ROCKS ARE HUMAN BEINGS>> and Supports That Constitutive Metaphor in Science and Technology May Be Highly Metaphorical and Active
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Volume 13 Issue 7 Version 1.0 Year 2013 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: & Print ISSN: Abstract- This paper describes a corpus-based analysis of the humanizing metaphor <<ROCKS ARE HUMAN BEINGS>> and supports that constitutive metaphor in science and technology may be highly metaphorical and active. The study, grounded in Lakoff’s Theory of Metaphor and in Langacker’s relational networks, consists of two phases: firstly, Earth Science metaphorical terms were extracted from databases and dictionaries and, then, contextualized by means of the “Wordsmith” tool in a digitalized corpus created to establish their productivity. Secondly, the terms were classified to disclose the main conceptual metaphors underlying them; then, the mappings and the relational networks of the metaphor <<ROCKS ARE HUMAN BEINGS>> were described. Results confirm the systematicity and productivity of the metaphor in this field, show evidence that metaphoricity of scientific terms is gradable, and support that Earth Science metaphors are not only created in terms of their concrete salient properties and attributes, but also on abstract human anthropocentric projections. Keywords: conceptual metaphor, relational networks, metaphorical gradability, earth science terms, lexicalized metaphors, specialized corpus linguistics. GJHSS-B Classification : FOR Code: 260000, 269999 Rocks are Human Beings Researching the Humanizing Metaphor in Earth Science Scientific Texts Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2013. Georgina Cuadrado & Pilar Durán. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Rocks are Human Beings: Researching the Humanizing Metaphor in Earth Science Scientific Texts Georgina Cuadradoα & Pilar Duránσ 3 Abstract This paper describes a corpus-based analysis of Economy; Cuadrado and Berge, 2003 in Physics, to 201 the humanizing metaphor <<ROCKS ARE HUMAN mention a few. However, no previous work has been ear BEINGS>> and supports that constitutive metaphor in Y found concerning the gradability of metaphorical science and technology may be highly metaphorical and scientific and technical terms other than Cuadrado and active. The study, grounded in Lakoff‘s Theory of Metaphor Duran‘s recent publication (2013), which needs to be 5522 20 and in Langacker‘s relational networks, consists of two phases: firstly, Earth Science metaphorical terms were furtherfurther developed. Regarding metaphor gradability in extracted from databases and dictionaries and, then, generalgeneral languagelanguage several studies are found (Müller, contextualized by means of the ―Wordsmith‖ tool in a 2008; Svanlud, 2007; Hanks,ks, 2006);2006); yet, these studies digitalized corpus created to establish their productivity. are not concerned with scientificfic technicaltechnical language. Secondly, the terms were classified to disclose the main Accordingly, this paper presentspresents an analysis of conceptual metaphors underlying them; then, the mappings the semantic structurere of metaphors that contribute to and the relational networks of the metaphor <<ROCKS ARE conceptualizeconceptualize the world of Earth Science, based on the HUMAN BEINGS>> were described. Results confirm the Conceptual Theory of Metaphortaphor (Lakoff(Lakoff & Johnson, systematicity and productivity of the metaphor in this field, 1980, 1999; Lakoff, 1987,1987, 1993) and on Langacker‘s show evidence that metaphoricity of scientific terms is gradable, and support that Earth Science metaphors are not notion of models of relationalrelational networks (1987, 1990). only created in terms of their concrete salient properties and The semanticsemantic study of thisis metaphormetaphor relates to a larger attributes, but also on abstract human anthropocentric researchresearch project of metaphoricalcal termsterms in science and projections. technologytechnology concerned with topics such as conceptual Keywords: conceptual metaphor, relational networks,netwo structure,structure, category organization, and knowledge Volume XIII Issue VII Version I metaphoricalmetaphorical gradability, earthe science terms, lexicalized representationrepresentation1. The humanizing metaphor of rocks has B metaphors, specialized corpus linguistics. beenbeen selected due to the large number of metaphorical () termsterms and mappings found, and its relevance in order to ce n illustrate the systematicity and productivity of e ci inguistics has undergone a cognitivecognit shift giving a metaphors. greater emphasis on meaning and on ththee The