Metaphorical Representations and Scientific Texts
METAPHORICAL
REPRESENTATIONS
AND
SCIENTIFIC
TEXTS
Amrin
Saragih
Universitas Negeri Medan
Abstrak
Metafora tata bahasa merupakan pengkodean pengalaman dengan pengingkaran
terhadap aturan pengkodean yang lazim. Tujuan pemakaian metafora adalah
memadatkan arti dan membendakan pengalaman dalam bentuk nominalisasi.
Pengalihan pengalaman dari proses menjadi benda dalam nominalisasi diperlukan
dalam teks sains karena sains berfungsi membuat klasifikasi atas alam atau sosial
semesta sebagai benda atau hal yang dibendakan dan mencari hubungan
antarbenda.
Keywords: grammatical metaphor, scientific text
1. INTRODUCTION
Metaphor is defined as representing meaning in or interpreting meaning from two sides or perspectives (Duranti 1997: 38, 64; Stern 2000: 35). The term metaphor is constituted by
meta‐ which means ‘half’ or ‘partly’ as in
metaphysics meaning ‘half‐physical’ or ‘partially
physical’ and phora or phoric meaning ‘referring to’ or ‘pointing to’ as in anaphora, cataphora, and
exophora respectively meaning ‘pointing to the
back’, ‘pointing to the front’, and ‘pointing out side’. Thus, metaphor implies representing or interpreting meaning from two views; that is partially from one side and partially from another side. Metaphor inherently implies two points: comparison and uncommon representation. Firstly, a metaphorical coding involves a comparison with an emphasis on similarity, such as the expression of the door of
his heart where his heart is viewed as having
similar feature to that of a house in that a house has a door and his heart also has one. Secondly, a metaphor implies an uncommon way of coding experience. In systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory where language is viewed as a social semiotics, there are two poles of coding experience: the unmarked or
congruent and marked or incongruent coding. The congruent coding is also known as a common, usual or literal representation whereas the incongruent one is called uncommon, unusual or metaphorical representation. Metaphor divides into lexical and grammatical metaphor. Whereas lexical metaphor has been well‐known for long (Lakoff and Johnson 1980), grammatical metaphor is relatively new (Halliday 1985). This paper elaborates both lexical and grammatical metaphor and focuses on the use of grammatical metaphor in scientific texts.
2. LEXICAL METAPHOR
Lexically there is a usual, common or congruent coding of meaning in language. Congruently, the word snake in the clause the snake is crawling on the grass refers to an ‘animal’ or ‘reptile’. Another way of coding experience is called incongruent or metaphorical representation. In the clause don’t trust Jack; he is
a snake the snake no longer refers to a ‘reptile’.
This is an unusual way of coding experience. Jack is not a snake; he is a human being but he is considered as if he were a snake. It is implicitly understood in the metaphorical representation
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that Jack is compared with a snake where some characteristics of snake are seen to exist in Jack. To exemplify, some features or characteristics of a snake are (+having scales), (+crawling), (+coiling its body), (+having fangs), (+being poisonous) and (having fangs). Of all these features some are mapped on to Jack. In other words, some characteristics of the snake apply to Jack; for example Jack has the characteristics of (+coiling) other people by using his words and (+being poisonous) in his words or expressions. Other characteristics of (‐having scales), (‐crawling) and (‐having fangs) are not applicable to Jack. The metaphorical clause of
Jack is a snake implies that Jack is like a snake, not to be trusted and subtly cheating people (coiling or rounding people) and hurting others (by his poisonous words).
Lexical metaphor potentially occurs in comparison in which nouns and nouns, nouns and verbs, nouns and adjectives, nouns and adverbs are compared. In addition, lexical metaphor may occur in the context of ideology. Lexical metaphor is realized by a noun in comparison with another. In the clause we have identified the root of the matter; the matter (being a noun) is compared with the root (another noun). The root is deep under ground as the basis of a tree. Thus, the root of the matter implies ‘the basis or cause of the matter’. In other words, the root of the matter means the fundamental cause of the matter. Some other examples of lexical metaphors are the foot of the mountain, island of hope, door of heart, sea of life, guard of revolution,
and taste for music.
Metaphorical representations may occur where a noun is compared with a verb. In the clause they sailed to their expectation, their
expectation is compared with sailed. It appears as
if their expectation was the sea and they sailed through the sea. Other examples of metaphor with verbs compared with nouns are open your
heart, smiling city, filling one’s life, escalating
achievement, and rocketing prices.
Lexical metaphor also forms with nouns compared with adjectives. In the clause he has
got a bright future, the future is compared with
the brightness of the sun. Here, the future (being
noun) is compared with bright (being adjective). Other examples of metaphoric representations
are the man is still green (being inexperienced),
green revolution, golden age and dark life.
