‘小＋N’의 ‘小’ 의미 해석 연구－한국어 ‘작은/어린(새끼)’ 해석을 중심으로－

Abstract

Korean language enables to distinguish small (‘작다’) and young (‘어리다’) or has alternative words to replace, however, in case of the Chinese language, when ‘⼩’ is placed prior to a noun, it is hard to identify a difference between small in size and young in the meaning of not long after born because ‘⼩’ includes the meanings of both. This study aimed to investigate the semantic analysis of ‘⼩’ in ‘⼩＋N’ actively and to help the readers understand and solve the issues that can occur during interpretation process. First, this study classified the types of ‘N’ into ‘animal’ and ‘non- animal’ categories, and proposed the appropriate semantic interpretation of ‘⼩’ depending on the classified category. Second, ‘⼩’ of ‘⼩＋N’ that was used for personification implies a meaning that is close to ‘young (baby)’ and ‘child oriented’. In the ≪low- grade textbook of the Chinese elementary school textbook series≫, ‘⼩＋N’ appears with a higher frequency, indicating an association with a child oriented attribute. Third, when interpreting the ‘⼩’ of ‘⼩＋N’ into the Korean language, there are various expressions in the Korean language such as ‘작은(small)’, ‘어린(새끼) young(baby))’, ‘조그만(little)’, ‘아기(baby)’, ‘꼬마(kid)’ that can replace or distinguish each other in terms of a semantic aspect. However, since ‘⼩’ plays all roles in the Chinese language, therefore, this study proposed a necessity to consider the contexts absolutely together with a category classification of ‘N’ when interpreting the ‘⼩’.