DNA — the book of life. What influence has a metaphor on the meaning of words?
The main purpose of the present paper is to describe some chosen metaphors which are used in the field of genetics. In my analysis I use the cognitive definition of a metaphor, which is described in most general way as understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another conceptual domain. I concentrate on the following lexemes: DNA acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid, gene, genetic, genome. Another problem described in the article is how a particular way of thinking about the DNA and its metaphors affects the understanding of other concepts, which are connected with it directly or indirectly, and therefore also affects the definitions of corresponding lexical items. In the present article I focus on the analysis of the concept of ‘man’.