Conferința internațională a doctoranzilor, Școala Doctorală de Litere, Științe Umaniste și Aplicate (domeniul Lingvistică aplicată si limba română )din cadrul I.O.S.U.D., Universitatea de Medicină, Farmacie, Științe și Tehnologie ”George Emil Palade” din Târgu-Mureș. Felicitări tinerilor noștri cercetători!
PROGRAM
CONFERINȚA INTERNAȚIONALĂ A DOCTORANZILOR ȘI TINERILOR DOCTORI / INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PHD STUDENTS AND YOUNG DOCTORS
MEDICINĂ. MEDICINĂ DENTARĂ. FARMACIE / MEDICINE. DENTISTRY. PHARMACY
MIERCURI 10 DECEMBRIE 2025 / WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10th 2025
Cristina Rusu-Marian
PhD Student, UMFST ”G. E. Palade” of Târgu Mureș
Abstract: This study investigates the conceptual metaphor in Stephen Hawking’s texts, with a focus on the volume ”The Universe in a Nutshell”. Starting from the theory of conceptual metaphor formulated by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, we investigate how structured conceptual metaphors (e.g., “the universe in a nutshell / as a miniature space,” “time as form,” “curvatures of the space‑time,” “black holes as gates”) make complex theoretical concepts accessible to the general audience. The study identifies and classifies recurrent metaphors in the text, maps them to conceptual frames (container, path, mechanism, entity), and examines their discursive functions: conceptual modelling, establishment of epistemic analogies, reduction of abstraction, and rhetorical persuasion. The analysis combines qualitative methods of discourse analysis with tools from cognitive linguistics to show how metaphors not only illustrate science but to contribute to the formation of the reader’s mental representation of cosmological theory. The conclusion highlights the productive tension between scientific fidelity and communicative efficiency of metaphor, proposing criteria for the responsible use of metaphoricity in science communication and suggestions for further research on the pragmatics of metaphor in popular science texts.
Keywords: conceptual metaphor, Stephen Hawking, Lakoff & Johnson, scientific communication, cognitive linguistics.
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