Metaphor in Terminology: Finding Tools for Efficient Professional Communication

Abstract

Professional communication between an expert and a non-expert, the so-called transdiscursive communication, presupposes special knowledge transfer and acquisition. Asymmetry in communicants’ knowledge causes ambiguity and conceptual misrepresentation. Precise knowledge transfer in the context of transdiscursive communication can be achieved by means of knowledge mediation.

In this context metaphor accomplishes the function of a transdiscursive knowledge mediation tool. This cognitive mechanism encourages conceptual mapping of specialized knowledge from a routine area to some knowledge domain. The study of metaphoricity of terms provides ground for finding language tools for cognition management.

For discourse analyses we have focused on specialized texts from scientific journals and popular magazines obtained from the Corpus of Contemporary American English as a result of the key word in context search.

We aim at proving the evidence for special knowledge mediation necessity and efficiency in the context of transdiscursive communication.