Chapter Fifteen
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article on fluid dynamics and geology, which provides terminological
evidence of the tight relationship between a fluid or liquid coming out of
the mouth and volcanic materials being forced out of a volcano crater.
This context, in addition, unearths the underlying metaphorical
motivation: a comparison in shape and behavior/function between human
body parts and volcano parts:
(18) In the regime with the lowest flow rate the disintegration conditions
are not satisfied and bubbly liquid flows from the mouth of the
volcano. (Fluid Dynamics, 1993, 28:2, 195-202)A comparison in shape consists of resemblance between somebody’s
mouth (body opening at the upper end of the throat) and a volcano crater
(an orifice at the upper end of the main vent). A comparison in function
consists of an analogy in the way biological materials (food)/stomach
gases and lava/ashes/volcanic gases go up an elongated passage ʊ another
shape-based metaphor ʊ and how they are expelled off an orifice.
The metaphorical meaning of volcano verbs can be objectively determined
if the Pragglejaz Group’s (2007) three-step procedure is applied. This
procedure tests the alleged metaphorical meaning of a lexical unit in a
particular context (let us take belch as an example) against its non-
metaphorical meaning in other contexts. The steps taken are the following:
- To determine whether the metaphor candidate has a more basic
contemporary meaning in contexts other than the domain-specific
one: As shown dictionary definitions above, belch literally refers to
somebody’s action of expelling gas out of their stomach. - To compare the basic meaning of the metaphor candidate with the
meaning that it acquires in the specialized context: the comparison
distinguishes between a person, stomach gases and ejection out of
mouth, on the one hand, and volcano, not biological gases and
ejection out of crater, on the other. - To determine if the comparison of both meanings gives rise to
semantic tension between them and if such semantic tension leads
to referential incongruity. If that is the case, then this is regarded as
indicative of an instance of terminological metaphor (Caballero
2006): semantic tension clearly arises when comparing somebody
belching with a volcano belching.
The metaphorical meaning extension from the HUMAN BODY semantic
field to that of VOLCANO is not lexically limited to mouth, but it expands to
involve other lexical units within the HUMAN BODY field, such as throat
(context 19) and belly (context 20):