한국수어 감정어의 개념화 양상26)

초록

This study aims to provide the groundwork for a cognitive linguistic examination of Korean Sign Language (KSL) by exploring the phenomenon of embodiment of emotional words in KSL. In cognitive linguistics, abstract concepts are structured based on bodily experience. This is described as ‘embodied conceptualization’, which regards human language as a means of interaction that connects our bodies and minds, rather than simply a system of symbols that convey meaning. For this study, we examined the headwords belonging to the semantic category of ‘daily life > human > emotion’ in the Korean Sign Language Dictionary of the National Institute of the Korean Language. As a result, we found that the embodiment mechanisms in conceptualization are ‘effect and cause metaphor’, ‘ontological metaphor’, ‘iconicity’, ‘oriented metaphor’ and ‘metaphorical icon’. It means that the main concepts expressed by emotional words are in the abstract realm, so physical experience based on proximity is a universal basis for materializing them. It can be attributed to the fact that the conceptual meaning of a location is not simply a reference to the morphological, compositional, and functional aspects of the body, but often recalls mental states and activities. Through the discussion in this study, we can see that typical human emotions such as “joy,” “depression,” “anger,” and “loneliness” are mostly embodied by experience, such as the features of body parts and physiological responses. We also found that the meanings associated with emotions are based on embodied experiences, so they appear the same regardless of language system or form.

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