THE MENTAL SPACES OF THE HYDROPOWER INDUSTRYEMPLOYEES: IMAGES OF THE HUMAN BEING AND THE MACHINE

Abstract

The paper is concerned with studying of the mental space of the hydropower industry employees. The subject of inquiry is the special vocabulary of the sublanguage of hydropower branch collected as a result of carrying out the structured interviewing and questioning of employees from hydroelectric power stations of Krasnoyarsk, Boguchansk and Volzhsky in 2012 – 2014, and also selections of written sources (all-Union State Standard’s materials, dictionaries, professional periodical publications, educational and scientific works on hydropower), the Internet (professional blogs). The purpose of the paper is creating the metaphorical models which are the base for creation of professional mental spaces of the hydropower industry employees. Modeling is the main method: models of representation of hydroelectric power stations as a person and the employee of a hydroelectric power station as an electric charge and/or device for its measurement. The conclusion is that the language thinking of the hydropower industry employees is figurative in its basis. The identification of the person and the machine gives the chance to explain and understand the complex structure of hydroelectric power station and its parts in a better way. So the mechanistic metaphor allows opening more widely the physical and intellectual potential of the person, i.e. projecting more ample opportunities of machines on the person.