인지지도를 통한 어휘 의미 변화 고찰

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the evolving patterns of cognitive concepts reflected in the linguistic expressions of ‘Shui(水)’ and ‘Mul(물)’, tracing the evolution from traditional to contemporary perspectives on water in Chinese and Korean languages. Upon classifying the types of lexical meanings for the polysemy ‘Shui(水)’ and ‘Mul(물)’, a conceptual space was constructed to depict the cognitive thought process, and a semantic map was drawn to investigate the development path of semantic changes. The results of this study revealed that, in the process of deriving and developing lexical meanings, both ‘Shui(水)’ and ‘Mul(물)’ initially shared the semantic feature of [stream of water] in their original meaning but gradually diversified their developmental types of lexical meaning. In particular, semantic development was most active through the ‘word meaning shift’ type, with the ‘shape meaning domain’ being concrete and visual, playing a central role in the differentiation and development of meanings into ‘functional’ and ‘property’ domains. Furthermore, the overall emotional color were shifted towards a more negative direction. Differences were identified in the grammatical functions and morphological structures of ‘Shui(水)’ and ‘Mul(물)’. In terms of semantic extensions, ‘Mul(물)’ in modern times demonstrates a broader spectrum of semantic features compared to ‘Shui(水)’ in ancient times.