한국인의 삶을 지배하는 은유: 상거래 프레임을 통한 결혼과 의료의 개념화

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper aims to show that metaphors govern our way of life as well as our language use through analyzing and inferring from metaphorical expressions, such as pwumcelnam (lit. sold-out man, “a married person”) or myengpwum swuswul (lit. luxury-brand-commodity operation, “an outstanding operation”), describing the conceptual domains of marriage and medical care. Those expressions are linguistic manifestations of the conceptual metaphors, MARRIAGE IS A COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION and MEDICAL CARE IS A COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION. The pervasiveness of those expressions reflects the current reality in which the metaphorical conceptualization of MARRIAGE and MEDICAL CARE in terms of the COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION frame is deeply rooted as a cognitive unconscious in Korean people’s minds, influencing their decision making, behavioral patterns and culture on marriage and medical care. The former metaphor underlies the awfully low marriage rate and birthrate, and the latter metaphor underlies the breaking of equal medical care due to the skyrocketing of medical expenses in the current Korean society.