Metaphors in Science

Approaches to Language Studies in/and/of Science

Language and science intersect in multiple ways, and those intersections involve multiple disciplines and areas of expertise.

Language and science intersect in multiple ways, involving multiple disciplines and areas of expertise.

Creatures reading a book together

Linguistics is the study of the structure of languages. Linguists are concerned with language sounds, grammatical structures, how neurological structure and function corresponds to language use, translation theories and practices, computational strategies for parsing and constructing language, documenting languages, and how languages change over time and across cultures. Linguistics is generally considered a social science.

Linguistics and natural sciences intersect around, for example, how the widespread expectation that research be published in English shapes scientists’ language practice and language learning, and what happens when science is translated into languages that don’t have obvious equivalents for technical terms.

Communication studies, as a discipline, is concerned with the technical practice and production of communication in human and institutional (e.g., business) identity formation. Communication studies is a way of approaching mass media communication, organizational communication, intercultural communication, and so on, generally with a focus on interpersonal and institutional structures. Communication studies is often considered to involve elements of both humanities and social sciences.

Communication studies and natural sciences intersect around, for example, how scientific institutions communicate their institutional identities, or strategies for enabling communication in interdisciplinary teams. Science communication, as an academic research discipline, applies communication (and sometimes rhetorical and other) theory to understanding how to achieve science-related aims through communication.

Rhetoric is the study of strategic language use. Rhetoricians are concerned with discourse, or language as a social practice: how texts (specific instances of language use) mediate relationships among authors and audiences, how texts achieve particular intended or unintended effects, strategies for constructing texts, and how strategic language use changes across time and place in intersection with identity and culture. Rhetoric is generally considered the oldest of the humanities.

Rhetoric and natural sciences intersect around, for example, how scientists use hedging to indicate uncertainty or lack of commitment to a statement, and how metaphors and other elements of discourse shape how scientific knowledge is constructed. This resource is written from a rhetoric-of-science perspective.

Linguistics, rhetoric, and communication studies sometimes overlap. They also have different boundaries and foci across countries and institutions. For example, in the United States, rhetoric is often considered its own discipline, whereas its remit in the UK is divided between philosophy and communication in parts of Europe. Specialists in all of these fields are also likely to take different approaches to the role of language in science, and to employ different models of communication.

Scholars in all of these fields may study language and science, language in science, and/or language of science:

  • and: how language-related considerations—language education, availability of new media, changing norms around how authors refer to themselves in writing, etc.—intersect with scientific institutions, for example, how sciences are taught or how publication credit is awarded
  • in: how language—the structure of language, the functions of language, language practices—operates within sciences as disciplines, industries, and societies
  • of: how science is made and shared in language, in the sense that scientific knowledge only becomes scientific knowledge when it’s communicated.

Metaphors are a matter of the language of science. They contribute to how scientific knowledge is constructed—to what becomes scientific knowledge through how scientists communicate their work.

Further reading