Abstract
While metaphor has long been shown to pervade scientific discourse and terminology, little is known about how it affects the human comprehension of abstract concepts and underpins further development of related scientific ideas. In this article we focus on seven established terms in astrophysics and cosmology, which have also become staples of popular science, namely “big bang”, “wormhole”, “black hole”, “spaghettification”, “gravitational hair”, “fuzzball”, and “string” (in the context of string theory). We carry out etymological and contextual analysis to find out the specifics of their use in specialized and popular literature, with a particular emphasis on personification of physical entities. Also, we apply the conceptual metaphor theory to compare their source domain and target domains, identifying potentially misleading discrepancies between the two. We reveal that most of these metaphorical nominalizations invoke inaccurate and largely distorted images of the referenced entities, which are further extended and amplified with new details in scientific popularizations. We suggest that more research is needed into metaphorical terms in different disciplines to better understand their implications for the development of both expert and lay knowledge of the subject.
Highlights
Over the last four decades, the pivotal significance of metaphor in human communication and reasoning has come into the limelight
We browsed the headlines of cosmology and physics articles on credible scientific news portals (Science Daily, Scientific American, Science News and Quanta Magazine) over the last two years and compiled a list of frequently featured scientific terms based on cross-domain metaphorical mapping
It would seem reasonable to begin with the very beginning of the universe – the “Big Bang” – which is one of those few scientific terms well known to any average person, no matter how far from science, due to its frequent depictions in popular culture
Summary
Over the last four decades, the pivotal significance of metaphor in human communication and reasoning has come into the limelight. It is recognized today not merely as a rhetorical flourish but as a fundamental conceptualization tool helping us to interpret and categorize the manifold phenomena and objects around us. In their seminal book “Metaphors We Live By” George Lakoff and Mark Johnson argue, “Metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action” Natural language is none of these things: scientists' addiction to mathematics. If they cannot manage with words alone, neither can they do without them. Apart from its Volume 10 - Issue 46 / October 2021 93 термінів у різних дисциплінах з метою кращого розмуміння їх впливу на розвиток наукового знання як експертами, так і неспеціалістами
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