Computers are buildings: on conceptual metaphors in the semantic field of computers and the Internet in Polish

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to discuss metaphorical constructions, based on fi gurative uses of words, in informal Polish in the fi eld of computers and the Inter-net. The study is based on the author’s own corpus, compiled on the basis of short informal texts (entries, posts) written on 32 selected Internet forums. Altogether, the corpus consists of 1,541,449 words. The paper, as the title suggests, focuses on one metaphorical formula, i.e. COMPUTERSAREBUILDINGS. The metaphors which can be subsumed under this heading belong to the most frequent in the corpus (along-side a different type, i.e. COMPUTERSAREHUMANS). They are discussed within the cognitive framework, as introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Some attention will also be devoted to the possible infl uence of English upon Polish metaphorical constructions used in the area of computers and the Internet.