paper observes that the concept OIL is closely related to the concepts SMOOTHNESS, FAMILIARITY, FLUENCY, and FREQUENCY in KSL, unlike Korean. The cognitive semantics approach to the polysemous word OIL in KSL demonstrates how we, as language users, conceptualize new concepts utilizing what is used for other concepts.

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