M. Bader (2009) points out that lexical ambiguities are a ubiquitous phenomenon in natural languages. Japanese language is known for its lexical ambiguities deriving from many reasons. This can be notably well explained by the fact that Japanese language has developed varied words and vocabularies suitable for expressing abstract ideas, natural phenomenon, human emotion, ethics, and aesthetics but only a few for technical and scientific ideas. This study examines the multi-layer structure of meanings in Japanese aesthetic words found in the Tale of Genji. This study is note-worthy because it applies the idea of the Genome map that is developed in biology. For this purpose, we grouped 105 aesthetic words into five groups and 253 meanings of aesthetic words into nine groups for matching. The result of the study shows that Japanese aesthetic words have a complicated multi-layer structure of meanings which may create some degree of lexical ambiguities in Japanese language. The words with a more complicated meaning structure have been the frequent subjects in the studies of Japanese aesthetic words. This suggests that more refined Genome maps for Japanese aesthetic words need to be prepared and can be applied in the field of semantic studies.
한국일본언어문화학회 [Japanese Language & Culture Association of Korea]
설립연도
2001
분야
인문학>일본어와문학
소개
본 학회는 일본어학 및 일본문학은 물론, 일본의 정치, 경제, 문화, 사회 등의 일본학 전반에 걸친 연구 및 일본의 언어, 문화를 매체로 한 한국과의 비교 연구를 대상으로 하고 있다. 본 학회는 회원들에게 연구 발표 및 정보 교환의 기회를 부여하고 나아가 한국에서의 바람직한 일본 연구 자세를 확립하는 것을 주된 목표로 하고 있다.