METAPHORISATION AS A WAY TO REPRESENT RESEARCHER INDIVIDUAL WRITING STYLE

Abstract

This study aim to identify, analyze and represent the researcher individual style expressed through metaphorisation peculiarities in scientific discourse. The material was selected from the corpus of scientific and popular science texts in the field of Earth Sciences with the total of 1858000 words published both in Russian and English. The study was conducted within the framework of the cognitive-discursive approach and employed continuous sampling of metaphors, contextual, cognitive, quantitative and comparative analyses. The total of 698 metaphorical expressions were identified and sorted into five conceptual metaphorical models: Nature as Text / Document, Nature as Human Being, Nature as House / Structure, Nature as Living Organism and Nature as War / Conflict. Nature as Text / Document turned out most frequent (128 occurrences). The findings demonstrate that scientific discourse predominantly relies on structural-spatial and textual metaphors, whereas popular science texts are characterized by a more active use of anthropomorphic and biomorphic models. Idiolectal differences in metaphor usage among the publishing researchers were also shown: the predominance of spatial and construction-related imagery for K. Zh. Seminsky, anthropomorphic metaphorical models for S. V. Rasskazov and narrative metaphors that conceptualize the Earth for M. Bjornerud. The study also identified author-specific metaphors functioning as markers of individual scientific thinking and as markers of distinctive modes of conceptualizing geological processes. The results indicate that metaphorization performs not only cognitive and communicative functions but also serves as an important means of representing the researcher individual style reflecting the characteristics of the professional conceptual sphere, author research strategies and ways to organize knowledge.