A Corpus-Based Study of the Meanings of Meli, Kasum, and Maum in Korean

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore meanings and uses of the body-part terms meli ‘head’ and kasum ‘chest/breast’, and the abstract concept maum ‘mind’ in Korean in terms of corpus linguistics and Metaphor Theory. First, this study analyzes tokens of the three lexical items in terms of literal vs. metaphorical uses, claiming that metaphoricity should be viewed as a cline on the continuum. Second, this research explores how intellectual vs. emotional feelings are expressed in the three items. Third, examination of the meanings and uses of meli, kasum, and maum shows the following results: (i) the figurative use of meli is limited, (ii) kasum is frequently used to express emotions/feelings, (iii) maum is viewed as a concrete entity in expressing figurative meanings. Finally, this research shows that meli, kasum, and maum play an important role in expressing intellectual abilities and emotional feelings, displaying conceptual metaphorical meanings derived from mapping the entities in the target domain and the concrete objects in the source domain.