언어와 문화: 영어와 한국어의 경우

Abstract

This paper attempts to substantiate with the cases of Korean and English the premise that a particular language is a representation of a particular culture. Adopting and combining the frames of description presented in Lee (1992) and Lakoff and Johnson (1980), this paper shows that the differences in the two cultures are represented in the lexical entities, the grammatical elements, the relations between grammatical elements, and metaphors in the two languages. Examples of the lexical items representing different ways of classifying our experinece of the world attest to the 'semantic-psychological principle'. Examples of differences in the selectivity in encoding observed events and/or situations, and examples of different 'metaphors represent the differences in perspectives and conceptualization in the two cultures. To emphasize the importance of research on the relationship between language and culture, attention is called to the assertions made by the proponents of critical language study.