Semantic Variations of Metaphoric Terms of Geography

Abstract

This article continues a series of publications devoted to the study of the scientific register of geography (Komarova, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020). The scientific language of geography comprises texts of different functional and stylistic orientation: stylistically marked popular science prose, neutral educational literature and scientific articles characterizes by idiomatically restricted language; each of them having figures of speech fullfiling different functions. In terminology metaphors are used as a nominative technique in many branches of geography. As a result of the analysis of geographical terms in Russian, English, French, German, Spanish I have identified semantic types of metaphorical terms with the following areas-sources: “man”, “parts of the human body”, “physiological features of man”, “human behavior”, “occupations, professions”, “animals, plants”, “clothing, household items, furniture”, “architecture, buildings, home details”, “devices, tools”, “mythical images”[Komarova, 2020]. In real scientific speech which in every way strives for clarity and accuracy we usually stop noticing metaphorical terms because they function as neutral words. Therefore, along with metaphorical terms scientists tend to use foreign borrowings which lack additional figurative meanings due to their isolation from the system of a given language. Thus, some borrowed geography terms in Russian are non-motivated, i.e. devoid of symbolic value, while their equivalents in foreign languages still retain their metaphoric nature and connotations; the conclusion is true for different languages. The article discusses and describes geographical terms confirming this statement.

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