A Corpus-Based Study of Kasum ‘Chest/Breast’ as a Locus of Emotions in Korean

Abstract

Cognitive linguistics has explored body-part terms, particularly the heart, as a way of characterizing the embodied nature of language. The present research explores the uses and meanings of the Korean body-part term kasum ‘chest/breast’ as a locus for emotional feelings by analyzing a written corpus from the perspective of Metaphor Theory. Examination shows that kasum is used to describe physical or physiological aspects of the chest as its literal meanings. Analysis of the co-occurrence relations shows that kasum is viewed as a site for emotion/feelings, treating it as (i) a locus of emotional feelings, and (ii) abstract entities/objects. It shows that the extended meanings, being derived from conceptual metaphors, are based on viewing kasum as in the following terms: (i) a locus of emotion/feelings, (ii) a container of emotions, (iii) an entity/a material, (iv) a storage/hiding place, etc. Finally, this research shows that in Korean the chest plays an important role in expressing emotional feelings based on the folk views of the chest as a site of emotions.