AN ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN THE PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC DISCOURSE OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION A Dissertation by MATTHEW AARON SHERWOOD Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2004 Major Subject: English © 2004 MATTHEW AARON SHERWOOD ALL RIGHTS RESERVED AN ANALYSIS OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR IN THE PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC DISCOURSE OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION A Dissertation by MATTHEW AARON SHERWOOD Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved as to style and content by: M Jimmie Killingsworth (Chair of Committee) Valerie Balester (Member) _ Chris Holcomb (Member) Michael Hand (Member) _ Paul Parrish (Head of Department) December 2004 Major Subject: English iii ABSTRACT An Analysis of Conceptual Metaphor in the Professional and Academic Discourse of Technical Communication (December 2004) Matthew Aaron Sherwood, B.A., Cedarville University; M.A., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr M Jimmie Killingsworth This dissertation explores the ongoing division between technical communication practitioners and academics by examining the conceptual metaphors that underlie their discourse in professional journals and textbooks Beginning with a demonstration that conceptual metaphor theory as formulated by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson is a viable lens through which to engage in rhetorical (in addition to linguistic) analysis, the dissertation shows that academics and practitioners engage in radically different linguistic behaviors that result from the complex and often conflicting interplay of conceptual metaphors that guide their work These metaphors carry assumptions about writers, texts, and communication that create covert tensions with the ethical value systems overtly embraced by both practitioners and academics Chapter II looks at two professional publications written primarily by technical communicators for an audience of colleagues, and demonstrates that practitioners tend to use metaphors primarily centered around machines and money, objectifying both documents and people and reducing the processes of communication to a series of iv abstract mathematical influences Chapter III looks at two technical communication journals with a more scholarly audience, and argues that academics participate in a much more convoluted conceptual system, embracing “humanist” language about communication that favors metaphors of human agency, physical presence, and complex social interaction; however, academics also participate in the abstracted, object-oriented metaphors favored by practitioners, leading to a particularly convoluted discourse both advocating and at odds with humanist social values Chapter IV shows the practical consequences of these conflicting conceptual systems in several widely-used technical communication textbooks, arguing that academics inadvertently perpetuate the division between industry and academy with their tendency to use conceptual metaphors that contradict their social and ethical imperatives This research suggests that a more detailed linguistic analysis may be a fruitful way of understanding and perhaps addressing the long-standing tensions between academics and practitioners in the field of technical communication v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to my parents for support when it was needed, for encouragement always, and for loving books and teaching me to love them too And thanks to Jimmie Killingsworth for deep wisdom, subtle insight, and the tireless exercise of patience vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .v TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A Brief Overview of Metaphor Theory 12 Metaphor Studies and Technical Communication 23 Scope and Goals of This Project 29 II BRIDGES, CONDUITS, AND MACHINES: CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN PRACTITIONER DISCOURSE .35 Knowledge as Object, Communication as Commodity 36 Tracing the Web of Practitioner Metaphors .53 Testing the Conceptual System: Six Years of Intercom and TC 56 The Language of Practice: Going Beyond Practitioner Texts 62 III BODIES AND VOICES IN CONFLICT: CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE .71 Metaphors of Agency .73 Metaphors of Presence .80 Metaphors of Complexity .85 vii CHAPTER Page Tracing the Web of Academic Metaphors .90 Testing the Model: Six Years of Academic Articles 92 Conflicting Metaphors: Tensions in Academic Discourse 100 IV TEXTBOOKS, PEDAGOGY, AND MIXED METAPHORS 109 Conceptual Metaphors in Technical Communication, 7th Edition 112 Conceptual Metaphor in Technical Communication, 9th Edition 130 Conceptual Metaphor in Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach, 5th Edition 135 Conclusion 140 V CONCLUSION 143 NOTES 153 REFERENCES .157 VITA 168 viii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE Page Positivist Metaphors in Practitioner Discourse 54 Humanist Metaphors in Academic Discourse 91 Comparison of Conceptual Metaphors in Academic Journals 98 Conceptual Metaphor Use in Academic vs Practitioner Journals 99 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTIONi In August of 2001, the journal Technical Communication featured an article entitled “Cruel Pies: The Inhumanity of Technical Illustrations,” co-authored by Sam Dragga and Dan Voss In this article, Dragga and Voss argue that the field of technical communication suffers from an overly-narrow perspective on the ethics of visual display Citing numerous scholarly and professional texts on the ethics of information presentation, they show that “the definition of ethics is almost always linked to distortion and deception” (p 265), i.e., to questions of presenting information honestly But this definition of ethics, according to Dragga and Voss, is far too limiting; they suggest that technical illustrators should aspire to a humanistic ethic that incorporates “the human element into the visual equation” (p 271) Graphics, they argue, tend to be cold, impersonal presentations of “facts,” exercises in the quantification of reality in tidy, easily digestible forms However, an attempt at objectivity is an attempt to remove human emotions and wants from consideration; in most social and cultural settings, the dehumanization of issues and ideas in this way removes the most basic facets of human existence which should, insist Dragga and Voss, be highlighted, rather than ignored As an example, they cite Charles Joseph Minard’s well-known statistical graph of Napoleon’s Russian campaign, which shows the movement of the French army while also depicting the gradual depletion of troops as a great dark band that snakes across This dissertation follows the style of Technical Communication: Journal of the Society for Technical Communication ... were even more blunt, calling “Cruel Pies” “so off-base as to be almost laughable” (p 9), “totally wrong-headed” (p 10), a “cheapening and dumbing-down” of graphic design (p 10), and “an embarrassment... the fringes of the profession The participants are well-known and often-published scholars, and Technical Communication is the most widely-read journal among practicing technical communicators... the design of visual communication” (p 272) “Cruel Pies” was presented as a challenge to business-as-usual among practicing technical communicators; unlike many such challenges in professional journals,