Metaforiniai ekonomikos terminai

83Terminologija | 2012 | 19 Metaphorical terms in economics RASUOLė vLADARSKIENė Vilnius Gediminas Technical University KEY WORDS: economic terms, metaphorical terms, stylistic neutrality, visuality The most characteristic stylistic features of scientific language (generalization, subjective accuracy, pronounced logic of teaching, objectivity, conciseness, completeness and clarity) are discussed in stylistic works (Pikčilingis 1971: 314–323; Župerka 1997: 81). They emphasize that the language of science is not characterized by visuality and emotionality. A major layer of the scientific language consists of terms, and therefore they also have the general features of the scientific language. According to Kazimieras Župerka (1997: 81), “the subjective accuracy of scientific language is determined by the use of terms and otherwise unambiguous words of direct meaning.” The most important requirements for terms are regularity, systematicity, brevity, ease of use and stylistic neutrality (Gaivenis 2002: 36–50). However, both figurative and metaphorical terms can be found in a common scientific text, so the question arises how to evaluate them. This problem of scientific language is not new, it has already been discussed by Kazimieras Gaivenis (2002: 44–47) in his study of stylistic neutrality of terms, and by Vilija Celiešienė and Judita Džežulskienė (2009 50–51) in their discussion of the basics of professional language; There are also separate articles devoted to general problems of metaphorical terms (Baltrūnaitė 1998: 36–47), construction of metaphorical terms (Stunžinas 2006: 62–73); use of metaphors in popular science texts (Petrėnienė 2010: 129–134), difficulties in translating metaphorical terms into Lithuanian (Marina 2006: 98–108, Volungevičienė 2010: 23–27) and others. The object of the article – metaphorical economic terms, collected from the Explanatory Dictionary of Business Management Terms (2000), the Dictionary of Economic Terms, prepared by Rūta Vainienė (2007), the Dictionary of Economic Terms, translated from English 84 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Metaphorical economic terms of language (1997), European dictionary (Eurovoc). Metaphorical terms in this article are figurative words that refer to special concepts. The aim of the article is to review the structure of metaphorical economic terms and to describe the features of metaphorical transfer after analyzing the basis of metaphorical designation in the language of science. K. Gaivenis (1991: 30) described precisely the importance of imagination in the language of science, and at the same time in terminology: “Imagination is not a necessary feature of the language of science, but is only permissible and tolerated within certain limits. Its role varies not only in the language of individual fields of science, but also in individual genres.” So you just have to set those boundaries clearly and try not to cross them. However, this is not so easy to do, because the objects of different fields of science and their naming methods differ. This creates a paradoxical situation – stylistics researchers admit that the scientific style is not characterized by visuality and expressiveness, but they cannot deny the fact that a number of metaphors are found in the terminology of various fields of science. Therefore, the reasons for this phenomenon and ways of reconciling the subjective accuracy and the figurative use of words in the scientific language (and terminology) are sought. This situation can be explained by the dual concept of metaphor. Metaphor is generally understood as “the transfer of the name of one object or phenomenon according to some common feature, function and simply impression similarity to name another object or phenomenon” (Gudavičius 2009: 114), but two types are distinguished: linguistic and artistic metaphors. Linguistic metaphors are the result of secondary indirect nomination, they retain a certain imagery and semantic duplicity, they are used for nominative and communicative purposes. These metaphors are objective, systematic and reflect a collective view of the logical relationships of objects. Artistic metaphors are used as stylistic figures, they are subjective, individual, perform an aesthetic function (КРР 325-327). It is precisely artistic metaphors that are undesirable in terminology, and linguistic metaphors, when they are the only designation of the concept, are used in terminology. Metaphors are used in science because they compare two things, and analogy is one of the most important ways of scientific thinking. Audronė Bitinienė states that metaphor “is not only an ornament of thought or text, it is connected with human mental activity: it helps to recognize, structure, evaluate and interpret world phenomena” (Bitinienė 2007: 36). 