Publications

Publication details [#3783]

Cuadrado Esclapez, Georgina and Heliane Jill Berge Legrand. 2007. A contribution to the study of metaphor in quantum physics in Spanish and English Texts (Aportaciones al estudio de la metafora en la fisica cuantica a partir de textos en ingles y en espanol). Ibérica 13 (Spring) : 85–108. 24 pp.

Abstract

This paper offers a qualitative analysis of the main conceptual metaphors found in Quantum Physics. Grounded on the Cognitive Approach (Lakoff, 1993; Ungerer and Schmid, 1996), the study of the lexicalized and structural metaphors is followed by their contrastive analysis in English and Spanish. Results show that metaphors of quantification and discontinuity of matter, and the schema of war in the conceptualization of elementary particles (Cuadrado Esclapez and Berge Legrand, 2005) are highly relevant in this language. This schema, present in many other conceptualizations in different fields (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, 1999; Ortony, 1993), contains in its development the concept of power and confrontation, also to be found in both languages. The contrastive analysis, furthermore, demonstrates that conceptual metaphors are not always isomorphic in these two languages, although in most cases they cross the linguistic barriers. Thus, some of the terms resulting from the cognitive metaphors and schemas, originated in English while being created by German speaking scientists, undergo a process of reinterpretation as they pass into Spanish. (Adapted from the source document) (LLBA, Accession Number 200809473, (c) CSA [2008]. All rights reserved.)