earticle

영어

In this study, metaphorical expressions for the COVID 19 pandemic in Korean newspaper editorials are examined to find out which aspects of the scientific facts about the coronavirus and of the social reality of the pandemic are highlighted or hidden by the conceptual metaphors and frames related to these expressions. The analysis shows that the metaphorical expressions seem to have been derived from several frames: ‘war’, ‘fire’, ‘natural disaster’, and ‘beast.’ Based on these results, this paper discusses in depth how such frames highlight or hide the scientific facts about and the social reality of the pandemic. In addition, from the viewpoint of the ‘war’ frame, we can criticize two of the Korean government’s COVID 19 slogans: firstly, “Wearing masks is the most effective vaccine.” is a message pushing scientific inaccuracies because the functions of masks are different from those of vaccines; secondly, “Let’s fight together in the war against COVID 19.” can unfairly persuade the Korean people to feel obligated to follow all the quarantine measures imposed by the government because it makes them regard the pandemic as a war.