Lexical metaphor may also form in ideological contexts in which a meaning or concept is one community is analogously applied in another culture. The president of the US (R. Nixon) was once alleged for a scandal of corruption known as Watergate scandal. The other president (Bill Clinton) was also alleged for the scandal of Freshwatergate. Since then the morpheme gate was used for any corruption scandal. This was later applied in Indonesia where President Abdurahman Wahid was accused of Buloggate, Bruneigate and Golkargate
in which gate is used to mark corruption scandal.
3. GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR
Grammatical metaphor is defined as relocation or shift of wording the meaning from its usual representation to another unusual realization. In this sense, analogously to lexical metaphor which is an unusual coding of meaning, grammatical metaphor indicates an incongruent wording of meaning. This is to say that inherently there are two kinds of wording, namely congruent and incongruent or metaphorical one.
A congruent coding or wording indicates that reality is coded in its usual or common realizations. In other words, congruent representation is the common way of realizing semantics in grammar; specifically usual ways of expressing meaning in lexicogrammatical aspects. This is also called literal meaning. For example, lexico‐grammatically a thing is congruently coded by noun and activity or event by verb. In the clause of the man arrived late, the group the man is a thing and is coded in
a noun and arrived is an event, which is coded
in a verb. In Table 1, based on Martin (1993b: 218), congruent coding of meaning is summarized.
Incongruent or metaphorical coding does not follow the congruent representation. In other words, metaphorical coding or grammatical metaphor indicates uncommon coding in which commonality of coding as summarized in Table 1 is violated. The expression of the man’s late arrival in the man’s late arrival surprises us is a
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metaphorical wording since the congruent function of arrive as an event is now recoded in noun. This indicates that grammatical metaphor indicates relocation or shift of meaning expression from the normal to unusual one.
When a text is not congruent in its realization or the literal realization is violated, grammatical metaphor forms. In he succeeded in
the job the wording is congruent since it follows the principle as summarized in Table 1. However, in his success in the job results in a
strong criticism the nominal group his success is a
metaphorical wording. The range of grammatical metaphor is summarized in Table 2 in which the sign means ‘realized by’.
Table 1: Congruent Wordings of Meaning Meaning Realized by Lexicogrammar
(Wording)
Examples
thing
Participant/noun The bookwas sold. activity
Process/verb We ran.
quality
Attribute/adjective The house is old.
location, time, manner
Circumstance/adverb He wrote the letter neatly.
The man is in the room.
relation conjunction She was absent because she was ill. position
preposition The post office is near the bank.
judgment, opinion, comment
modality She mayarrive early. I must go now. I willwrite a report.
Table 2: Metaphorical Coding No. Class Metaphor Function Metaphor Examples
1 adjective → noun quality →thing unstable →instability probable → probability 2a verb → noun process →thing transform →transformation
succeed → success 2b tense/phase verb (adverb)
→ noun
aspect of process → thing
going to/try →prospect/attempt have completed → solution 2c modality verb (adverb)
→ noun
modality of process → thing
can, could →possibility, potential is required to go → duty
2d verb + adverb/prep. phr. → noun
process
+circumstance → thing
move in circle →revolution; behave badly → misconduct
3 preposition →noun minor process → thing
with →accompaniment so → effect
4 conjunction →verb relator →thing so →cause; proof if →condition
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No. Class Metaphor Function Metaphor Examples
5a noun head → noun premodifier
thing → class (of things)
engine [fails] →engine [failure]
5b noun head → prep. phrase postmodifier
thing →possessor glass [fractures] → [the fracture] of glass
village [develop] [the development] of village
5c noun head →possessive determiner
thing → possessor (of thing)
government [decided] → government’s [decision]
6a verb → adjective process →quality [poverty] is increasing → increasing [poverty]
6b tense/phase verb (adverb) → adjective
aspect of process → quality
was absent →being absent begin → initial
6c modality verb → (adverb) → adjective
modality of process → quality
always, will →constant
7a adverb → adjective manner circumstance → quality
[acted] brilliantly → brilliant [acting]
7b prepositional phrase → adjective
circumstance → quality
[argued] for a long time → lengthy [argument]
[describe] in details →detailed [description]
7c prepositional phrase → noun premodifier
circumstance →class (of thing)
[cracks] on the surface → surface [cracks]
[tea] in the morning → morning [tea] 8 conjunction →adjective relator →quality before →previous
and →additional 9 be/go + preposition →
verb
circumstance → process
be about →concern be instead of → replace
10 conjunction →verb relator →process and →complement; then → follow; so → lead to
11 conjunction → prepositional phrase
relator → circumstance
so →as a result
therefore → as a consequence 12a Φ → verb [in env. 1—4] Φ →process [impact] →have [an impact]
[press] → apply [pressure] 12b causative vrb → verb [in
env. 1—4]
agency →process make [conform] → impose [conformity on]
let [release] → allow [departure] 13 Φ → noun [in env. Φ →thing [her success] →the fact of [her
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No. Class Metaphor Function Metaphor Examples
Projection] success]
[my apology] → the act of [my apology]
The change or shift of coding from the congruent to metaphorical representation causes a tension between semantics and grammar. For example, in (1a) the clause complex of Ali was
absent because he was ill is a normal or congruent
coding in which, as stated in Table 1, relation of ‘cause—effect’ is coded by conjunction because. In addition, quality is coded by adjectives of
absent and ill. However, in (1b, c, d, e) there is a shift in which relation is recoded in verb and quality is recoded in nouns. The quality or attribute absent and ill are metaphorically recoded as being absent and being ill in (1b). The text in (1b) sounds unnatural; however, texts in (1, c, d, e) are much more natural in which
absence and illness are used.
