Content-related structure of the metaphorical fragment of oil and gas terminological system of the Russian language

The article reflects the results of a research of metaphorical terminology in the Russian language from the perspective of metaphorical modeling. The relevance of the research is due to the world modeling potential of metaphor which is currently not fully investigated. Metaphorical terms are revealed in oil and gas terminology. The object of the research is the metaphorical fragment of oil and gas terminological system of the Russian language. The subject of the research is metaphorical models which comprise the fragment of oil and gas terminological system. The main objective of the article is to show the specificity of metaphorical modeling of the metaphorical fragment of oil and gas terminological system in the Russian language. By metaphorical modeling we should basically mean the mechanism of image correlation from source and target domains. The process is based on analogy. Metaphorical model is a steady conceptual correlation scheme of images from conceptual source and target domains. The process is based on the frame-slot structure. The data for the study are terminological oil and gas dictionaries and also professional dictionaries created by interpreters and translators in different oil and gas companies for internal use only. Reconstructing metaphorical models we have found out the following target domains: "equipment", "well", "drilling process", "extraction process", "oil", "gas". We have discovered such source domains as "artifact", "human", "animal", "living organism", "plant", "nature" and "substance". Therefore we have determined the conceptual models: "artifactual", "anthropomorphical", "animalistic", "zoomorphic", "phitomorphic", "nature metaphor" and "substance metaphor". The specificity of the metaphorical fragment of oil and gas terminological system in the Russian language can be demonstrated in the structures of knowledge and images involved in the creation of metaphorical terms. This research has confirmed the idea that the process of metaphorization is a complicated mental operation which is performed by means of involving human experience of previous generations, experience from different areas. We come to a conclusion that artifactual metaphor is a prime conceptual metaphor for this terminological system. This statement counters the argument that anthropomorphical metaphor is a basic metaphor. It is crucial to note that the process of metaphorical modeling in oil and gas terminology simultaneously involves a complex of features: external appearance, functional purpose, functioning procedure. We note that not only one external appearance feature (shape, location) is conceptualized. The process of conceptualization is not a primitive "feature shift" but is a complex process of subject analysis, conceptualization and feature acquisition.

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