Metaphor and Figurative Meaning Construction in Science and Technology (English and Spanish)

Metaphor is a cognitive tool that operates in both verbal and non-verbal communication, or in various modes simultaneously (Forceville, 2009, 2010). This paper explores the interrelation of conceptual, linguistic and visual metaphor in engineering as the research done in a bilingual terminological semantic study on science and technology metaphors shows (Cuadrado et al., 2015). Scientific and technical terms were analysed from dictionaries, databases and research papers by selecting those with a metaphorical basis; then, they were classified according to the type of metaphor they embody, establishing the conceptual metaphors underlying the metaphorical expressions, and the image schemas involved in the visual metaphors.