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a. Ali is absent because he was ill. b. Ali’s being absent was caused by his
being ill.
c. Ali’s absence is caused by his illness. d. Ali’s absence was due to his illness. e. Ali’s absence was a consequence of his
illness.
4. RANKSHIFT
Rankshift is the change in the ranking or level of coding from a higher level to a lower one. This is known as down grading of meaning representation. In English grammatical units, from the highest to the lowest one, are constituted by four categories, namely:
1. CLAUSE,
2. GROUP/PHRASE, 3. WORD, and 4. MORPHEME.
The relation is that of constituency where a unit is constituted by the immediate unit below it. Thus, a clause is constituted by groups/phrases, a group/phrase consist of words and a word is made is comprised of morphemes.
Grammatical metaphor involves rankshift of two kinds: downgrading and upgrading. Rankshift of downgrading occurs in situations where meaning normally or congruently expressed in a clause is metaphorically coded in group. As a consequence of group/phrase downgrading, clause complexes are recoded in a single clause. Where meaning is normally expressed in groups/phrases, it is now recoded in words and that in words is realized in morpheme. In Table 3 below two types of representation: literal or congruent and metaphorical are given.
Rankshift of upgrading is the opposite. Where a meaning is congruently realized in the lower unit, metaphorically it is recoded in the higher units. Specifically, the meaning of a morpheme is recoded in words that of a word in group/phrase that of a group/ phrase in clause, and that of a clause in clause complex. In many cases the rankshift is not gradual, where a word is recoded in clause leaving the group/phrase as an intermedia unit. Thus, rather than he must be there, the expression is recoded in I believe he is there, it is certain he is there or there is a strong
evidence that he is there in which the modality of
must is represented in a clause. This mode of metaphorical coding typically occurs in diplomacy, bureaucracy and administration and this is not further elaborated in this paper.
As shown in Table 3, by applying grammatical metaphor a clause complex of two clauses or more in their literal representations can be reduced or condensed into a single simple clause in its metaphorical representation. For example, the text in row e of Table 3 shows that seven clauses are condensed into a single clause. This is the strength of metaphor and this makes the clause complex practical I the sense that rather than coding experience in a number of caluses they can be coded in a single simple cause. The condensation of meaning is inherent in science since such condensation fits scientific features.
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Table 3: Literal and Metaphorical Representations
Literal Representation Metaphorical Representation
a
1. he was absent 2. because he was ill
a
1. his being absent was caused by his being ill.
2. his absence was caused by his illness.
3. his absence due to his illness.
4. his absence was a consequence of his illness.
b
1. the doctor advised
2. that the patient should stay in a peaceful place for one month
3. by which her mental stress can be cured.
b
the doctor’s advice for the patient’s one‐ month stay in a peaceful place is meant for a probability of cure for her mental stress.
c
1. Indonesia has successfully developed its economy in 1980’s
2. which affected the people 3. who live in the rural areas 4. to live in modern ways.
c
1. Indonesia’s 1980’s successful economic development resulted in social effect of modern ways of life in rural areas.
2. social effects of Indonesia’s 1980’s successful economic development resulted in modern ways of life in the rural communities.
d
1. our campus is green and large 2. and is distant from the city centre 3. which has provided us with a
natural environment 4. to study
5. and to hang around comfortably.
d
the greenness, largeness and its distance from the city centre are provisions for natural environment study and a comfort of wander.
e
1. you may leave now
2. since you have completed the work 3. but you must return
4. if I call you 5. when I need you 6. to help me
7. to reshelf the books
e
your leave on completion of work is followed by an obligatory return on my call upon assistance for the book reshelf
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5. CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENTIFIC TEXTS
A scientific text has a number of features or characteristics. Some features characterize scientific texts are:
1. Objective, 2. Impersonal, 3. Technical, 4. Practical, and 5. Written Language.
All of these characteristics find their expressions in langauge, particularly in lexicogrammatical aspects.
