A Comparative Study On Semantic Differences Between Homographic Chinese Characters In North Korean And South Korean

Countries around China,not only North Korea and South Korea,but also Japan and Vietnam,have borrowed Chinese characters through long the cultural communication with China.However,those borrowed Chinese characters have become their own specific characters through creation,change and extinction,influenced by the language,culture,and social needs of the borrowing countries.In the Korean vocabulary system,more than 60 percent of the vocabulary is based on Chinese characters.Thus it can be seen that the Chinese characters play an important role in Korean vocabulary system,occupying a very important position in the history of language development in North Korea and South Korea.North Korea and South Korea are both "Chinese-character cultural circle" countries,sharing cognate languages and characters.However,vocabulary of the two languages differ not only in the use but also in homographs.Based on this point,this paper will take Chinese characters in Korean textbook 1 of the junior high school in North Korea as examples to study the semantic differences of loaned Chinese characters in North Korea and South Korea,based on synchronic language theory,statistical analysis and comparative analysis.This paper can be divided into four parts.Chapter One is the introduction.It involves the purpose,the significance,literature review about Chinese characters and heterogenization of North Korea and South Korea,the scope and the study methods.Chapter Two mainly compares 1106 Chinese characters in Korean textbook 1 of junior high school in North Korea with those in "Dictionary of Korean language" from North Korea and in "Standard Korean Dictionary" from South Korea(the two dictionaries well reflect the current situation of North Korean and South Korean).Through comparison,175 Chinese characters that are commonly shared are classified into two categories,i.e.complete homomorphic Chinese characters and partial homomorphic Chinese characters.In addition,partial homonyms,besides their common semantemes,are further divided into three categories,i.e.those with more semantemes in North Korean,those with more semantemes in South Korean,and those with different semantemes in both languages,and they are compared.In Chapter Three,this paper concludes reasons for the difference in meaning of homomorphic Chinese characters in both languages by comparing the chosen 175 homomorphic Chinese characters.Firstly,it is the historical reason caused by different political systems and different values.Secondly,it is the social reason caused by semantic generalization,semantic specialization and change of semantic value.Thirdly,it is internal reason caused by omission,semantic derivation and metaphor.Chapter Four is the conclusion,summarizing contents of the previous chapters.