MULTIMODALITY IN METAPHOR MEANING: A COGNITIVE ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC TEXTS

Abstract

In order to be multimodal, a communication medium needs to combine different modes of expression. In this paper, we claim that even though metaphors are communicated in the verbal mode in scientific texts, the construction of some of them involves multiple perception processes. Our data comprise a set of conventionalized metaphors that are used in scientific papers as pedagogical tools for explaining technical concepts. To access the multimodality of the metaphorical process in the scientific domain, we use the following conceptual constructs: metaphorical mappings (LAKOFF; JOHNSON, 1980), conceptual blending (FAUCONNIER; TURNER, 2002), image-schemas (JOHNSON, 1987; HAMPE, 2005), blended classic joint attention (THOMAS; TURNER, 2011) and narrative thinking (TURNER, 1996). We analyze the scientific metaphors “cognitive filter” and “perceptual filter” that are used to construe the concepts of “cognitive transformation” and “schemata” in the field of cognitive psychology. Specifically, we show how the knowledge network associated with filters and the filtering process (i.e., the image-schematic structure of a filter and the entities and relations involved in the filtering process) helps to frame and construe the scientific concepts. Our results reveal that linguistic resources configured through analogical processes, such as metaphors and narratives, are essentially multimodal. The intended contribution is to think of the metaphor in the scientific text as a trigger to see an abstract scientific construction via image schemas.