A Cognitive Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Network Catchwords

With the increasing popularity of Internet technology,Internet not only brings great convenience to the interaction and communication of human beings,but also produces very personalized Internet catchwords,which contain a great deal of metaphorical expressions as a special expression form of network language.Previous researches on network catchwords were mainly focused on ontology research and description,while the explanation of its generative motivation and attention to its interdisciplinary researches are relatively rare.In view of this,this thesis collected materials about network catchwords related to conceptual metaphors as subjects for this study chiefly from Sina,micro-blog,Tencent,Baidu Post Bar and other domestic mainstream portals in recent fifteen years(2001-2015).Based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory of cognitive linguistics and the method of case study,this thesis laid special stress on analyzing the metaphorical construction process of conceptual metaphors in Internet catchwords,namely the metaphorical construction in communicative expressions in forum,the construction in animal metaphors and phonological metaphors.The Conceptual Metaphor Theory proposed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson has a relatively complete theoretical framework and operational mechanism.This theory holds that the essence of conceptual metaphor in nature is a mode of thinking and cognition,and it is a cross domain mapping from source domain to target domain.The analysis of network catchwords under the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory shows that:(1)Conceptual Metaphor Theory can reproduce the cognitive process of metaphorical construction in network catchwords;(2)a large number of metaphorical expressions in Internet catchwords confirm the universality of conceptual metaphor in people's lives.This study attempts to study metaphorical construction process in network catchwords from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.On the one hand,it provides a new perspective to study network catchwords,which makes it easier for people to master and use Internet catchwords to improve their understanding and experience of conceptual metaphor.On the other hand,it demonstrates the strong explanatory power of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.