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Aspects of Metaphor in Physics : Examples and Case Studies / Hanna Pulaczewska.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Linguistische Arbeiten ; 407Publisher: Tübingen : Max Niemeyer Verlag, [2011]Copyright date: ©1999Edition: Reprint 2011Description: 1 online resource (301 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9783484304079
  • 9783110915938
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 530.014 530.14 530/.1/4
LOC classification:
  • P301.5.M48 P85 1999 P85 1999
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
I-X -- 1. Introduction -- Part One: The notion of metaphor and its relation to the discourse of physics -- 2. Approaches to metaphor: past and present -- 3. Identifying metaphor in physical science: sorts, functions, and related concepts -- Part Two: Metaphors in physics -- 4. Underlying metaphors of everyday thought in meta-theory and the concept formation of physics -- 5. World theories in meta-theory and the concept formation -- 6. Stipulative reference extension -- 7. Assimilative metaphor -- 8. Theory-constitutive and educational metaphors -- 9. Metaphor and style: “figures of speech” in the language of physics -- 10. Transfer of denotations in the terminology of physics -- 11. Thoughts and conclusions -- References
Summary: For decades there has been awareness of the fact that the natural sciences and the language they use are not metaphor-free domains. This study draws together statements on this phenomenon made in a discourse context hitherto dominated by theoreticians and philosophers of science and points up new perspectives of an interdisciplinary nature discussed here primarily from the viewpoint of cognitive semantics. How do metaphors enter into a discourse with physics? To what extent are the methods used and the issues addressed in physics influenced by metaphors? How do the ubiquitous metaphors of everyday language help us to impose a structure on physics knowledge and express abstract ideas in concrete images? These and other related issues are discussed with reference to copious examples.Summary: With reference to copious case studies, this book attempts to give a broad and comprehensive view of the multiplicity of forms taken by metaphor in physics. A diachronic presentation of the views hitherto advanced on the role of metaphor in the natural sciences provides an introduction to the crucial issues. By means of a broad definition of metaphor as a lexical, semantic, and conceptual phenomenon, metaphor is identified at various levels of physics discourse: in metatheory and methodology; in the sociology of the origin and evolution of science; in theory and conceptualization, including physics models; in education; and finally in linguistic expression, including terminology. Whereas historians and theoreticians of science reduce the question of metaphor in physics to the question of the role of scientific models, where one area of physics provides concepts and structures for another area, the perspective adopted here is that of cognitive semantics. The study inquires into the way in which concept-formation and terminology in physics avails itself of the metaphoric bent immanent in everyday language, conceptualizing abstract ideas in spatial terms, inanimate things as intelligent, measurable phenomena in terms of the visual. Attention is also given to the way in which metaphoric processes make it possible to integrate new knowledge into old and sometimes obsolete structures rather than eliminating those structures altogether.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9783110915938

I-X -- 1. Introduction -- Part One: The notion of metaphor and its relation to the discourse of physics -- 2. Approaches to metaphor: past and present -- 3. Identifying metaphor in physical science: sorts, functions, and related concepts -- Part Two: Metaphors in physics -- 4. Underlying metaphors of everyday thought in meta-theory and the concept formation of physics -- 5. World theories in meta-theory and the concept formation -- 6. Stipulative reference extension -- 7. Assimilative metaphor -- 8. Theory-constitutive and educational metaphors -- 9. Metaphor and style: “figures of speech” in the language of physics -- 10. Transfer of denotations in the terminology of physics -- 11. Thoughts and conclusions -- References

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

For decades there has been awareness of the fact that the natural sciences and the language they use are not metaphor-free domains. This study draws together statements on this phenomenon made in a discourse context hitherto dominated by theoreticians and philosophers of science and points up new perspectives of an interdisciplinary nature discussed here primarily from the viewpoint of cognitive semantics. How do metaphors enter into a discourse with physics? To what extent are the methods used and the issues addressed in physics influenced by metaphors? How do the ubiquitous metaphors of everyday language help us to impose a structure on physics knowledge and express abstract ideas in concrete images? These and other related issues are discussed with reference to copious examples.

With reference to copious case studies, this book attempts to give a broad and comprehensive view of the multiplicity of forms taken by metaphor in physics. A diachronic presentation of the views hitherto advanced on the role of metaphor in the natural sciences provides an introduction to the crucial issues. By means of a broad definition of metaphor as a lexical, semantic, and conceptual phenomenon, metaphor is identified at various levels of physics discourse: in metatheory and methodology; in the sociology of the origin and evolution of science; in theory and conceptualization, including physics models; in education; and finally in linguistic expression, including terminology. Whereas historians and theoreticians of science reduce the question of metaphor in physics to the question of the role of scientific models, where one area of physics provides concepts and structures for another area, the perspective adopted here is that of cognitive semantics. The study inquires into the way in which concept-formation and terminology in physics avails itself of the metaphoric bent immanent in everyday language, conceptualizing abstract ideas in spatial terms, inanimate things as intelligent, measurable phenomena in terms of the visual. Attention is also given to the way in which metaphoric processes make it possible to integrate new knowledge into old and sometimes obsolete structures rather than eliminating those structures altogether.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)