색채어는 언어문화권에 따라 의미장의 경계가 다르거나 문화적 특징을 지닌 독특한 비유 의미를 나타낸다. 이러한 언어표현은 중국어 성어 중 다양하게 볼 수 있는데, 본고는 색채어가 포함된 중국어 성어의 사전 수록 현황, 이에 나타난 수사법, 코퍼스에 나타난 관련 용례 등의 분석을 통하여 다음의 몇 가지 사실을 관찰할 수 있다.
첫째, 본고의 사전 수록 현황 분석에 따르면 색채어가 포함된 성어의 유형 빈도는 관련 색채어에 따라 ‘白’, ‘红’, ‘青’, ‘黄’, ‘赤’, ‘黑’, ‘紫’ 등등의 순서로 높게 나타나며, 코퍼스에 나타난 관련 용례의 출현 빈도는 ‘面红耳赤’, ‘青梅竹马’, ‘白头偕老’ 등등의 순서로 높게 나타난다. 이로보아 현대 중국의 언어생활 중 사용빈도가 높은 어휘와 성어 중 생산성이 높은 색채어를 관찰할 수 있다.
둘째, 색채어가 포함된 성어 중 부정적 의미를 나타내는 색채어는 ‘黑’, ‘灰’, ‘青’ 등이 있으며, 긍정적 의미로는 ‘朱’, ‘丹’, ‘红’ 등이 있고, 긍정적 혹은 부정적 의미를 나타내는 색채어는 ‘白’, ‘赤’, ‘紫’ 등이 있다. 이로보아 중국어 색채어 표현에 나타난 의미 가치의 분포 경향을 관찰할 수 있다.
셋째, ‘红’, ‘赤’ 등은 미인, 부부의 인연 등을 비유하는 단어를 구성하고, 수사법 중 대구 현상에 사용된 ‘红’과 ‘白’ 등등은 대립적 구도를 이룬다. 이는 중국의 문화적 특징을 관찰할 수 있는 색채어 표현이다.
Color words and their semantic fields differ based on linguistic culture and reveal unique metaphorical meanings within the context of a culture. A variety of these language expressions can be seen in Chinese idioms. This paper analyzes the present state of the Chinese idiom dictionary, the color words and figures of speech it currently contains, and examples in the corpus, and presents the following observations. First, based on an analysis of the current state of the dictionary’s contents, the following color words appeared in idioms with the highest frequency, in this sequence: Bai (white), Hong (red), Qing (blue or green), Huang (yellow), Chi (red), Hei (black), and Zi (purple). There was also a high appearance frequency of related examples in the corpus including Mianhongerchi (面红耳赤), Qingmeizhuma (青梅竹马), and Baitouxielao (白头偕老), in this order. From this, one can observe high~productivity color words among words and idioms that have a high usage frequency in China. Second, among the idioms that contain color words, Hei (black), Hui (gray), and Qing (blue or green) represent negative meanings, Zhu (red), Dan (red), and Hong (red) represent positive meanings, and Bai (white), Chi (red), and Zi (purple) can represent both negative or positive meanings. From this, one can observe a meaning distribution trend in Chinese color word expressions. Third, Hong (red) and Chi (red) are words used to signify a beautiful woman and conjugal ties. Hong (red) and Bai (white), which are used for contrast in figures of speech, form adversarial or opposing compositions. These color word expressions allow us to observe China’s cultural characteristics.
Color words and their semantic fields differ based on linguistic culture and reveal unique metaphorical meanings within the context of a culture. A variety of these language expressions can be seen in Chinese idioms. This paper analyzes the present state of the Chinese idiom dictionary, the color words and figures of speech it currently contains, and examples in the corpus, and presents the following observations. First, based on an analysis of the current state of the dictionary’s contents, the following color words appeared in idioms with the highest frequency, in this sequence: Bai (white), Hong (red), Qing (blue or green), Huang (yellow), Chi (red), Hei (black), and Zi (purple). There was also a high appearance frequency of related examples in the corpus including Mianhongerchi (面红耳赤), Qingmeizhuma (青梅竹马), and Baitouxielao (白头偕老), in this order. From this, one can observe high~productivity color words among words and idioms that have a high usage frequency in China. Second, among the idioms that contain color words, Hei (black), Hui (gray), and Qing (blue or green) represent negative meanings, Zhu (red), Dan (red), and Hong (red) represent positive meanings, and Bai (white), Chi (red), and Zi (purple) can represent both negative or positive meanings. From this, one can observe a meaning distribution trend in Chinese color word expressions. Third, Hong (red) and Chi (red) are words used to signify a beautiful woman and conjugal ties. Hong (red) and Bai (white), which are used for contrast in figures of speech, form adversarial or opposing compositions. These color word expressions allow us to observe China’s cultural characteristics.
