Dynamical systems metaphors
In order to explore the role that ‘dynamical systems theory’ plays as an overarching
conceptual source domain in the genre of educational scientific
texts covering six distinct subject areas (cognitive psychology, linguistics,
transportation studies, social psychology, evolutionary biology and business
management), I examined the lower-level metaphors underlying this complex
source domain. Corpus analyses of professional education literature revealed
underlying metaphors of force dynamics, movement, object manipulation, and
personification. Novel metaphors or novel extensions of conventional metaphors
were few. Findings document a proliferation of extensions and elaborations
of conventional metaphor groupings. The identified conceptual metaphors
were linked by (a) lexical co-occurrences and (b) metaphoric implications not
lexically expressed. Figurative context appears to aid the learner’s understanding,
although some metaphors and combinations confound explanations of key
aspects of dynamical systems. Suggestions are made that could enhance the
overall pedagogical usefulness of the metaphors found.
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Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Beger, Anke & Thomas H. Smith
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