Comparative Analysis of Black and White’s Color Meaning Symbol: Analysis of Korean-Hungarian Folksong’s Text

Abstract

This paper is a study on the meaning symbols of black and white in Korean and Hungarian folk song texts. Starting from the original form of black and white with basic meaning in folksongs, I analyzed the symbolism that contains various expanded meanings. In other words, starting from the conceptual meaning of black and white, we looked for usage cases that spread to thematic, connotative, social, emotional, reflective, and collocational meanings, and classified the various semantic symbols expressed by color words. The classification method was divided into positive and negative meaning symbols depending on whether the color's meaning was positive or negative for the individual or society, and the expanded meaning belonging to each was presented and classified. I wanted to find out whether the black and white colors used in the folk songs of the two countries have common positive and negative meanings, and if specific meaning symbols appear for one people, what the reason is. The direct goal of the study was to understand the universal and general meaning symbols of color, but behind the scenes, it was expected that each nation would have individual and unique meaning symbols. As a result of the study, the original black and white colors were common to both ethnic groups, but the derived meanings had both similarities and differences. It can be inferred that cultural and environmental factors such as the religion, history, and living environment of the two peoples may have had an influence in the background.