‘Radiative Forcing’ Metaphor: An English-Arabic Terminological and Cultural Case Study

Abstract

This research studies the conceptual constructions and the manifestation of conceptual metaphors in scientific texts in the subdomain of climate change in both English and Arabic language. It also describes the influence of translation processes from English into Arabic in domain loss. For this purpose, this exploratory research presents the results of a contrastive terminological analysis, approached from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson 2003) and Frame-based Terminology (Faber 2012). Reality is represented through cognitive frames or events, resulting from top-down and bottom-up processes. The analysis of conceptual and semantic information extracted from the selected corpus allows categorising reality at a multidimensional level. This case study focuses on the RADIATIVE FORCING event, a knowledge structure created originally in English on a metaphorical basis and introduced into the Arabic language via translation processes. The analysis of the Frame Elements of this event demonstrates the direct influence of translation processes from English into Arabic..