85Terminologija | 2012 | 19 Scientific style is not a closed system, a number of terms are terminated units of common lexicon, they can enter the terminology already used in a figurative sense. For example, in the Dictionary of Modern Lithuanian Language (hereinafter – DŽ) the word flow is given the main meaning “flow, flow of liquid”, the second meaning, close to the first – “flow of various particles or waves”: Air, gas flow. Wind flow. Flame flow. Sand flow. Light, heat flow. Electron flow. Magnetic flow. As can be seen, the latter meaning of the term flow is used in various fields of terminology. In economic terminology, this word is used in the figurative meaning of "continuous queue": passenger, cargo, goods flow on railways. See more specific terms: capital flow EV; migrant flow EV; cash flow EV; cash flow discount VZ 26; cash flow statement VZ 198. Acknowledging that metaphorical designation is not very typical for economic terminology, as the object of the study we chose terms of different structure, in which it is possible to see the use of figurative words to designate special economic concepts. Monotonic metaphorical terms are not typical of economic terminology, because usually a single word is not enough to make the basis for comparison clear and the figurative meaning resulting from it. Such terms occur only in rare cases: when the figurative meaning is not very far from the primary meaning and it is possible to predict what the concept of the word means, for example, a digressive “consumer who consciously declares not appreciating a collective product, expecting to be able to use that product without paying the full price for it” ETS 26; when the figurative meaning is related to the history of the term’s origin, such terms are understood only by specialists, for example, the passage “interest on bonds” EŽ; the name derives from a paper bond with cut-off portions on which interest is paid. Although today bonds are often immaterial, the name has remained. Figurative words, which are the main words of compound terms, are used with adjectives that indicate the thing to which the metaphorical meaning is given (nominative metaphors), e.g.: [price] scissors VZ 138, [tax] burden ETZ 267, EZ 174; [price] 86 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Metaphorical economic terms bubble EŽ 122. Such words may have different descriptive elements and form a group of metaphorical terms: [support] mechanism eV, [price] mechanism eV, [additional trading] mechanism eV, [monetary intervention] mechanism eV, [market] mechanism ETS 439, [exchange rate] mechanism EV; [demographic] growth eV, [economic] growth eV, [production] growth eV, [enterprise] growth eV, [industrial] growth eV, [farm] growth EV; [Community] revenue eV, [budgetary] revenue eV, [export] revenue EV, [tax] revenue EV. Figurative words that describe the main words of a compound term with a direct meaning (sign metaphors) are the metaphorical dependent elements of compound terms, e.g.: shadow [economics] EŽ 256–257, ETŽ 477; bad [loan] EŽ 54, iron [law of wages] EŽ 96. Usually these dependent elements are adjectives, less often participants (crawling [inflation] ESR 479, ESR 257) or noun originators (sin [tax] ESR 190, pillow [tax] ESR 325, ESR 197). Several terms can be formed with the same metaphorical dependent element (golden [action] EŽ 36; golden [rule] EŽ 36). Metaphorical word combinations. Compound terms, the metaphorical meaning of which is derived from a combination of words, are specific, known only to specialists, some of them have a more general meaning, and although the basis of their comparison can be inferred, the concept they mean is not clear, e.g.: golden parachute EŽ 36, ETŽ 29; golden handshake EŽ 36, ETŽ 29; free lunch EŽ 185; poison pill EŽ 312; shock therapy EŽ 257; Great Wall of China ETŽ 217. The author’s metaphors have also entered the dictionaries of economic terms, for example, the invisible hand EŽ 185 (Adam Smith’s metaphor describing the mechanism of market prices, often used as an expanded version of the invisible hand of the market to make it clear whose hand is being spoken of), big brother EŽ 65 (George Orwell’s metaphor describing total, large and active power). These metaphors are common in economic texts and are used as names for certain phenomena. SEMANTIC OF METAPHORIC In the field of science metaphors are created because the aim is to explain unknown, unclear things, reveal their essence, based on what is already known to man, familiar. Russian scholars (Ivina 2003: 62, Prochorova 1996: 41) highlight the importance of metaphorical designation in terminology; also stressed that 87Terminology | 2012 | 19 this phenomenon is typical of technical, medical and other natural sciences (botany) terms, because metaphors are created primarily on the basis of external similarity, therefore they were associated with a specific lexicon (Prochorova 1996: 41). Similar tendencies in Lithuanian construction terminology were also identified by Robert Stunžinas: “The metaphorical nomination of features in construction terminology mainly takes place according to the characteristics of household objects and objects of the animal world. Metaphorical elements of terms are most often named by the external similarity to objects and metaphorically named surface characteristics.” (Stunžinas 2006: 71). The subject of