ABSTRACT

The concept of genetic material gives rise to a group of very common mappings. This is very much in line with the findings of Hellsten and Nerlich, who identify the three main source domains of metaphorical expressions used in English-language newspaper articles on synthetic biology that appeared between 2008 and 2010 as books, computers and building/engineering. The fact that all but two of the 65 expressions that relate to these concretising mappings occur in the two articles Evolution Encoded and Synthetic Life demonstrates how it is possible for several different models of a particular concept to be used in parallel within individual texts. All in all, and possibly because of the purpose behind most of the metaphorical expressions, this appears to be a remarkably stable area in terms of retention levels of both individual expressions and the mappings that they represent.