Metaphorical Expressions in Economics Journalism for Better Storytelling

Obtaining information relevant to one’s economic interests before others is the key to survival in this dog-eat-dog business world. Misunderstood or late news can be financially disastrous. Therefore, knowledge of figurative expressions used in business and economics journalism helps prevent misunderstandings that lead to misfortune. This paper discusses similes, metaphors, puns, personification, hyperbole, understatements, idioms, irony and oxymorons (in business and economics journalism).
The commonest misinterpretations render verbatim, in other words metaphrase, word-for-word syntactic translations of source documents. Literal, verbatim interpretations of source-language messages are unintelligible to target-language recipients due to the missing cultural or syntactical contexts.
Correct interpretation cannot be too highly esteemed because errors due to misunderstood financial events threaten one’s very livelihood. Economic mistakes cost money – unlimited sums.
There is a saying, “Catch the shadow and lose the substance,” meaning that misinterpretation is all too easy. In that vein, we Koreans tend to misinterpret business news reports. Hopefully, this study in storytelling helps elucidate the importance of knowledge of figurative expressions in business and economics journalism.