Collocational analysis of synonymous color term pairs in Korean

This study explores the functional differences between synonymous color term pairs in Korean, by examining their actual uses in written data obtained from the 21st Century Sejong Corpus. The primary focus of the study revolves around four pairs of color term synonyms: ‘kemta-kkamahta’ (meaning ‘black), ’huyta-hayahta’ (meaning ‘white’), ‘pwulkta-ppalkahta’ (meaning ‘red’), and ‘phwuluta-phalahta’ (meaning ‘green’ or ‘blue’). In particular, this paper focuses on identifying the differences in the collocational patterns among these four pairs by conducting various types of collocational analysis. This paper not only examines frequently co-occurring nouns of each color term, but also employs Distinctive collexeme analysis and examines non-overlapping collexemes within each synonym pair. Through a comprehensive quantitative examination, this research reveals subtle differences in the uses within each synonym pair that would have otherwise been difficult to notice.