The Study Of Metaphors On The Internet: A Cognitive Approach

The contemporary theory of metaphor claims that metaphors are pervasive in our everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. The essence of metaphor lies in understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. It projects the image-schematic structure of the source domain onto the target domain. Hence, Metaphor is the locus for abstract reason. This can also be applied to the comparatively newly-emergent Internet. In conceptualizing the Internet, we inevitably have to transform this relatively abstract, complicated and inherently unstructured concept into some more concrete, simple and highly structured images through metaphorical mappings. The Internet world, like elsewhere, is metaphor-laden.This thesis aims to carry out a detailed study of the Internet language within the framework of the contemporary theory of metaphor, making people aware of the ubiquity and the vital importance of metaphors on the Internet. Based on some naturally-occurring data, seven conceptual metaphors of the Internet, namely the metaphor of INTERNET as SUPERHIGHWAY, LIVING CREATURE, LIBRARY, SOCIAL PLACE, MARKET PLACE, WATERSCAPE, and CYBERSPACE, are investigated in detail, and their hidden metaphorical mechanisms are revealed. After that, the thesis discusses the cognitive, social and cultural functions and roles played by these metaphors.