Same and different ways of seeing faces: The cases of Korean and Thai

This paper analyzes the lexemes denoting ‘face" in Korean and Thai and identifies commonalities and differences in lexicalization patterns. It shows that the semantic designations of the Korean lexeme(s) are largely restricted, whereas those of Thai are versatile, and even carry grammatical functions in a number of conceptual domains. The Korean situation is complex because ‘face" lexicalization is in division of labor by a few lexemes, including those of Chinese origin. A contrastive analysis presents a number of noteworthy findings including differential ‘face" conceptualizations of physical configurations, effects of typological features such as agglutination and isolation, and influences of language contact, among others.