한자어 ‘악(惡)’의 의미와 사용 분석

초록

This study examines the meaning of the Sino-Korean word ‘ag’ and the meaning of words containing ‘ag’. To this end, the dictionary definitions of ‘ag’ and the Chinese character ‘惡’ were examined. The Sino-Korean word ‘ag’ is generally defined as “immorality” or “unconscionability,” while the Chinese character ‘惡’ and the Chinese word ‘恶’ were defined as ‘nabbum‧nabbun’ (geod), although they differed in degree. According to the Korean dictionary, the meaning of words containing ‘ag’ were also mostly defined as “bad” or “evil,” both in the specific and the abstract sense. It is notable that the meanings of ‘ag’ in the Korean dictionary were varied. This seems to be an influence of the Chinese character dictionary. The usage of words containing the Sino-Korean word ‘ag’ were also examined by way of a frequency analysis. Based on this analysis, the most frequently used words containing ‘ag’ were ‘ag-hwa’ (degradation) and ‘choe-ag’ (the worst). The study found that the Sino-Korean word ‘ag’ acts almost as a prefix, and it also participates in word formulation as a codependent root or an element of a compound word. By examining the cooccurring words of “evil,” the external relationship of the noun “evil” inside sentences was also examined. The number one cooccurring word was “axis,” and this demonstrates that “evil” was most frequently used in articles about North Korea and the United States.

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