Cognitive Mechanism of Metaphorization in Zoological Terms

Abstract

Terminology of any science, as a result of verbalized scientific expertise, is formed in conjunction with the ordinary consciousness of native speakers. Metaphor in a particular scientific zoological discourse in the Russian and Kazakh languages has not become the object of researchers' attention yet. The comparison of the results of the cognitive mechanism of analogy in the zoological discourse in languages genetically and structurally not identical to each other is of research interest. Comparative analysis of scientific zoological terminology in the Russian and the Kazakh languages confirms the metaphorical nature of the scientific language, generated by the cognitive mechanism of analogy. Most of terminology metaphors in zoo-discourse are modeled on the universal archetype-anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and dendromorphic. Metaphors generated within universals are identical in the Russian and the Kazakh languages. Greco-Latin designations of zoological concepts to which metaphors date back also rely on identified metaphorical universals. In scientific communication the metaphorical expression functions as a ready-made term, transmitting scientific information in accordance with the target settings of communication participants. Comparative analysis of metaphoric terms in the Kazakh and the Russian zoological discourse reveals that some terms are different due to different structural features of languages and the differences in the choice of signs that take place in the mechanism of analogy, which is caused by the peculiarities of understanding of the world, geographical, climatic, economic and living conditions of the Russians and the Kazakhs. The scientific metaphor is formed on the basis of conceptual structures already formed in each of the ethnic cultures. There are no rigid boundaries between scientific thinking and the "profane" consciousness; scientific knowledge uses common human knowledge of the world in the process of presenting knowledge in a particular field of science.