5. 1 Objective
A concept or idea is called objective when it is perceived similar by all persons regardless of the surrounding elements, such as temporal, spatial, manner characteristics. On the contrary, a subjective idea is one which is contextually dependent, that is the idea varies in terms of location and manner. Subjectivity in language is coded by linguistic aspects of (1) Mental Process, (2) Epithet, (3) Modality, (4) Euphemism, and (5) Connotative Meaning.
1) Mental Process, that is verbs coding cognition, affection and perception, (such as know, realize, understand, feel, like, love, hate, see, hear…),
2) Epithet, that is adjectives which accept intensifier very and degrees of comparisons, (such as high, low, pretty, good, …),
3) Modality which codes assessment, opinion, personal judgments, (such as
certain, may, will, can, certain, sometimes,
must…),
4) Euphemism (wash my hand, pass away, ask one’s hand), and
5) Connotative Meanings.
In order to remain objective in a scientific text, the use of the five subjective elements should be avoided or if not possible be minimized. Objectivity and subjectivity are in contrast proportion in the sense that if subjectivity increases, objectivity decreases and if objectivity increases, subjectivity decreases.
Occasionally subjective assessment is used such as in a scale measuring attitudes. The term ‘good’, ‘better’, ‘best’ and ‘excellent’ are used after being made objective by defining each of the term: being ‘good’ means that almost 8o% of the case is favorable.
5. 2 Impersonal
Ideas or concepts in scientific texts are impersonal in the sense that involvement of the writer of the text typically coded as personal pronouns I, we, s/he and the writer is avoided. Being personal implies subjectivity. Thus, to maintain the objectivity pronouns are not used. However, personality is allowed only in acknowledgement. To maintain impersonality, clauses in scientific texts are typically realized in the passive voice. This is the main reason for the dominant us of passive voice in scientific texts.
Another realization of impersonality is promoting the Value or Participant. In effect instead of representing an arachnid is an
invertebrate animal having eight legs extending an
equal interval from the central body (Trimble 1985:
80), the clause an invertebrate animal having eight
legs extending an equal interval from the central
body is called an arachnid or an alternative of a
meteorological instrument that is used to measure
the seed of the wind is called an anemometer for an
anemometer is a meteorological instrument that is
used to measure the seed of the wind. In Indonesian the use of quasi passive clause such as buku itu
mereka ambil is one alternative of coding
impersonality for its active counterpart mereka
mengambil buku itu. This way of promoting
Value in relational process clause is also the property of technicality.
5. 3 Technical
Technicality refers to a linguistic form which conveys meanings of a number of other linguistic forms. In other words, technicality contains condensed meaning of words. There is no discipline or scientific study without technicality as the terms used codes specificity in the disciplines. A technical term is constituted by three elements, namely (1) the term, (2)
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definition with a (3) process (typically Relational Process) in between the term and definition. The following example shows the technical
aspects of language in which a definition is derived.
Table 4: Technicality
Atom
is refers to points to is defined as
indicates means…
the smallest element of an entity
Engineering
thethe processforces ofand harnessing materials or of directing nature for the use and convenience of man
Barometer a meteorological instrument used for the measurement of atmospheric pressure
Precipitation All forms of water which fall from the sky Token
Term
Process: Relational (Verb)
Values Definition
Technicality differs from acronym or abbreviation in that technicality involves condensation of meaning whereas acronym covers contraction of form. A technical term may be a common word which carries condensed meanings whereas acronym carries common sense in short form. For example sound
in sound is a compression of wave that can be heard
is technical term. Although one knows in common sense the meaning of sound, as a technical term the word carries different meaning. On the other hand UFO is an abbreviation of unidentified flying object. Once the full or complete form is given the meaning is obvious. However, it should be noted that an acronym may sometimes serve as a technical term.
A concrete thing is one which is identifiable by all senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting…). In other words, the more senses can be used to identify an object, the more concrete the object becomes. On the contrary, the less senses are potentially used to identify an object, the more abstract the object becomes. In this way, water is more concrete
than air, waterless is more abstract than water and
waterlessness is more abstract than watery.
Abstraction, as Martin (1993b: 226) has observed, deals with coding of meaning in nominal group rather than in clause and logical relation meaning is buried in process. To exemplify, the text in (1) is concrete or much more concrete than that in (2) where clauses
have been recoded in nominal group and logical relation in verb.
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Australia’s steel‐making capacity, and of demands, rubber, metal goods and motor vehicles enlarged partly because war demanded.
a. Ali was absent because he was ill. b. The Dutch colonized Indonesia for
almost four centuries, which caused the people to be poor and ignorance. (3)
a. The enlargement of Australia’ steel‐ making capacity, and of chemicals, rubber, metal goods and motor vehicles all owed something to the demands of war.
b. Ali’s absence was due to his illness. c. The Dutch colonization in Indonesia
resulted in poverty and ignorance.
