The Metaphorical Meanings of the Korean Adjective chakhan in Korean Newspapers from 1990 to 2011

Abstract

This research is about the recently created metaphorical meanings of the Korean adjective prenominal form chakhan. The focus is put on the following research questions: what are the new metaphorical meanings of chakhan?; are these new meanings accepted by the Korean discourse community?; what are the possible social factors that may have affected the creation of these metaphorical meanings? For the analysis, tokens of ‘chakhan + noun’ were collected from four Korean broadsheet newspapers published from 1990 to 2011 and examined to determine whether the adjective was used in its literal or metaphorical sense throughout the period. The analysis shows that there are roughly three different types of metaphorical meanings and that the Korean discourse community seems to accept these meanings because the metaphorical chakhan has become the preferred usage beyond the literal chakhan. In addition, the most preferred metaphorical meaning among the three types seems to have been created to amend the accumulated problems caused by neoliberalism.