A Corpus-Based Metaphor-Theoretical Study of Literal vs. Figurative Meanings of Some Korean Lexical Items

Abstract

In cognitive linguistics, metaphor theory has been widely adopted in characterizing metaphorical use of many lexical words, claiming that figurative meanings can be explained in terms of the mapping between the terms in the target domain and those in the source domain. In recent years, Deignan (2005) claims that many metaphors proposed in MT should be supported or modified by empirical evidence deriving from corpus-based research (cf. Stefanowitsch & Gries 2006). Adopting this claim, the present research shows to what extent lexical items are metaphorical meanings, showing different degree of metaphoricity. More specifically, first, this study examines and compares the frequency rates of some lexical items such as body terms (meli ‘head’, kasum ‘chest/breast’, and tali ‘leg’), the synonymous words for fruit yelmay, kwail, and kwasil, and other concrete nouns such as kewul ‘mirror’ and ppwuli ‘root’ in the Sejong Corpus. Examination shows different degrees of the use of literal vs. non-literal meanings of the lexical items in question. Second, this research examines co-occurrence relations of the lexical items with predicates or modifying elements, showing examples of non-literal or figurative uses of the lexical items. Third, this research shows metaphors which are at work for the lexical items in question based on the examination of co-occurrence relations. Examination shows that many abstract notions in the target domains are expressed in terms of the concrete terms in the source domain, supporting the claim the figurative meanings are metaphorically extended meanings. In sum, this paper argues for the need of corpus-based research as empirical evidence 158 Haeyeon Kim for proper understanding and explaining the figurative meanings of lexical items.