Faunal Metaphors in Technical Discourse: a Historical Perspective
Valoda - 2013 : valoda dažādu kultūru kontekstā 2013
Larisa Iļinska, Marina Platonova, Tatjana Smirnova

There is a vast body of literature dedicated to the study of animal symbolism in folklore, literature and visual arts, but the role of animal imagery as one of the major sources for creation of metaphoric terms in technical vocabulary has not been thoroughly investigated yet. At present, faunal metaphors form an indispensable part of contemporary technical language. The aim of the present paper is to study faunal metaphors in order to understand the phenomenon of metaphoric meaning extension in different fields of engineering at present and in historical perspective. The research is conducted within the framework of the cognitive theory of metaphor considering certain aspects of pragmatic theory. The article provides a brief overview of animal symbolism in historical perspective mainly considering the mythology of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Christianity. Symbolic character of faunal metaphors is highly culture dependent, that is, they possess different connotations, features and properties in different cultures, religions and communities. Nevertheless, faunal symbolism is to a great extent universal, making it one of the most important human symbolic systems. The results of research are of a high empirical relevance for the governance of the processes of translation, term alignment, its harmonization and standardization across the languages.


Atslēgas vārdi
cognitive metaphor, meaning representation, pragmatic approach, animal imagery

Iļinska, L., Platonova, M., Smirnova, T. Faunal Metaphors in Technical Discourse: a Historical Perspective. No: VALODA-2013: Valoda dažādu kultūru kontekstā. Daugavpils: Daugavpils Universitātes akadēmiskais apgāds "Saule", 2013, 393.-400.lpp. ISBN 978-9984-14-653-9. ISSN 1691-6042.

Publikācijas valoda
English (en)
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