The Analysis of Koi and Usui as Japanese Polysemic Adjectives

Abstract

Polysemic words or words that have multiple meanings are often found in various languages, including Japanese. If Japanese learners don’t have enough knowledge of polysemic words, it can cause difficulties and errors in the use of these words or when translating them into other languages. Koi and Usui are polysemic adjectives in Japanese and many Japanese learners only know one of the meanings of these adjectives, causing errors in their use and translation into other languages. The purpose of this research is to determine the meanings contained in the adjectives Koi and Usui, also to know the basic meaning and expansion meanings, as well as the relation between its basic meaning and expansion meanings. This research used a descriptive analytic method and all data were collected from https://nlb.ninjal.ac.jp/ which were compiled, classified and analyzed.  The relation between basic meaning and expansion meanings of Koi and Usui  is described using three figures of speech, such as metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche, as a part of cognitive linguistic studies. From the research results, it can be concluded that the basic meaning of Koi is a thick color, then the meaning extends into seven other meanings, that means: thick objects, firm face shape, strong taste, thick texture, dominant, strong and big amount. Meanwhile, for Usui the basic meaning is a thin object, which extends into five other meanings, that means: bland taste, watery texture, pale color, lack of/weak and small amount.