‘PLANES ARE BIRDS’ Metaphor
209What is more, the metaphorical motivation within the third subgroup
of lexemes can be detected in the name of the discipline itself, i.e.
aviation. The root of this lexeme is derived from the Latin word avis
meaning “bird.” Another lexeme including the root avia is the lexeme
avionics meaning “the branch of technology that deals with any part of the
design, production, installation, use and servicing of electronic equipment
mounted in aircraft” (DoAT). The same root is also found in a number of
lexemes derived, via French, from Latin, but considered at present
obsolete. These are: aviator meaning at the turn of the 20th c. “a male
pilot,” as well as “a heavier-than-air flying machine;” aviatress, aviatrice,
aviatrix – used in the first two decades of the 20th c. in the sense “a female
pilot;” to aviate - meaning in the late 19th c. and in the first half of the 20th
c. “to navigate the air in an aeroplane” (OED). Notably, modern-English
synonyms of the lexemes listed, that is (female) pilot, aeroplane/ airplane/
aircraft, to navigate an airplane show no reliance on the conceptual
metaphor PLANES ARE BIRDS.^7 In addition, it can be observed here that
the lexemes with the root avia- confirm the tendency to employ classical
roots in the creation of scientific terms. The significantly higher number of
lexemes with the foreign root avia existing in aviation LSP at the turn of
the 20th c. might support the statement made by Gajda (1990: 110), who
claims that during the initial stages of development of particular scientific
disciplines, the world of ideas is significantly richer than the repertoire of
available, conventional linguistic means, and hence the use of metaphor
becomes indispensable.
Furthermore, a linguistic investigation reveals that the term aileron
meaning in aviation English “each of the hinged flaps on the trailing edge
of an aircraft wing, used to control the balance of the aircraft in flight
(OED)” has etymological connections with the source domain BIRDS. In
the case of this lexeme the metaphorical shift from the source domain
BIRDS can be detected in the French root of the lexeme aile- meaning
“wing,” since as indicated in the OED, the roots of this English word go to
the Mid. French aileron “little wing” – Fr. aile “wing” + -eron (diminutive
suffix).
Importantly, the lexemes with foreign roots, e.g. aviation, aeronautics
and aileron have no separate sense-threads in English for general purposes.
The direct reliance on metaphor in the creation of these aviation terms was
a feature of late 19th c. French. Their metaphorical motivation is, therefore,
obvious to an interested linguist, but, undoubtedly, non-transparent to an
(^7) Interestingly, the verb to aviate is present in modern aviation slang, where,
according to the E-P SSL, it means ‘to boast about one’s navigational skills.’