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영어

Among the idioms related to body parts, hand (手)-related idioms take the second portions in number following eye(目)-related ones and take the most part among four limbs (四肢部)-related idioms. Unlike the previous studies insisting that hand-related idioms do not related to or provide emotional expression, however, this study focuses on hand-related idioms based on the belief that they can deliver emotional expressions. For example, “have sweats on hand”, “suck the finger”, “wave one’s hand dismissively”, or “rub the hands” cannot deliver its meaning without considering human emotions. We can learn that hand also has idioms that are based on emotions, like heart and eyes. Especially in Japanese idioms, ｢喉から手が出る｣can be translated as “Hands get out of the neck” but it actually means “to desire for or aspire to something desperately.” Also, ｢手を袖にする｣can be translated as “Hands become sleeves”, which means “to do nothing, taking no action at all”. We can see that the difference in idea on idioms. On the other hand, there are no idioms such as “to the torn hands and feet”, “to the worn hands and feet”, and “suck the finger” in Japanese expressions, which means Korean expression idioms are more detailed and delicate than Japanese expressions in terms of emotions. More profound research is required for emotional expressions on body parts in the future, based on this study of “hand-related idioms”.