5. 4 Practical
The practicality of scientific texts indicates that words or linguistic resources used are economical and unambiguous. Specifically the coding of propositions or ideas in more than one clause is preferred to be represented in a single clause. Further, an idea or proposition coded in a single clause is realized in a group or phrase by which less linguistic resources are employed.
A relationship of constituent is formed among the units. This is to say that a higher
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unit is constituted by the lower one. Thus, a clause is constituted by group/phrase which made up of words and a word is comprised of morphemes. A group experientially consists of
functional elements of Deictic Λ Numerative Λ Epithet Λ Classifier Λ Thing Λ Qualifier (where
Λ means ‘followed by’) as shown in (4) below. 4
Deictic Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier
the three young Asian women in the room
the three young Asian women who stay in the room
the actual first three pretty young south east Asian women who stay in the room
Table 5: Spoken and Written Language
Medium
Spoken Language Written Language
sounds (phonemes) scripts/letters (grapheme)
Lexicogrammar high GI
low LD
ow GI high LD
Coding propositions of three clause into a single clause has downgraded or rankshifted representation in which a clause is coded in elements of group as sown in more than clause such as in (5).
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d. Ali arrived late, which worried us but pleased our rival team.
e. Ali’s late arrival resulted in our worries and our rival team’s pleasure.
It is worth noting that practicality is paradoxical to ambiguity in the sense that the increase of practicality i. e economizing linguistic resources is potential to increase ambiguity. To exemplify, the following clause in (6a) is ambiguous. The ambiguity can be avoided by specifying the case, thus resulting in impracticality of the text, i. e using more linguistic resources.
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a. Flying planes can be dangerous (ambiguous).
b. Planes which are flying can b dangerous (impractical).
c. The act of flying planes can be dangerous (impractical).
5. 5 Written Language
Scientific texts are coded in the grammar of written language. Written language differs from spoken language not merely in terms of medium in the sense that spoken language is coded in or realized by sounds (phonemes) and that written language is coded in scripts (grapheme) but also in lexicogrammatical aspects. Precisely, this is to say that the lexicogrammatical representation of spoken language differ from that of written language.
It is specified that spoken language has high grammatical intricacy (GI) and low lexical density (LD) whereas written language has low GI and low LD. GI refers the number of clause in a sentence or clause complex (in LFS terminology). The more clauses in a clause complex the more intricate or the higher the GI becomes. Thus, he was absent because he was ill is
more complex than his absence was caused by his illness for in the latter clause the propositions are coded in a single clause. LD describes number of content words (Noun, Verb, Adjective and Adverb) per clause. Thus, the clause he was absent has one LD and he was ill is also has one. The LD of a sentence or clause complex is the sum of all lexical items, i. e content words divided by the number of clauses. To exemplify, the clause complex of Ali arrived
late, which worried us but pleased our rival team
is constituted by 3 clauses and 7 lexical item (printed in bold letters). The LD is 7/3 which
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gives 2.3 or simply 2. By the same way, the clause Ali’s late arrival resulted in our worries and our rival team’s pleasure which is a single clause has LD of 8.
Spoken language is related to general language or the language of common sense
whereas written language is related to the language of science and technology. The difference of spoken language from written language is specified as the following.
Table 6: Lexicogrammar and Medium in Language Lexicogrammar Medium Examples
spoken spoken spoken in spoken: conversation
spoken written spoken in written: dialogues in novel
written spoken written in spoken: news on TV
written written written in written: scientific texts
The derivation of metaphorical representation in 2b is configured as in Figure 1
People clear land in order to
cultivate crops
which destructs millions forests and devastates natural resources
land clearing for crop cultivation results in forest destruction and natural resourse devastation
Figure 1: Derivation of Metaphorical Representation
By cross classifying lexicogrammar and medium as features of spoken and written language, the characteristic of a scientific text is derived as written (lexicogramar) in written (medium) as summarized in Table 6.
6. METAPHORICAL CODING IN
SCIENTIFIC TEXTS
Metaphorical coding complies with features of scientific text. With its characteristics of being objective, impersonal, technical, practical/abstract and written language, a scientific text turns common sense or daily experience into object or thing. In other words, grammatical metaphor turns process into thing or object. Once an object forms, a scienctist finds or describes the relation of the object to another. It is a fact that scientists are in search of relations in the natural or social settings.
Thus, objectivity, impersonality, echnicality, practicality and written mode as features of science are maintained by the use of grammatical metaphor. This is one of the reasons for the use of grammatical metaphor in scientific texts.
Another advantage of grammatical metaphor is that it can ‘bury’ material processes in nominnalization, thus tranforming processes into thing. Once the thing exists, then it can be related to another or other phenomena. Science functions to describe the relation of a variable or phenomenon to another or others. As shown in (7a) the congruent text is constituted by four clauses. The congruent coding in clause complex with four material processes (clear,
cultivate, destroy and devastate) are buried in two
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clearing for crop cultivation and forest destruction
and natural resource devastation. A relational
process of results in is used to relate the two nominalizations. The core meaning of the simple clause in 7b is ‘a result in b’.
