영상도식을 통한 현대중국어 ‘進’, ‘出’류 방향보어의 의미 확장 연구

Abstract

This study investigated the correlation between language and body by examining the semantic extension of directive complements in the Modern Chinese Language, including 进 and 出, through corpus analysis, and analyzing the mechanism based on the image schema and conceptual metaphor theory of cognitive linguistics. The results are as follows: First, the basic meaning of directive complements of 进 and 出 is the direction that a human subject takes: moving in or out of a space. The extended semantics, however, show the movement of not only humans but also animals, objects, and abstract objects. Such aspects are the same as the sequence of the semantic extension suggested by Heine et al (1991: 48-49) that it transitions from the categories closest to human experience to abstract. Second, the semantic extension of 进 and 出 has a deep correlation with our experiences and cognitive systems. This is the result of our repeated experience of moving in and out of a space in our daily life, having created patterns in our cognition and given the same meaning to other objects that have similarities. Third, although 进 and 出 have the opposite basic meaning, their extended meanings are asymmetrical. While 进 carries the meaning of a result (sunken) and a result (understanding and acceptance), 出 has no such meaning but more diverse patterns of results, quantity, and degree: hidden (隐) → appear (显) and nothing (无) → existence (有). This is because the movement of 出, wherein an object is exposed out of a space in terms of the resultant movement, is more cognitively significant.