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Metaphorical nominations characterizing the conceptual sphere of the mechanism (Based on the English popular science Biology discourse)

The paper aims at identifying the connection between the target domain and the source domain (represented by the PARTS OF MECHANISM, MECHANISM REPAIR, MECHANISM ACTIVATION). The author uses continuous sampling method, as well as methods of conceptual and component analysis, in order to elicit multiple target domains and the mapping principle. The sentences under research (512 metaphorical expressions) were taken from various British and American popular science journals on Biology. The author considers the key works written in the field of conceptual metaphor (G. Lakoff, E. Maccormac), linguistic picture of the world (D. Berdnikova, S. Dracheva), written by the Russian linguists. The theoretical analysis is finished by a review of the works in the sphere of the popular science and scientific discourses and the place of metaphor in them (O. Desyukevich, S. Chistyukhina, E. Mazyar, E. Mityukova). In the course of the material description the author has drawn some conclusions about the way the English conceptualize biological processes. It is important to note that most frequently the metaphorical meaning is a broader, more general one, whereas in other cases, it alternatively makes the object or a process more specific, or it can have a completely opposite meaning. Molecule, cell, bacteria, fungi and viruses serve as target domains, which can be explained by the immense significance of the processes that lay the “foundation” of human life. A very extensive metaphorical thesaurus of the mechanism conceptual domain is indicative of this conceptual domain being well-structured. It is worthy of note that the lexemes with the denotational meaning of stopping are barely present in the research which means that the described genes, molecules and cells are doing a never-ceasing job of maintaining life on earth.