economics (as well as other social and humanities sciences) is different, as it is mostly concerned with abstract subjects. The main object of economic science is the economic activity of people, most often it is necessary to name various actions, relationships, connections, characteristics, therefore metaphors are based not on external similarity (as in technical, construction terminology), but on similarity of functions or other associations. In economic terminology, there is a pronounced universal tendency of metaphorization – anthropomorphism, where the model of metaphors is man as a social subject. The basis for the transfer of meaning are words that describe human activity and its components. Metaphorical terms in economics are created based on words that describe the realities of various other fields of professional activity. These compound terms, which are structured with words relating to the fields of war, hunting, etc., have associations with force, coercion, deception, i.e. negative things, for example: [cold] war EPR 256; [price] war EPR 123, VZ 135; white hero EPR 39, black hero EPR 121, gray hero EPR 216; [financial] intervention EV, intervention [price] EV, intervention [loan] eV, intervention [stock] EV, intervention [purchase] EV; [audio and video] piracy EV, [computer] piracy EV; [labour] hunting EV; [population] traps ETS 141; [liquidity] traps ETS 247; [poverty] traps ETS 249, ETS 461; [employee] recruitment EV; Similar negative associations arise from medical terms, such as: [budget] injections ECR 53; shock therapy ECR 257; poison pill ECR 312; [supply] shock ECR 208. More neutral meanings are metaphorical economic terms in which associations are made with construction (constructive demolition EG 150; [price] ceiling EG 124; front door EG 401, back door EG 516) or technical terms ([support] mechanism EV, [pricing] mechanism eV, [additional trading] mechanism EV; [fiscal] brake EG 127; [price] barometer EG 190, [financial] leverage EG 200). 88 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Metaphorical economic terms Metaphorical transfer is also associated with words denoting everyday people’s actions, e.g.: [money] laundering EV, EŽ 219; free lunches „abounding goods“ EŽ 185; the passage „interest on bonds“ EŽ 33; [tax] burden EŽ 174; [debt] burden ETŽ 460. Metaphorical terms reflecting cultural realities are used less frequently. The terms of the theatre ([international] role of the Community eV, [social] role EV; [economic development] scenario EV) are universal, they are characteristic not only of the terminology of economics but also of other sciences. Expressive terms, which include religious vocabulary, are easily predictable in their attributes, such as: [tax] paradise ‘a jurisdiction where non-residents are subject to relatively low or no income tax’ ECR 175; sin [tax] ‘a tax paid to the State for the performance of certain activities condemned by society’ ECR 190. Similarly, political terms, e.g.: voting [with feet] “emigration of the population from the country due to unacceptable economic conditions” EPR 39; voting [with money] “expression of consumer will in the market” EŽ 39. As can be seen, abstract economic concepts are called words that denote both abstract and concrete objects. It is true that the general tendency of metaphorization to transfer words from a specific sphere to the abstract sphere is not very pronounced, but another name of everyday items has also entered the economic terminology, for example: [currency] basket EV, VZ 203; [student] basket EŽ 176, [consumer] basket EŽ 276; [price] scissors VZ 138; pillows [tax] EŽ 197, bottle necks “weak links in the production process” EŽ 53. Another model of metaphor in economic terms is nature (zoological, botanical metaphors). True, it is used much less often. Zoological metaphors in economic terminology are expressive, the animals are named by the names of the actors, but the basis of comparison is not always clear, what characteristics of the animal are important, because such are usually semantic borrowings from English, e.g.: bull, cf. Bull EŽ 52; bear, cf. 160; milking cows, cf. angl. cash cows EŽ 166; dogs, cf. angl. dogs EŽ 257, EŽ 290; tigrų [ekonomika], plg. Tiger Economy EŽ 262. In Lithuanian, the names of animals can raise different associations than in English, so sometimes the name of another animal is chosen for translation, e.g., [currency] žaltys, cf. angl. monetary snake EV. Botanical metaphors are rare in economic terminology, e.g. decision tree VZ 123, ETZ 467. However, one of the more prominent and frequently used 89Terminology | 2012 | 19 metaphors are associated with the processes of plant vegetation, which are compared with economic processes: [demographic, economic, production, enterprise, industry, farm] growth EV. Economic terms are characterized by a metaphor of water, the basis of comparison is the action, e.g.: [capital] flow EV, [migration] flow EV, [money] flow EV; [capital] outflow eV, [liquid assets] outflow [abroad] eV; [capital] outflow [from the country] eV; brain drain eV; inflow eV; [Community, budget, export, tax] revenue