Aspects of Metaphor in Physics - Examples and Case Studies

For decades there has been awareness of the fact that the natural sciences and the language they use are not metaphor-free domains. This study draws together statements on this phenomenon made in a discourse context hitherto dominated by theoreticians and philosophers of science and points up new perspectives of an interdisciplinary nature discussed here primarily from the viewpoint of cognitive semantics. How do metaphors enter into a discourse with physics? To what extent are the methods used and the issues addressed in physics influenced by metaphors? How do the ubiquitous metaphors of everyday language help us to impose a structure on physics knowledge and express abstract ideas in concrete images? These and other related issues are discussed with reference to copious examples.