Loneliness and Solitude

This study began with the question of whether the Korean words oeroum (외로움) and godok (고독) actuallydesignate different human experiences. The initial inquiry compared Korean words such as 외로움, 고독, 쓸쓸함, and 적적함 with related Chinese, Japanese, and English expressions and their historical usage. It thenexpanded to languages around the world to examine whether distinctions such as Englishloneliness/solitude constitute a universal linguistic and conceptual structure.Returning to Korean after this global comparison revealed a new problem. Within the scope of the presentinquiry, no foundational dataset was identified that examines, through spontaneous speech, open-endedresponses, or situation-based word choices, the circumstances in which Korean speakers choose 외로움, 고독, 쓸쓸함, 적적함, 허전함, and related expressions in everyday life, the extent to which they use theminterchangeably, and how usage varies by generation, gender, and region.The focus consequently shifted from finding the correct definition of a particular word to asking how asociety discovers the language of actual users and incorporates it into the establishment andmanagement of terminology. The study investigated Israel’s Academy of the Hebrew Language and thenKorea’s arrangements for terminology discovery, standardization, and management.The two systems differ considerably in historical background and organizational structure. Yet neither hasso far yielded confirmation of the regular institutional process sought in this study: systematicallydiscovering lived experience through people’s spontaneous speech and self-naming, and using the findingsas foundational evidence for terminology decisions. This result raises the need to examine the process of“discovery” before a decision as a research subject in its own right, alongside institutions that determineterminology. Note: you can find two versions of it with the same DOI, one is written in English and the other in Korean.