EV. Metaphors based on movement, e.g.: [capital] flow EG 126, [capital] movement EV, [free capital] movement EV, [goods] movement VŽ 150. A group of metaphors relates to concepts of fundamental sciences, e.g., geometry, denoting space, position of planes, objects, e.g.: [money] space eV; horizontal, vertical [agreement] EV, horizontal [diversification] VZ 52, horizontal [integration] ETZ 150; horizontal [marketing system] VZ 154; vertical [marketing system] VZ 157; vertical [enterprise territory planning] VZ 68, [age] pyramid EV, [Maslow needs] pyramid VZ 111, [inflation] spiral VZ 176, ETZ 163; [price and wage] spiral ETZ 199; [goods] line VZ 150. There is a considerable group of metaphorical economic terms where the basis of comparison is characteristics, i.e. physical characteristics (strength, temperature, size, cleanliness) are given a figurative meaning, e.g.: flexible [work schedule] EV, flexible [work time] EV, flexible [retirement age] EV, flexible [production process] EV; hot [money] EV, ETZ 208, EZ 129, VZ 195; high [fashion] EV, high [technology] EV; shadow [economy] EV, OJ 256; clean [industry] EV, clean [technology] EV; the big book EGP 66, the ECU 77, the big brother EGP 65; the opaque exchange rate ECU 306, the hard currency ECU 512. Attention should be drawn to the particularly characteristic for economic terminology designation of the characteristics of dependent elements according to one type of material (gold), i.e. the value of that material. A thing described in this way acquires a meaning of special value: a golden [action] EŽ 36; a golden [rule] EŽ 36; a golden parachute EŽ 36, EŽ 29; a golden greeting EŽ 29; a golden handshake EŽ 36, EŽ 29. A group of metaphorical terms, in which colours are given certain meanings, could be distinguished separately. Black and its shade of gray are traditionally used to mark negatively valued objects, e.g. : black [market] 90 Rasuolė Vladarskienė | Metaphorical economic terms EV, EŽ 121, VŽ 153; black [list] EŽ 121; gray [economy] EV; green is associated with ecological, environmentally friendly things, e.g. green [tax] EV; green [tourism] EV; green [energy] EV, EG 291. Metaphorical terms can identify opposites, their motivation is clear when antonyms are used: white hero EŽ 39 / black hero EŽ 34, EŽ 121; front door EŽ 401 / back door EŽ 516. Less clear translational metaphors, when the semantic basis of the opposition is not evident from the meaning of the words, e.g.: big brother EŽ 65 “synonym of total, large and active power” / night watchman “synonym of small and limited power, opposite to big brother” EŽ 180; bull market EŽ 52 / bear market EŽ 160. The main reason for the emergence of metaphorical economic terms is translation from other languages, which is clearly shown by comparing terms in different languages, some of them can be considered metaphorical terms used in several languages, for example: monetary intervention mechanism, exchange-rate mechanism (German: Währungspolitischer Interventionsmechanismus, French: mécanisme d’intervention monétaire); basket of currencies (German: Währungskorb, French: panier de monnaies); money laundering (German: Geldwäsche, French: blanchiment d’argent). CONCLUSIONS 1.The use of metaphorical terms in the terminology of a particular field of science is closely related to the objects of research of that branch of science. If objects are named specifically, clearly tangible and frequently used or visible, metaphorical naming is supported by external similarity of objects, metaphors of exact science terminology are a consequence of secondary metaphorical nomination. In economics, there are not many specific objects, but more often it is necessary to name various things related to phenomena, actions or their relationships. Therefore, metaphors are based on the similarity of functions, various associations, a number of author's metaphors. 2.The most common basis for transferring the meaning of words in economic metaphors are words describing human activity and its components, as well as zoological, botanical, geometric metaphors. In metaphors of characteristics, a figurative meaning is given to physical characteristics (hardness, temperature, size, material, color). 91Terminologija | 2012 | 19 3. Abstract economic concepts are called both abstract and concrete objects. However, the general tendency of metaphorization to transfer words from a specific sphere to an abstract sphere is not very pronounced. 4. Metaphorical economic terms can be divided into four groups according to their structure: 1) solid metaphorical terms are rare, usually translational (e.g.: cliff, section); 2) metaphorical meaning is given to the main words of compound terms; such metaphorical economic terms are the most common (e.g., prices, scissors, tax burden, support mechanism); 3) metaphorically used dependent elements of compound terms (e.g.: shadow economy, creeping inflation, sin tax); 4) metaphorical word combinations, usually translational (e.g., golden parachute, poison pill, shock therapy). 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