Mathematicians on the Radio: Seven Metaphors for Doing and Communicating Mathematics

ABSTRACT

Metaphors are recognized as bridging scientists’ challenges in communication with the public. In mathematics, however, which often involves abstract concepts and relations, less attention has been paid to the role of metaphors in public communication. In this article we examine the metaphors appearing in the discourse of 10 mathematicians in five radio broadcasts to communicate advanced mathematical concepts and activities to the public. Using Cameron’s metaphor categorization procedure, we recognized seven systematic metaphors, MATH AS: SLOG, A SYSTEM, DISCOVERY, BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTING, A KEY, VISUOSPATIAL, and SLIPPERY/MYSTERIOUS, in the contexts of negative numbers, symmetry, pi, the Poincaré conjecture, and prime numbers. Mathematicians’ talk displayed these metaphoric resources in an emergent and situated way to communicate approximations of advanced ideas. The context and participants’ reactions created a transforming cycle for the interchangeable use of metaphors for both theory-constructive and pedagogical functions.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the BBC, the participants in the Poincaré broadcast, and the producer of “In Our Time.” Thanks to Jennifer Bene for her careful transcribing. We also thank the reviewers for their rigorous reading of previous versions of this manuscript, in particular the reviewer who drew our attention to the very interesting article by Tatitscheff (2019).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The phrase “something like” is used as a reminder that we can only infer, not know, what speakers mean.

2. The broadcasts are publicly available on the BBC Radio 4 In Our Time website: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/inourtime.

3. Transcription conventions: bold type indicates emphasis; colons (:) indicate phoneme extension within a word (one colon for every approx. 0.1 sec); (.) is a pause < 1.5 secs; ˆ ˆ encloses whispered or very quiet speech; = shows latching (no gap between words).