스페인어 맛 형용사의 의미 확장 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning extension of the Spanish taste adjectives, dulce, salado, agrio and amargo. Since the taste is a human physiological sense, its lexicalization is also closely related to the physical experience. Taste is perceived as the positive or negative quality according to the common experience of each language community and this judgment affects taste terms. The original meaning of the taste adjectives is a description of taste but its meaning is extended to an abstract area through metaphor mediated by the attributes of taste. Hence, people’s common experience of taste has no choice but to influence the extension of meaning. As it is difficult to obtain specific information about an abstract meaning of Spanish taste adjectives except for dictionary in reality, this study investigates the detailed extension meanings of each taste adjective, the cognitive mechanism and the ways of conceptualizing abstract objects on the basis of the corpus analysis. This will enable the Spanish learners to deepen the understanding of the language and acquire information about the specific meanings of the taste adjectives. Furthermore, it tries to provide an opportunity to recognize cultural specific aspects.