Chapter published in:
Theoretical Perspectives on Terminology: Explaining terms, concepts and specialized knowledge
Edited by Pamela Faber and Marie-Claude L'Homme
[Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice 23] 2022
► pp. 377–396

Chapter 17
Conceptual metaphors

| University of Granada
| University of La Rioja

This chapter offers an overview of conceptual metaphor research with particular attention to specialised language. It surveys the growing body of research showing the role of metaphor both as a tool to generate and develop scientific thinking and as a resource for specialised knowledge popularisation. This chapter also addresses specialised language studies that explore not only the embodied but also the socio-cultural dimension of metaphor in terminology, thus crucially refining conceptual metaphor theories and typologies in all spheres of communication.

Keywords: conceptual metaphor, Cognitive Linguistics, metaphor types, specialised language discourse, terminological figurative language, non-terminological figurative language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conceptual metaphor: Emergence, underpinnings, and typologies
    • 2.1Cognitive Linguistics and conceptual metaphor
    • 2.2Conceptual metaphor typologies
  • 3.Metaphor in Terminology and domain-specific language discourse
    • 3.1Challenging Boyd’s typology: Novel and deliberate metaphors in scientific circles
    • 3.2Compound and primary metaphors and image-schematic metaphors
    • 3.3Refining the theory of resemblance and non-resemblance metaphors in specialised language
    • 3.4Socio-cultural and contrastive aspects of terminological metaphor
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
Published online: 14 June 2022
https://doi.org/10.1075/tlrp.23.17gom