The impact of metaphorical framing on term creation in biology

Alexandra Volanschi

Natalie Kübler

The present paper is an in-depth study of the lexical units transferred by metaphorical extension from general English to the field of biology, based on the analysis of a 20 million word corpus of scientific articles. Terminological metaphors are analysed both as keys to cognitive processes involved in scientific activity and as linguistic units. We examine the role metaphors play in the evolution of the discipline, as well as the process by which they are introduced, reinforced by common usage, and ultimately lexicalized. The metaphorical term candidates extracted from the corpus are analysed as representing different stages in a diachronic process of lexicalization, or demetaphorising. They are classified according to the perceptual basis (similarity of shape, function or position) or to the ‘root’ conceptual metaphors on which they are built.

Keywords: metaphoric lexicalisation, terminological metaphor, functions of metaphor in science, metaphoricity clines

Published online: 25 October 2011
https://doi.org/10.1075/term.17.2.02vol

Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Freixa, Judit & Sabela Fernández-Silva

2017. In Multiple Perspectives on Terminological Variation [Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice, 18], ► pp. 155 ff.

Gledhill, Christopher & Natalie Kübler

2016. What can linguistic approaches bring to English for Specific Purposes?. ASp :69 ► pp. 65 ff.

Tang, Xuemei, Senqing Qi, Botao Wang, Xiaojuan Jia & Wei Ren

2017. The temporal dynamics underlying the comprehension of scientific metaphors and poetic metaphors. Brain Research 1655 ► pp. 33 ff.

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