The Cultural Connotation Of Mouse In Korean Language

Mouse has been closely related to the life of human beings since the ancient time. And mouse has been in bad fame because of its evil action and awful appearance. But now, from the perspective of sociology, folklore and culture, mouse has become a wise and mysterious creature with spiritualism from the original evil and harmful one. This paper analyzes the cultural connotation of mouse in Korean fixed expressions, idioms, proverbs, stories and legends from the point of view of linguistics.The prodrome focuses on the purpose, significance, the former study and the study methods.The body analyzes in details the cultural connotation of mouse in Korean fixed expressions, idioms, proverbs, stories and legends.Firstly, many Korean expressions are connected with mouse, which are classified into the extermination of mouse, avoidance of mouse, animal category, plant category, fortune category and unimportant action category. Mouse has lost its original connotation completely in some of these expressions, but in some others mouse also has the original symbolic meaning with some semantic changes and more abundant cultural connotation.Secondly, in Korean idioms and proverbs, mouse symbolizes spiritual, clever, industrious, shortsighted, stupid, greedy, hypocritical, reckless, alert and careful etc. from the appearance, mentality, action, folk-custom, enginery and living habit of mouse. And most of the idioms and proverbs have negative cultural connotation.Thirdly, in Korean stories and legends, mouse has been classified into two categories—the good and the evil. And some new cultural connotations appear in these legends. The symbolic meanings of mouse in Korean stories and legends can be defined as the following, the positive such as moral, sacred, clever, industrious, preparatory, stalwart, abundant, general and humane etc. and the negative such as deceptive, stealing, greedy, tricky and catastrophic etc. So in Korean stories and legends sometimes mouse has good and evil cultural connotation at the same time. It is believed that with the development of the society and the changes of times, the cultural connotation of mouse will become more abundant.The cultural connotation of mouse in Korean expressions, idioms, proverbs, stories and legends are concluded in the conclusion of the paper. And the further conclusion is that mouse would be given more colorful symbolic meanings with the changes of times.