The Cognitive Mechanism Of Scientific Metaphor

The present thesis intends to explore some new things on the cognitive mechanism of scientific metaphor. An increasing number of people realize one ever-existing fact that metaphor is widely applied in science language. Moreover, people have recognized that metaphor is not only one kind of special figures but a mode of thoughts towards the world. Modern studies in metaphor have permeated into man's cognitive filed to such an extent that it makes metaphor an important issue for linguistics, cognitive science and philosophy. Metaphors in the scientific discourse and how metaphor and scientific metaphors are created are drawing an increasing attention from at home and abroad. However, the research on scientific metaphor is far from sufficient.We pursue here probing into the distinctive qualities in cognitive mechanism of scientific metaphor compared with those of literary metaphor through a series of cases analysis, with the newly-developed Conceptual Blending Theory as its theoretic basis. By analyzing the linguistic data, the scientific metaphors that appear in scientific discourses, this thesis illustrates the difference and commonalities between scientific metaphor and literary metaphor as well as the distinctive qualities of scientific metaphor.In this study, we examine the application and implication of Conceptual Blending Theory in metaphors used in scientific discourses. The analyses are based on a rich array of attested data in science language. We conclude that the jargons in science language are mostly metaphorical; blending is pervasive in our construction of concept and scientific reasoning. Because Conceptual Blending is an unrivaled tool of compression and fusion of selective structure from input spaces and because of the emergence of something new, presumably a result of integrating certain aspects of the parts, these frequently used appropriate and apt terms are the result of blending process. Meanwhile the conceptual blending is particularly apt at explaining novel and complex metaphor phenomena, such as those which require projection from more than one input to the output. Dominant position as Conceptual Blending owns, it cannot account for all the metaphorical phenomena in science language, and there is need for analogy and Conceptual Metaphor to explain some scientific metaphors. By analysis of the linguistic data, we find there exist much more analogy in the operation of scientific metaphor than in literary metaphor, which may be analogy between different disciplines of science or analogy between daily life and science. Besides, there are also certain amount of conceptual metaphor in scientific language.Scientific metaphor has distinctive characteristics different from literary metaphor: 1) Scientific metaphor is mainly used to recognize or name things, and to convey more information logically; 2) The mapping process of scientific metaphor is one-to-one mapping. Besides, the mapping process of scientific metaphor is basically from the known, familiar or concrete to the unknown, unfamiliar or abstract. 3) The mapping process of scientific metaphor can be described or understood clearly and definitely.The present thesis thinks it is necessary to make a comprehensive study ofscientific metaphor. It is because metaphors are important not only in scientificcognition but also in the development of science.