first aim of the study is to determine the al S ci concconceptualeptual structurestructures underlying language. This metaphors underlying the conceptualization of the entity o L S paparadigmradigm has affected the study of the conceptual ‗rocks‘, and establish the systematicity and productivity systesystemm of science and technology, where Cognitive of the mappings in this complex well-structured Theory and the Contentemporarymporary Theory of Metaphortaphor conceptual metaphor, very frequently found in the fields uman (CTM) are now generally acceptedlyEarly to be essential Vie to the of Viewgeology, environmental science, mineralogy, f H analysis of concept formation and development. geophysics, and other related fields. For this purpose, al o n However, further empirical support is still needed, corpus-based analysis was used. Then, the models r u especially within scientific and technical contexts. activated by the metaphorical terms found were o Recent research in metaphor use within established. al J different fields of science and technology points to the The second aim of the study is to apply the b fact that specific knowledge is organized by means of lo notion of metaphorical gradability to Earth Science G metaphorical conceptualization: Cuadrado and Durán, terms, and to confirm that scientific metaphors can be 2013, in science and technology; Roldán & Ubeda, highly metaphorical. When applied to metaphor, 2013, in Civil Engineering; Robisco, 2011, in gradability refers to the degree of metaphoricity a Aeronautics; Cuadrado, 2010, in Mechanical metaphor has, thus implying that some metaphors are Engineering; White 2004, White and Herrera 2009, in more metaphorical than others. According to the Prototype theory, concepts are defined in terms of their Author α: Agronomy Engineering School. Universidad Politécnica de properties. This gives rise to the notions of centrality and Madrid (Spain). e-mail: [email protected] Author σ: Mining Engineering School. Universidad Politécnica de metaphorical gradability, by which some concepts are Madrid (Spain). e-mail: [email protected] more central than others. Thus, according to Hanks © 2013 Global Journals Inc. (US) (2006), the fewer semantic properties the source Ubeda (2013: 109), when dealing with metaphor in the domain and the target domain share, the more civil engineering context, state that ―In metaphor, metaphorical a metaphor is, and vice versa. However, abstract concepts are understood in terms of concrete, Hank‘s study is concerned with metaphor as a figure of physical ones. In other words, physical concepts act as speech. ―His findings are based on BNC and provides a source domain for abstract concepts in the target good, clear examples‘‘. from general language such as domain‖. This paper questions such generalised belief ‗a storm of..‘, ‗a sea of..‘, ‗an oasis of..‘. On the other and focuses on data showing that the source domain hand, Müller‘s (2008) and Svanlud‘s (2007) studies are (human experience in our case) is frequently quite more concerned with the different dimensions of abstract than the target domain (rocks‘ scientific terms), conventionality and do not include the idea of centrality, 3 at least in Earth Science fields. nor analyse scientific terminology. 201 We propose that the parameters to measure r ea metaphoricity in science and technology may be based Y on an objectivist description of the concepts, and on the distance between the real objective world and the The methodology adopted, which starts with the 56202 metaphor (Cuadrado & Durán, 2013), rather than on analysis of metaphorical terms to unfold the cognitive mappings underlying language, involves the study of linguistic factors such as conventionality, the salient meaning of a word, or other pragmatic aspects. memeaninganing in context; hence, corpus-based analysis was Although we consider that Hank‘s (2006) proposal, used. The unfolding of such metaphors involved these based on the semantic attributes of words can also be stages: applied to metaphorical terms in science and a) Hand searching of metaphorical terms in specialized technology, we argue that another important aspect to dictionaries. be taken into account when approaching metaphorical b) Definition and decomposition of the terms into their gradability is that of centrality. Both approaches are semantic components. complementary rather than competing, and add on to c) Contextualization of lexicalized constitutive ththee argument that some metaphors are more metaphors using the electronic corpus of specialized metaphorical than others. Thus, the prepresentsent work will written texts created for this purpose; examples were shoshoww that terminological