現代 韓國語 單一語의 分布와 意味的 特性에 관한 硏究

초록

In this study, the categories about simple words were established among the Korean vocabularies, the entire simple words were extracted according to those categories, and the semantic characteristics in word class were identified. Even though to identify the number of simple words from one language is a very basic study in vocabulary research, such study hasn’t been undertaken in Korean linguistic until now. This study started with this objective and study results are as follows. A) The number of simple words in Korean language is about 2,419. B) Examining the simple words, there were 1,483 nouns (61.44%), 15 pronouns (0.62%), 18 numerals (0.74%), 561 verbs (23.22%), 156 adjectives (6.52%), 22 pre-nouns (0.91%), and 164 adverbs (6.79%). C) Word class distribution of simple words was found almost iden- tically in the distribution and percentage with the word class distribution in Standard Korean Dictionary, which verifies the existing study result that vocabularies are expanded by maintaining consistent balance. D) It was identified that simple word also resulted from arbitrary simple words which were arbitrarily formed and other words, but they could be classified as flexible simple words whose relevant flexibility is ambiguous or the basis of flexibility was lost. E) In the semantic distribution of simple words in each word class, nouns which have ‘concreteness’ reaches to 70% and phenomenon nouns also to 21%, which shows the words appeared early which are related with natural phenomena. In verbs, 58.9% were found to be related with com- prehensive behaviors and actions of human beings, compared with 8.3% of simple actions, which shows that the words considering the relationship with other individuals are found to have higher frequency also in simple words. Especially, it can be identified mental and psychological actions of human beings are much working since the formation of vocabulary because there are many words reflecting the modality in adjectives, adverbs, and pre-nouns. F) Simple words have interrelationship with basic vocabulary because it cannot help but become a simple word in its nature. 107 words in 117 words suggested by 김종학(2001) are included in the simple words found in this study, which were just 9.5% of the total 1,125 arbitrary simple words in the entire nouns. Comparing with the composition of modern Korean language word class, reason why the percentages of verbs(43.2%) and adjectives(15.1%) in the basic words suggested by 김종학(2001) are higher than nouns is considered that verbs and adjectives didn’t greatly change while the percentage of nouns continued to increase along with the progress of civilization. Most languages are composed of simple words and compound words (Mixed words and derivative words). Because expansion of words is achieved from simple words to compound words, to identify the size of simple words is one of the important factors in explaining vocabulary system and its changes. In this study, simple words were extracted targeting modern languages and if they are identified in each time, it could provide the important clue to examine the changes in the vocabulary system of our language. In addition, if the sizes of simple words in the individual lan- guages are identified, vocabulary systems between languages could be compared. Based on this study, the vocabulary system of Korean language is expected to be more closely analyzed.

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