A Cognitive Study On Cyber Metaphors

Computer and internet came into being due to the rapid development of science and technology, and a new life style came along with them. The great influence cyber technology brings to the world has prompted more and more researchers to explore in cyber field from different angles with the purpose to accelerate the further progress of the cyber technology.This study applies the theories in the cognitive linguistic field to the study of cyber concepts. Among these theories, Lakoff's Conceptual Metaphor Theory is laid particular stress on. Its basic idea is: metaphor is not a figure of speech but rather within the cognitive property. The human conceptual system is metaphorical in nature. Metaphor is one of the basic tools to organize thoughts and it deeply roots in the concept, language and culture. The essence of metaphor is that the concepts and expressions of the source domain are mapped onto the target domain, and then the target domain is understood, expressed and acted on in terms of the source domain. Following some cognitive rules like"economy principle", people do not create a whole set of brand-new concepts and expressions for the cyber technology. Thus metaphors come handy as an effective way to construct cyber concepts. This study adopts the qualitative research method and analyzes some representative cyber metaphors for the sake of proving the omnipresence and importance of metaphor in cyber technology.The conclusions this study achieves are:1. The cognitive theories can offer the feasible theoretical basis to the study of cyber concepts.2. Metaphor is an important tool to coin, comprehend and express cyber concepts through the cross-domain mapping.3. The chance of cyber concepts as source domain mapped to other concepts will get higher and higher when cyber concepts are more familiar to people. 4. The study of cyber metaphors can assist the improvement of cyber technology, and make the cyber technology more user-oriented.