‘귀엽다’의 의미 확장 양상

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine pattern of changes in the meaning of the adjective ‘kwiyepta’ as short diachrony. First, the characteristics of meaning extension were examined through analysis of the target nouns and combination verbs/adjectives of ‘kwiyepta’ for the newspaper corpus. Second, the noun categories as followed, ‘kwiyepta’ were [people](57.52%) > [abstract](18.76%) > [inanimate object](12.33%) > [animal](10.25%) > [plant](1.14%). The target noun used with ‘kwiyepta’ was extended to ‘child’s appearance/behavior > adult’s behavior > old man’s behavior’ and it was the same as the direction of expansion of the meaning of general words as ‘human appearance/behavior > animal’s figure/behavior > plant’s appearance > living creature > nature of an abstract object’. Finally, as a result of examining the combination verbs/adjectives, ‘kwiyepta’ was evenly combined with ‘patta, hata, tokchacihata, poita, sayngkita’ throughout the period. And it was used as a pattern such as ‘kwiyewumul patta, kwiyewumul tokchacihata, kwiyepkey poita, kwiyewe poita’ etc. ‘seyksihata’ has been used since the 2000s, because ‘kwiyepta’ has been extended to mean behavioral characteristics of adults.