Imbalance of meanings among different languages leads to difficulties in convening the proper meanings of the words in consideration. This study investigates the multi-layer structure of meaning of Japanese aesthetic words that appear in the Tale of G...
Imbalance of meanings among different languages leads to difficulties in convening the proper meanings of the words in consideration. This study investigates the multi-layer structure of meaning of Japanese aesthetic words that appear in the Tale of Genji. Aesthetic words are categorized into five different groups on a spectrum based on their characteristics: the first group representing external attributes, and the fifth group representing internal emotionality. Through a thorough examination of 90 aesthetic words of the Tale of Genji, this study finds that aesthetic words with higher emotionality tend to be associated with a wider meaning strap. In particular, itohoshi and kanashi (Group Ⅳ), sugoshi, yuyushi, and wabishi (Group Ⅴ) are chosen among the ninety aesthetic words to reveal the hidden structure of meaning of the Tale of Genji's aesthetic words. These words show hierarchical structures of multiple meanings according to the degree of internal emotionality. Understanding of the multi-layer structure of meaning of Japanese aesthetic words can be conducive to translate properly these words into other languages.