국어 말뭉치에서의 ‘넓다’의 의미와 용법 분석

Abstract

In Korean, many words are used to represent our perception of space, and nelpta 'wide/broad' is one of such space- denoting words. This research explores meanings and uses of nelpta by analyzing a Korean written corpus from the perspectives of corpus linguistics and cognitive linguistics. This study examines instances of nelpta in the Sejong Project Corpus, characterizing grammatical properties of nelpta. It also classifies meanings of nelpta in terms of the following categories: (i) physical width in space, (ii) width of the bounded space, (iii) degree and scope of human perception and judgment, and (iv) scope of and width in abstract entities. Examination shows that the basic meaning of nelpta, the physical width/breadth of concrete objects, extends to indicate the conceptual width or breadth in human perception or cognitive processing, and even in abstract entities. Such metaphorical extension of the basic meaning is explained in terms of Metaphor Theory in cognitive linguistics. Finally, this research suggests that a corpus-based cognitive approach to language can serve as a foundation for research which seeks to characterize metaphorically extended meanings of space-denoting words.