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Applying Accompanied Experience Network Model in Translation of Body Words of Biblical Hebrew

  • Korean Semantics
  • 2011, 36(), pp.363-389
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Semantics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Korean Language and Literature

정병철 1

1경북대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Biblical Hebrew is well known for her using abundant images and body words. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect and role of body words in the process of translating Bible from Hebrew to Korean. This study is based on Accompanied Experience Network Model, which has proven to be valid in explaining the usage of any linguistic units. This paper probes the usages of representative body words such as head, hand, led, eye, nose, mouth of Hebrew Bible, and suggests that their usages are caused by three mechanisms, that is as traditionally called metonymy, metaphor, and word combination. From the perspective of neuro-science, metonymy is caused by association of synapses, and by Long Term Potentiation the extended meaning is registered as distinctive one in network. On the other hand, metaphor is realized by reconstructing the connections already established through repeated experiences, thus the metaphor expands the domain of usage, not the meaning itself. Most of the usages of body words made by metonymy can be translated word for word, because the human body is a common place where the similar active zones are provided. In the same vein, some of metaphor can be transferred literally, but some of them cause a crude word for word translation, for the difference of environment and culture leads to different structure of established connections. As a result, the body words of high frequency in hebrew bible turns out to be a embodied rosetta stone assisting us in understanding the meaning of the ancient language and to translate it more exactly.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.