A Comparative Study of Korean and Thai Idioms which are related to animals
LIM, Ji-Sun
Department of South and Southeast Asian
Language and Literature
Graduate School
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Seoul, Korea
The purpose of this study is to compare similarities and differences between Kore...
A Comparative Study of Korean and Thai Idioms which are related to animals
LIM, Ji-Sun
Department of South and Southeast Asian
Language and Literature
Graduate School
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Seoul, Korea
The purpose of this study is to compare similarities and differences between Korean and Thai idioms which are related to animals. This idiom study aims to understand a way of thinking in two different countries and its socio-cultural background.
The common idiom expressions have their literal meanings: however, in some interesting idiom expressions, they have different meaning rather than its literal meanings. In the other words, the general rule to interpret idiom expressions cannot be applied. It is called “Idiom”. For example, there is a famous idiom in Korea : “eat noodles”. The expression can be used in two distinct ways. The first meaning is to
127
have noodles as a literal way. The other meaning is to get married. Alike we have some interesting words with two different meanings, Thai has some.
The literal meaning is that “A husband is a front feet of an elephant and a wife is back feet of an elephant”: however, in the hidden side of the expression, that means “a woman must obey her husband all the time” As we can see the above, most of idioms in every country have been influenced by socio-cultural factor and environmental factor.
This is why many foreigners find understanding the idioms a big challenge. In order to understand the idioms deeply, we should be familiar with multidimensional factors before you jump to studying foreign idioms.
Moreover, we meet some idioms which are related to animals. These animal idioms are expressions that people make through coexisting with animals for many centuries so we can see people’s cognition and feelings that people put into animals through animal idioms.
This thesis is consisted with 5 chapters.
In the first chapter, we will take a look at major case studies about animal related idioms in both Korea and Thailand. After the basic understanding on the idioms, I will show why we should study animal related idioms and how we do.
In the second, the different ways, in Korea and Thailand, of definition on the animal related idioms are referred from many reliable resources. Among these idioms, we will mainly focus on metabolic idioms.
In the next two parts, we will categorize animals into 23 groups according to
128
their symbolic meanings. The meaning of animals are followed; the idioms that have both the similar meaning with the same animals, the idioms that have both the similar meaning with different animals and the idioms that the similar meaning but animals expressed only in Thailand. With all these facts, we will compare the differences in historical and cultural backgrounds people live in, agriculturalism people engage, Buddhism people believe, hierarchy people fit in and social ranking people accept.
In the last chapter, we will summarize the main opinions in each chapter. This will help us to have deep understanding of animal related idioms in both countries.
With the fact the idioms have more than their literal meanings, we found out the influence of the cultural understanding. Without considering these factors, any empirical approaches are not necessary. On this perspective, I firmly believe that this study will be helpful for those Thai studying Korean as well as Korean studying Thai. I expect this approach in understanding animal related idioms to be studied with many different subjects in the future.
A Comparative Study of Korean and Thai Idioms which are related to animals
LIM, Ji-Sun
Department of South and Southeast Asian
Language and Literature
Graduate School
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Seoul, Korea
The purpose of this study is to compare similarities and differences between Korean and Thai idioms which are related to animals. This idiom study aims to understand a way of thinking in two different countries and its socio-cultural background.
The common idiom expressions have their literal meanings: however, in some interesting idiom expressions, they have different meaning rather than its literal meanings. In the other words, the general rule to interpret idiom expressions cannot be applied. It is called “Idiom”. For example, there is a famous idiom in Korea : “eat noodles”. The expression can be used in two distinct ways. The first meaning is to
127
have noodles as a literal way. The other meaning is to get married. Alike we have some interesting words with two different meanings, Thai has some.
The literal meaning is that “A husband is a front feet of an elephant and a wife is back feet of an elephant”: however, in the hidden side of the expression, that means “a woman must obey her husband all the time” As we can see the above, most of idioms in every country have been influenced by socio-cultural factor and environmental factor.
This is why many foreigners find understanding the idioms a big challenge. In order to understand the idioms deeply, we should be familiar with multidimensional factors before you jump to studying foreign idioms.
Moreover, we meet some idioms which are related to animals. These animal idioms are expressions that people make through coexisting with animals for many centuries so we can see people’s cognition and feelings that people put into animals through animal idioms.
This thesis is consisted with 5 chapters.
In the first chapter, we will take a look at major case studies about animal related idioms in both Korea and Thailand. After the basic understanding on the idioms, I will show why we should study animal related idioms and how we do.
In the second, the different ways, in Korea and Thailand, of definition on the animal related idioms are referred from many reliable resources. Among these idioms, we will mainly focus on metabolic idioms.
In the next two parts, we will categorize animals into 23 groups according to
128
their symbolic meanings. The meaning of animals are followed; the idioms that have both the similar meaning with the same animals, the idioms that have both the similar meaning with different animals and the idioms that the similar meaning but animals expressed only in Thailand. With all these facts, we will compare the differences in historical and cultural backgrounds people live in, agriculturalism people engage, Buddhism people believe, hierarchy people fit in and social ranking people accept.
In the last chapter, we will summarize the main opinions in each chapter. This will help us to have deep understanding of animal related idioms in both countries.
With the fact the idioms have more than their literal meanings, we found out the influence of the cultural understanding. Without considering these factors, any empirical approaches are not necessary. On this perspective, I firmly believe that this study will be helpful for those Thai studying Korean as well as Korean studying Thai. I expect this approach in understanding animal related idioms to be studied with many different subjects in the future.
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