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a. People clear land in order to cultivate crops, which destructs forest and devastate natural resources.
b. Land clearing for crop cultivation results in forest destruction and natural resource devastation.
7. CONCLUSIONS
Metaphorical representation indicates an uncommon or incongruent coding of experience. Metaphor divides into lexical and grammatical metaphor. In grammatical metaphor one codes experience in incongruent way, that is in violation of common coding as summarized in Table 1. The use of grammatical metaphor offers two advantages. Firstly, grammatical metaphor reduces or condenses a clause complex into a single clause. This results in practicality of expression in which processes are relocated as things in nominalizations. Secondly, grammatical metaphor buries material and other types of processes in nominalizaztion and provides relational process to indicate relations between or among things. By the two uses, grammatical metaphor is a powerful tool in turning texts of common sense experience into scientific texts.
REFERENCES
Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to
Functional Grammar. First Edition London:
Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. 1994. An Introduction to
Functional Grammar. Second Edition
London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M.A.K. and Ch. M.I.M. Matthiessen 2001.Construing Experience through Meaning:
a Language‐based Approach to Cognition.
London: continuum.
Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Martin, J. R. 1992. English Text: System and
Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Martin, J. R. 1993a. Literacy in Science: Learning to Handle Texts as Technology. In Halliday, M. A. K. dan J. R. Martin (eds.)
Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive
Power. London: The Falmer Press, pp.
166—202.
Martin, J. R. 1993b. Technicality and Abstraction: Language for the Creation of Specialized Texts. In Halliday, M. A. K. dan J. R. Martin (eds.) Writing Science:
Literacy and Discursive Power. London: The
Falmer Press, pp. 203—220.
Trimble, L. 1985. English for Science and
Technology: a discourse approach. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Stern, J. 2000. Metaphor in Context. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Tucker, G. H. 1998. The Lexicogrammar of Adjectives: A Systemic Functional Approach to Lexis. London: Cassell.
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Table 3: Literal and Metaphorical Representations
Literal Representation Metaphorical Representation
a
1. he was absent 2. because he was ill
a
1. his being absent was caused by his being ill.
2. his absence was caused by his illness.
3. his absence due to his illness.
4. his absence was a consequence of his illness.
b
1. the doctor advised
2. that the patient should stay in a peaceful place for one month
3. by which her mental stress can be cured.
b
the doctor’s advice for the patient’s one‐ month stay in a peaceful place is meant for a probability of cure for her mental stress.
c
1. Indonesia has successfully developed its economy in 1980’s
2. which affected the people 3. who live in the rural areas 4. to live in modern ways.
c
1. Indonesia’s 1980’s successful economic development resulted in social effect of modern ways of life in rural areas.
2. social effects of Indonesia’s 1980’s successful economic development resulted in modern ways of life in the rural communities.
d
1. our campus is green and large 2. and is distant from the city centre 3. which has provided us with a
natural environment 4. to study
5. and to hang around comfortably.
d
the greenness, largeness and its distance from the city centre are provisions for natural environment study and a comfort of wander.
e
1. you may leave now
2. since you have completed the work 3. but you must return
4. if I call you 5. when I need you 6. to help me
7. to reshelf the books
e
your leave on completion of work is followed by an obligatory return on my call upon assistance for the book reshelf
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5. CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENTIFIC TEXTS
A scientific text has a number of features or characteristics. Some features characterize scientific texts are:
1. Objective, 2. Impersonal, 3. Technical, 4. Practical, and 5. Written Language.
All of these characteristics find their expressions in langauge, particularly in lexicogrammatical aspects.
5. 1 Objective
A concept or idea is called objective when it is perceived similar by all persons regardless of the surrounding elements, such as temporal, spatial, manner characteristics. On the contrary, a subjective idea is one which is contextually dependent, that is the idea varies in terms of location and manner. Subjectivity in language is coded by linguistic aspects of (1) Mental Process, (2) Epithet, (3) Modality, (4) Euphemism, and (5) Connotative Meaning.
1) Mental Process, that is verbs coding cognition, affection and perception, (such as know, realize, understand, feel, like, love, hate, see, hear…),
2) Epithet, that is adjectives which accept intensifier very and degrees of comparisons, (such as high, low, pretty, good, …),
3) Modality which codes assessment, opinion, personal judgments, (such as certain, may, will, can, certain, sometimes, must…),
4) Euphemism (wash my hand, pass away, ask one’s hand), and
5) Connotative Meanings.
In order to remain objective in a scientific text, the use of the five subjective elements should be avoided or if not possible be minimized. Objectivity and subjectivity are in contrast proportion in the sense that if subjectivity increases, objectivity decreases and if objectivity increases, subjectivity decreases.
