Comparative Studies Of Meanings Between Chinese Words In Korean And Corresponding Words In Chinese

Geographically adjacent to each other, China and Korea have been keepin g a close relationship since the ancient times in politics, economy and culture. Adoption of Chinese characters in both nations has played a particularly signi ficant role in the maintenance of the strong bond between them.Chinese words account for more than a half of Korean vocabulary, and Ch inese-Korean homographs take up a considerable proportion. Under the influe nce of the Korean language and social and historical factors, however, many Chinese words in Korean have developed different meanings although identical in form. On the other hand, the words keep developing in Chinese, too. Chan ges in meaning have taken place in many Chinese words after they are borro wed into Korean, hence the homographs of Chinese words in Korean and Chin ese. This dissertation focuses on the study of disyllabic homographs of such Chinese words.Although the establishment of diplomatic relationship between China and t he Republic of Korea has brought along an increase in the studies of Chinese words in Korean academia, they are still inadequate in contrast to studies of native Korean words. The existing studies on Chinese words mainly center u pon phonology, leaving semantics largely neglected. Comparative studies of se mantics have been mostly confined to general listing of word meanings, while the diachronic change in meaning is basically ignored. Integrating synchronic and diachronic approaches, this dissertation makes an in-depth investigation in to120words, based on their frequencies as released in a report of frequentl y used Korean words by National Institute of the Korean Language in2003.This dissertation consists of six chapters:Chapter One is a general introduction to the objective and significance of this thesis. It reviews the existing studies and their deficiencies, and specifies the object and scope of the present study.Chapter Two investigates the Chinese words in Korean after Meiji Restora tion in Japan, in modern and contemporary times. It also addresses the influen ce of Chinese words in Japanese on Chinese and Korean vocabulary.Chapter Three classifies Chinese-Korean homographs into two types, wor ds with identical forms and similar meanings, and words with identical forms but different meanings. Chapter Four, core part of this dissertation, provides a study of the120words in question, each with identical forms and similar meanings between Ch inese and Korean. They are divided into five types according to the change o f meaning, namely (1) broadening of meaning;(2) narrowing of meaning;(3) a ddition of meaning;(4) deduction of meaning; and (5) compound, and each typ e is subdivided into Chinese-sourced and Japanese-sourced words. This chapt er elaborates on the shift of meaning of each word in both languages, aiming to discover the time and cause of changes in meaning of Chinese-Korean ho mographs.Chapter Five further discusses the causes for meaning change of Chinese-Korean homographs in terms of impacts of language, society, psychology, his tory and loan words.Chapter Six summarizes what have been discussed in previous chapters a nd presents conclusions. It also states the problems and limitations of the pre sent study, and puts forward solutions and suggestions for further study.