Metaphorical Representations and Scientific Texts Amrin Saragih
1
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
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