Occasionally subjective assessment is used such as in a scale measuring attitudes. The term ‘good’, ‘better’, ‘best’ and ‘excellent’ are used after being made objective by defining each of the term: being ‘good’ means that almost 8o% of the case is favorable.
5. 2 Impersonal
Ideas or concepts in scientific texts are impersonal in the sense that involvement of the writer of the text typically coded as personal pronouns I, we, s/he and the writer is avoided. Being personal implies subjectivity. Thus, to maintain the objectivity pronouns are not used. However, personality is allowed only in acknowledgement. To maintain impersonality, clauses in scientific texts are typically realized in the passive voice. This is the main reason for the dominant us of passive voice in scientific texts.
Another realization of impersonality is promoting the Value or Participant. In effect instead of representing an arachnid is an invertebrate animal having eight legs extending an equal interval from the central body (Trimble 1985: 80), the clause an invertebrate animal having eight legs extending an equal interval from the central body is called an arachnid or an alternative of a meteorological instrument that is used to measure the seed of the wind is called an anemometer for an anemometer is a meteorological instrument that is used to measure the seed of the wind. In Indonesian the use of quasi passive clause such as buku itu mereka ambil is one alternative of coding impersonality for its active counterpart mereka mengambil buku itu. This way of promoting Value in relational process clause is also the property of technicality.
5. 3 Technical
Technicality refers to a linguistic form which conveys meanings of a number of other linguistic forms. In other words, technicality contains condensed meaning of words. There is no discipline or scientific study without technicality as the terms used codes specificity in the disciplines. A technical term is constituted by three elements, namely (1) the term, (2)
(3)
definition with a (3) process (typically Relational Process) in between the term and definition. The following example shows the technical
aspects of language in which a definition is derived.
Table 4: Technicality
Atom
is refers to points to is defined as
indicates means…
the smallest element of an entity
Engineering
thethe processforces ofand harnessing materials or of directing nature for the use and convenience of man
Barometer a meteorological instrument used for the measurement of atmospheric pressure
Precipitation All forms of water which fall from the sky Token
Term
Process: Relational (Verb)
Values Definition
Technicality differs from acronym or abbreviation in that technicality involves condensation of meaning whereas acronym covers contraction of form. A technical term may be a common word which carries condensed meanings whereas acronym carries common sense in short form. For example sound in sound is a compression of wave that can be heard is technical term. Although one knows in common sense the meaning of sound, as a technical term the word carries different meaning. On the other hand UFO is an abbreviation of unidentified flying object. Once the full or complete form is given the meaning is obvious. However, it should be noted that an acronym may sometimes serve as a technical term.
A concrete thing is one which is identifiable by all senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting…). In other words, the more senses can be used to identify an object, the more concrete the object becomes. On the contrary, the less senses are potentially used to identify an object, the more abstract the object becomes. In this way, water is more concrete than air, waterless is more abstract than water and waterlessness is more abstract than watery. Abstraction, as Martin (1993b: 226) has observed, deals with coding of meaning in nominal group rather than in clause and logical relation meaning is buried in process. To exemplify, the text in (1) is concrete or much more concrete than that in (2) where clauses
have been recoded in nominal group and logical relation in verb.
(2)
Australia’s steel‐making capacity, and of demands, rubber, metal goods and motor vehicles enlarged partly because war demanded.
a. Ali was absent because he was ill. b. The Dutch colonized Indonesia for
almost four centuries, which caused the people to be poor and ignorance. (3)
a. The enlargement of Australia’ steel‐ making capacity, and of chemicals, rubber, metal goods and motor vehicles all owed something to the demands of war.
b. Ali’s absence was due to his illness. c. The Dutch colonization in Indonesia
resulted in poverty and ignorance.
5. 4 Practical
The practicality of scientific texts indicates that words or linguistic resources used are economical and unambiguous. Specifically the coding of propositions or ideas in more than one clause is preferred to be represented in a single clause. Further, an idea or proposition coded in a single clause is realized in a group or phrase by which less linguistic resources are employed.
A relationship of constituent is formed among the units. This is to say that a higher
(4)
unit is constituted by the lower one. Thus, a clause is constituted by group/phrase which made up of words and a word is comprised of morphemes. A group experientially consists of
functional elements of Deictic Λ Numerative Λ Epithet Λ Classifier Λ Thing Λ Qualifier (where Λ means ‘followed by’) as shown in (4) below. 4
Deictic Numerative Epithet Classifier Thing Qualifier
the three young Asian women in the room
the three young Asian women who stay in the room
the actual first three pretty young south east Asian women who stay in the room
Table 5: Spoken and Written Language
Medium
Spoken Language Written Language
sounds (phonemes) scripts/letters (grapheme)
Lexicogrammar high GI
low LD
ow GI high LD
Coding propositions of three clause into a single clause has downgraded or rankshifted representation in which a clause is coded in elements of group as sown in more than clause such as in (5).
