Abstract

Related with the Korean poetry, the verbal play has been estranged for a long time, because of evaluating literature with meaning and value from a humanistic perspective. But from a post-structural point of view, verbal play would be an inherent feature in poetry. This study attempted to revaluate of verbal play, specially through paying attention to signifier more than signified. From the traditional linguistics, signified has been the crucial element to language process to select and connect linguistic units. As metaphor, it is the same. New critics suggested that metaphor was made of tenor and vehicle, primary meaning and secondary meaning, And Jakobson defined that metaphor was substitution based on a certain kind of similarity. All of them put stress on signified than signifier, which was a result of the perspective. But we can found the similarity between two signifiers, sound images, not signifieds. In that case, it is a metaphor too. To distinguish that from the metaphor based on a semantic lever, we can call it “sound- metaphor”. We can find the sound-metaphor frequently in contemporary poetry like An, Hyun-me's and Kim, Min-jung's, and nonsense wit. From Freud, it is similar to a joke. The first, because there is the superior of signifier in joke, and the second, it can set free the desire which repressed by humanistic order and reasonal rule of language. Also, sound-metaphor can be a 'point de caption' by making the same signifier to pull different contexts. So there are equal coexistence of different contexts. Therefore, sound-metaphor is empty and full signifier at the same time. As the result, the sound-metaphor could be a post-structural strategy to make poetry a playground of infinity signification.