6533b7ddfe1ef96bd127552b
RESEARCH PRODUCT
The popularization of plate tectonics: presenting the concepts of dynamics and time
Andrée BergeronDaniel JacobiThierry Malvesysubject
Analogical reasoningMetaphorCommunicationmedia_common.quotation_subject05 social sciencesAnalogy050801 communication & media studiesContext (language use)050905 science studies[SHS.LANGUE] Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics[SHS.INFO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Library and information sciencesLinguistics0508 media and communicationsResource (project management)Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)Expression (architecture)Dynamics (music)Developmental and Educational PsychologyRhetorical questionSociology0509 other social sciencesSocial sciencemedia_commondescription
There have been many attempts to describe and represent the theory of plate tectonics to laypeople. In the context of a study conducted at the request of a museum, we have tried to determine how the concepts of both geological time and the movements of the plates have been reformulated. After having systematically studied in detail publications aimed at more or less educated readers, we have selected a corpus of twelve articles from nine different magazines or journals. Among the different means of expression used by the popularizers, rhetorical figures constitute a significant resource. Procedures based on analogy (metaphor, comparison, analogical reasoning) were brought together in a single category without differentiating between the figures. This paper proposes a critical inventory of the most prominent figures constructed on the principle of analogy and used to explain tectonic concepts to different categories of reader. This work should help museum curators to choose how they reformulate these concepts.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996-04-01 | Public Understanding of Science |