Identification and Formulation of Conceptual Metaphors in the Corpus Consisting of Engineering Texts in English

In: Filolog: časopis za jezik književnost i kulturu, Volume 22, Issue 22, p. 197-215

Abstract

This paper gives a brief theoretical review of conceptual metaphors with special reference to the metaphors in scientific discourse because they are present in engineering and scientific texts. The author tried to use the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphors to detect and identify metaphors and mappings in the corpus consisting of engineering texts in English. The texts were selected according to the needs of students at the Academy of Professional Studies Šumadija, Department in Trstenik. A few bilingual and online dictionaries in the field of science and technology were also used. Although the corpus under consideration is rather small in comparison with other corpora containing millions of words, a considerable number of metaphorical expressions were discovered. All these expressions were grouped and analysed in order to establish conceptual mappings and metaphors. The results show that most of these conceptual metaphors have an anthropocentric quality in common (e.g. MACHINE PARTS ARE PARTS OF THE BODY, PARTS OF A MACHINE TOOL ARE PARTS OF THE BODY, A MATERIAL FEATURE IS A BODY FEATURE, A MACHINE FEATURE IS A HUMAN FEATURE). The paper also aims to apply these findings in the classroom activities. This can be achieved by raising metaphoric awareness of students learning engineering English. If students' attention is explicitly drawn to the relations between the source and target domain, language learning can be facilitated. Thus, the study of metaphors can become a significant tool in the classroom in order to help students learn both technical and academic vocabulary and comprehend engineering texts written in English. Language acquisition may be higher if pedagogical potential of conceptual metaphors is used.