의료 담화의 비유 연구:‘우울증’을 중심으로 (A study of figurative language in medical discourse with a focus on depression metaphors)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 담화·인지언어학회
· 수록지 정보 : 담화와 인지 / 26권 / 2호 / 27 ~ 48페이지
· 저자명 : 송현주

초록

This paper examines the characteristics of figurative expressions related to ‘depression’ in discourse. Unlike previous theories, cognitive linguistics has put figurative language at the core of human thought, thereby reinterpreting its very nature anew. For the last 40 years, cognitive linguistic studies of figurative language have proposed new perspectives on figurative language, thinking process, and language systems. For the purpose of this study, we analyzed expert and non-expert texts on depression, which have been published relatively recently, as well as broadcast materials and online texts sharing personal experiences of illness, so as to examine the conceptualization and patterns of depression-related expressions. As a result, depression is found to be figuratively associated with ‘disease, journey, person, liquid in a container, war, prison’. Disease and travel analogies are the most common ones. More specifically, depression is characteristically explained with metaphors involving familiar diseases and tends to be conceptualized as an obstacle in the course of a journey. When depression is seen as a problem of emotions rather than a cerebral or hormonal problem, it is compared to a liquid in a container. Unlike other illnesses, the war metaphor is much less frequent to describe depression. As for the prison analogy, it appears to be an effective way of expressing the difficulty to escape from the state of being depressed. These figurative expressions of ‘depression’ can help understand what depression is and describe its characteristics in a vivid way. By examining these expressions in the context of medical discourse, this study seeks to analyze how depression is conceptualized, with the aim of contributing to an area of study that has not been sufficiently discussed from a linguistic point of view. Nonetheless, the discussion on the nature of the figurative expressions according to the degree of depression or the different stages of treatment and the quantitative analysis based on corpus are left outside the scope of this paper.

영어초록

This paper examines the characteristics of figurative expressions related to ‘depression’ in discourse. Unlike previous theories, cognitive linguistics has put figurative language at the core of human thought, thereby reinterpreting its very nature anew. For the last 40 years, cognitive linguistic studies of figurative language have proposed new perspectives on figurative language, thinking process, and language systems. For the purpose of this study, we analyzed expert and non-expert texts on depression, which have been published relatively recently, as well as broadcast materials and online texts sharing personal experiences of illness, so as to examine the conceptualization and patterns of depression-related expressions. As a result, depression is found to be figuratively associated with ‘disease, journey, person, liquid in a container, war, prison’. Disease and travel analogies are the most common ones. More specifically, depression is characteristically explained with metaphors involving familiar diseases and tends to be conceptualized as an obstacle in the course of a journey. When depression is seen as a problem of emotions rather than a cerebral or hormonal problem, it is compared to a liquid in a container. Unlike other illnesses, the war metaphor is much less frequent to describe depression. As for the prison analogy, it appears to be an effective way of expressing the difficulty to escape from the state of being depressed. These figurative expressions of ‘depression’ can help understand what depression is and describe its characteristics in a vivid way. By examining these expressions in the context of medical discourse, this study seeks to analyze how depression is conceptualized, with the aim of contributing to an area of study that has not been sufficiently discussed from a linguistic point of view. Nonetheless, the discussion on the nature of the figurative expressions according to the degree of depression or the different stages of treatment and the quantitative analysis based on corpus are left outside the scope of this paper.

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