러시아어, 한국어, 영어에서 ‘목’의 의미기술 비교

The semantics of neck/throat in Russian, Korean, and English

Words and expressions referring to a body or its part(s) have more than one meaning. The expressions about body part(s) are polysemous in many languages. The meanings of the expressions of body part(s) are not random, but systematic based on the metaphor or metonymy. Metaphor and metonymy are conceptual tools that help people understand the world and communicate with others. Metaphor and metonymy are not just for semantic investigation of a linguistic unit, but also available for other linguistic research such as research about aphasia. Among terms about body parts, expressions referring to neck show two perspectives about the body part neck - configurational and functional perspective. Configurational perspective is related to the expressions regarding neck from outside. Location of neck in the body, external shape of neck are metaphorically extended to other entities such as bottle, bay, etc. Functional perspective shows the meaning of neck as a body part associated with making sound or swallowing food. The extended meanings from this functional perspective view neck as a path or passage of sound or food. However, all the languages do not form these meaning in the same way. Russian шея and горло show this distinction relatively more systematically than the corresponding words in English and Korean. Language specific characteristics are reflected not only in the primary or portotypical meanings of words, but in the extended or peripheral meanings.