Metaphorical Expressions of Korean Medical Terms: From Non-Medical to Medical Domains

Zhang, Mi; Kim, Ryang Jin

doi:10.30961/lr.2025.61.3.329

Lang. Res. 61(3):329-348

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2025.61.3.329

Article

Metaphorical Expressions of Korean Medical Terms: From Non-Medical to Medical Domains

Mi Zhang¹, Ryang Jin Kim¹^,^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Kyung Hee University

^†Corresponding author: Professor, Department of Korean Language and Literature Research Fellow, The HK+ Institute for Integrated Medical Humanities Kyung Hee University 26, Kyunghee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02453, Korea E-mail: kimrj@khu.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2025 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Oct 31, 2025 ; Revised: Dec 02, 2025 ; Accepted: Dec 08, 2025

Published Online: Dec 31, 2025

ABSTRACT

This study aims to collect and systematically analyze metaphorical phenomena in which Korean medical concepts are expressed in non-medical domains. For example, expressions such as “disease is the shadow of life” evidence the borrowing of diverse non-medical concepts to construct cognitive frameworks. By analyzing such metaphorical expressions, this study identifies the social meanings embedded in medical language. To achieve this, metaphorical usages of medical concepts are collected from news articles and then categorized and examined according to their distinctive features. Unlike previous research that has primarily focused on metaphors such as [war] and [journey], this study discusses medical metaphors related to [transportation], [factory/mechanical], and [crime/disaster] and investigates the mapping structures and characteristics of each type. This categorization demonstrates that medical concepts show evidence of borrowing from various non-medical source domains to convey sociocultural meanings and perform diverse functions such as issuing warnings or emphasizing the severity of problems. The findings highlight the significance of this study by suggesting a point of convergence between metaphor research in Korean linguistics and research on medical communication.

Keywords: medical concepts; metaphorical expression; [transportation] metaphor; [factory/mechanical] metaphor; [crime/disaster] metaphor

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