(5)
d. Ali arrived late, which worried us but pleased our rival team.
e. Ali’s late arrival resulted in our worries and our rival team’s pleasure.
It is worth noting that practicality is paradoxical to ambiguity in the sense that the increase of practicality i. e economizing linguistic resources is potential to increase ambiguity. To exemplify, the following clause in (6a) is ambiguous. The ambiguity can be avoided by specifying the case, thus resulting in impracticality of the text, i. e using more linguistic resources.
(6)
a. Flying planes can be dangerous (ambiguous).
b. Planes which are flying can b dangerous (impractical).
c. The act of flying planes can be dangerous (impractical).
5. 5 Written Language
Scientific texts are coded in the grammar of written language. Written language differs from spoken language not merely in terms of medium in the sense that spoken language is coded in or realized by sounds (phonemes) and that written language is coded in scripts (grapheme) but also in lexicogrammatical aspects. Precisely, this is to say that the lexicogrammatical representation of spoken language differ from that of written language.
It is specified that spoken language has high grammatical intricacy (GI) and low lexical density (LD) whereas written language has low GI and low LD. GI refers the number of clause in a sentence or clause complex (in LFS terminology). The more clauses in a clause complex the more intricate or the higher the GI becomes. Thus, he was absent because he was ill is more complex than his absence was caused by his illness for in the latter clause the propositions are coded in a single clause. LD describes number of content words (Noun, Verb, Adjective and Adverb) per clause. Thus, the clause he was absent has one LD and he was ill is also has one. The LD of a sentence or clause complex is the sum of all lexical items, i. e content words divided by the number of clauses. To exemplify, the clause complex of Ali arrived late, which worried us but pleased our rival team is constituted by 3 clauses and 7 lexical item (printed in bold letters). The LD is 7/3 which
(5)
gives 2.3 or simply 2. By the same way, the clause Ali’s late arrival resulted in our worries and our rival team’s pleasure which is a single clause has LD of 8.
Spoken language is related to general language or the language of common sense
whereas written language is related to the language of science and technology. The difference of spoken language from written language is specified as the following.
Table 6: Lexicogrammar and Medium in Language
Lexicogrammar Medium Examples
spoken spoken spoken in spoken: conversation spoken written spoken in written: dialogues in novel written spoken written in spoken: news on TV written written written in written: scientific texts
The derivation of metaphorical representation in 2b is configured as in Figure 1
People clear land in order to
cultivate crops
which destructs millions forests and devastates natural resources
land clearing for crop cultivation results in forest destruction and natural resourse devastation
Figure 1: Derivation of Metaphorical Representation
By cross classifying lexicogrammar and medium as features of spoken and written language, the characteristic of a scientific text is derived as written (lexicogramar) in written (medium) as summarized in Table 6.
6. METAPHORICAL CODING IN
SCIENTIFIC TEXTS
Metaphorical coding complies with features of scientific text. With its characteristics of being objective, impersonal, technical, practical/abstract and written language, a scientific text turns common sense or daily experience into object or thing. In other words, grammatical metaphor turns process into thing or object. Once an object forms, a scienctist finds or describes the relation of the object to another. It is a fact that scientists are in search of relations in the natural or social settings.
Thus, objectivity, impersonality, echnicality, practicality and written mode as features of science are maintained by the use of grammatical metaphor. This is one of the reasons for the use of grammatical metaphor in scientific texts.
Another advantage of grammatical metaphor is that it can ‘bury’ material processes in nominnalization, thus tranforming processes into thing. Once the thing exists, then it can be related to another or other phenomena. Science functions to describe the relation of a variable or phenomenon to another or others. As shown in (7a) the congruent text is constituted by four clauses. The congruent coding in clause complex with four material processes (clear, cultivate, destroy and devastate) are buried in two nominal groups or nominalizations of land
(6)
clearing for crop cultivation and forest destruction and natural resource devastation. A relational process of results in is used to relate the two nominalizations. The core meaning of the simple clause in 7b is ‘a result in b’.
(7)
a. People clear land in order to cultivate crops, which destructs forest and devastate natural resources.
b. Land clearing for crop cultivation results in forest destruction and natural resource devastation.
7. CONCLUSIONS
Metaphorical representation indicates an uncommon or incongruent coding of experience. Metaphor divides into lexical and grammatical metaphor. In grammatical metaphor one codes experience in incongruent way, that is in violation of common coding as summarized in Table 1. The use of grammatical metaphor offers two advantages. Firstly, grammatical metaphor reduces or condenses a clause complex into a single clause. This results in practicality of expression in which processes are relocated as things in nominalizations. Secondly, grammatical metaphor buries material and other types of processes in nominalizaztion and provides relational process to indicate relations between or among things. By the two uses, grammatical metaphor is a powerful tool in turning texts of common sense experience into scientific texts.
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