The Functioning of Metaphors in Texts of Contemporary Popular Science Publications (Based on the Online Version of the Schrodinger’s Cat Journal)

Section: Media Language

The article presents the results of analyzing the functioning of metaphors used in the texts of the popular science journal Schrodinger’s Cat. Using cognitive and structural-semantic methods based on the publications in 2023, the authors identified the anthropomorphic, naturomorphic, sociomorphic and artifact metaphorical models associated with the description of the nature and results of scientific activity. It is shown that the popular science text retains an important stylistic feature of the scientific style – objectivity. In other words, it demonstrates an adequate reflection of reality.The specificity of the popular science substyle is manifested, first of all, in its clarity and particularity, which finds expression in a widespread use of explanatory metaphors that translate the abstract language of scientific knowledge into concrete associations. Thus, in the popular science substyle, the main mechanism of cognizing reality is activated through the assimilation of the unknown and abstract to the known and concrete.

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To cite this article: Shchurova I. V., Kataytseva N. A. (2023) Funktsionirovanie metafory v tekstakh sovremennykh nauchno-populyarnykh zhurnalov (na materiale internet-versii izdaniya «Kot Shredingera» [The Functioning of Metaphors in Texts of Contemporary Popular Science Publications (Based on the Online Version of the Schrodinger’s Cat Journal)]. Vestn. Mosk. un-ta. Ser. 10. Zhurnalistika 5: 122–143. DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.5.2023.122143