국어 기본 색채어와 파생어의 의미와 용법에 대한 코퍼스언어학적 분석

Abstract

Since Berlin & Kay(1969)’s study on basic color terms, a great amount of research on color terms have been carried out in anthropology, linguistics, cultural studies, and so on. In line of this research, the present study examines meanings and uses of the basic color terms and their derivatives through an analysis of Korean written corpus. Adopting the claim that basic color terms are black, white, red, yellow, and blue/green, this research examines the frequency rates, co-occurrence relations, collocation patterns, and extended meanings of the basic color terms and their derivatives in Korean. First, Korean is characterized by displaying subtle shades of meanings, using vowel-harmony based derivatives of the basic color terms. Second, examination shows that in Korean color terms are dominantly used attributively though they can also be used predicatively. Third, almost color terms used to modify concrete nouns in most cases, rather than abstract nouns. Fourth, basic color terms and their derivatives have specific collocation patterns, resulting in some limited fixed idiomatic expressions. Fifth, certain color terms can co-occur with specific abstract nouns, displaying metaphorically extended meanings, but with relatively limited use of metaphorical meanings of the color terms. Finally, this research shows that a text-based analysis of Korean color terms is one of the fruitful methods in exploring meanings and uses of certain types of words in lexical semantics.

Since Berlin & Kay(1969)’s study on basic color terms, a great amount of research on color terms have been carried out in anthropology, linguistics, cultural studies, and so on. In line of this research, the present study examines meanings and uses of the basic color terms and their derivatives through an analysis of Korean written corpus. Adopting the claim that basic color terms are black, white, red, yellow, and blue/green, this research examines the frequency rates, co-occurrence relations, collocation patterns, and extended meanings of the basic color terms and their derivatives in Korean. First, Korean is characterized by displaying subtle shades of meanings, using vowel-harmony based derivatives of the basic color terms. Second, examination shows that in Korean color terms are dominantly used attributively though they can also be used predicatively. Third, almost color terms used to modify concrete nouns in most cases, rather than abstract nouns. Fourth, basic color terms and their derivatives have specific collocation patterns, resulting in some limited fixed idiomatic expressions. Fifth, certain color terms can co-occur with specific abstract nouns, displaying metaphorically extended meanings, but with relatively limited use of metaphorical meanings of the color terms. Finally, this research shows that a text-based analysis of Korean color terms is one of the fruitful methods in exploring meanings and uses of certain types of words in lexical semantics.