Running Rabbits and Shoulder Markings: Metaphorical Terms in Aviation English

Abstract

The role of metaphor as a basic cognitive mechanism in the construction and retrieval of specialized knowledge has been well studied within cognitive terminological theories (Faber, 2012; Tercedor Sánchez et al, 2012;Temmerman, 2000). However, the results of these analyses have mainly been applied in designing or improving terminological resources, leaving somewhat aside the impact metaphor has on bridging general and specialized knowledge, especially in the acquisition of new knowledge. This paper discusses the role of metaphor as a cognitive process in the conceptualization of certain key concepts in the domain of aviation. A number of terms and their collocations that reflect metaphorical mappings from the source domains the HUMAN BODY and ANIMALS have been extracted out of a corpus of English aviation textbooks and manuals related to the field of air traffic management. Instances of metaphorical conceptual mapping are identified and analyzed both at the conceptual and terminological level.Ana Ostroški Anić is a research assistant at the Department of General Linguistics of the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics in Zagreb, Croatia. Her research interests lie in the areas of terminology, specialized translation, LSP, phraseology, and cognitive semantics. She has been working on several terminological projects within the Croatian Special Field Terminology (Struna) program.