Semiodynamics of metaphor (based on the material of medical English)

The aim of the study is to prove the metaphoric character of the terminological system of English biological and medical scientific discourse. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the author’s approach to the analysis and interpretation of the ‘host’ metaphor from the position of the fractal paradigm in metaphorology. As a result of the study, it has been revealed that the primary name of the word ‘host’ contained a positive heuristic based on creating an image of a hospitable host in order to obtain benefits. But the evolution of the name has led to a change of positive heuristics to a negative one and a change in the stylistic significance of the metaphor. The initially occasional metaphor became a trite one and contributed to the emergence of the medical and biological term. It has been found that the semiodynamics of the word ‘host’ affects the change in the stylistic significance of the metaphor and manifests itself in metaphorical mapping when the concepts FRIEND and ENEMY, FRIEND and FOE interact in the cognitive space of the COEXISTENCE concept. It has been found and proved that the evolution of the metaphor, fractal in nature, manifests itself in the transfer of the same name from the HOSPITALITY concept to the DAMAGE concept.