隐喻认知与科学传播

Metaphorical Cognition and Science Communication

隐喻认知是人类最基本的认知方式之一。不管是在科学共同体内部的传播中,还是在科学共同体面向社会公众的传播中,隐喻认知的存在都具有很强的普遍性,它常常以多种形式的隐喻性语言表现出来。隐喻认知的重要价值在于以一种兼具经济性和启发性的方式改变了科学传播受众的认知结构,从而在一定程度上消解了不同社会群体之间的"知识张力"和"知识鸿沟"。为了更好地提高科学传播的效率,科学传播的施众需要通过类似于"生物进化"的选择过程,在特定的语境下对各类科学传播隐喻语言的适应性做出判断,并选择出具有最佳个体关联性的源域。

Metaphor is one of our fundamental cognitive abilities.Metaphorical cognition,which manifests itself in various metaphorical expressions,is ubiquitous in the communications among the members of science communities and between the science community and the public.The value of metaphorical cognition lies in the fact that it changes the cognitive structure of the acceptors of science communication,and to some extent bridges the knowledge gap between different social groups.To improve the efficiency of science communication,the communicators of science communication need a selection process similar to the ＂biological evolution＂ in which they evaluate the adaptability of the metaphorical language of science communication in specific context and select the source domains that are optimally relevant to the target acceptor.