Entity-based and process-based construal of the world as a factor in the adaptation of lexical borrowings
Abstract
The paper explores the adaptation of lexical borrowings through the lens of two modes of world construal: entity-based and process-based. The study focuses on English and Korean, a language pair marked by intensive contact while being rooted in distinct cultural backgrounds. The analysis draws on borrowed lexical items selected from lexicographic sources, including the Standard Korean Language Dictionary , the Urimalsaem Dictionary , Merriam-Webster , and English-language dictionaries of Korean popular culture, as well as data from the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the Korea University Korean Corpus . Special attention is given to part-of-speech shifts that occur when lexical items are borrowed from one language into the other, regarding their nominal or verbal status in particular. To clarify how individual lexemes are transformed in the recipient language, the study also examines the borrowing of English -ing forms, using a sample of 152 headlines from South Korean news media. The findings show, first, that the ratio of borrowed verbs to borrowed nouns in Korean is generally much higher than in English. Second, English borrowings in Korean often undergo a noun-to-verb shift. Third, English -ing is often attached to Korean nominal stems to enhance processual meaning. Taken together, these patterns suggest that the assimilation of English borrowings into Korean involves strengthening of processual meaning. This trend appears to be linked to a broader contrast between the more entity-oriented world construal in English-speaking culture and the more process-oriented construal associated with Korean culture, as it has been noted by some scholars. The authors conclude that the adaptation of lexical borrowings is shaped not only by the structural properties of the languages involved or by language policy, but also by more general ways in which different languages and cultures construe the world.