With the widespread development of Internet, Internet buzzwords have attracted much attention in the field of linguistics. This paper aims to analyze both terminology-specific and framework-based Chinese Internet buzzwords in terms of the processes of semantic generalization, influence mechanisms and outcomes. Drawing on cognitive metaphor theory and meme theory, the analysis focuses on three stages of semantic generalization of Chinese Internet buzzwords: semantic metaphor, semantic abstraction, and semantic blending. It is found that terminology-specific and framework-based Internet buzzwords have some differences in the third stage of semantic blending, and that changes in social, linguistic, cultural, and psychological factors influence their semantic generalization process. This potentially leads to such outcomes as the emergence of new words, the decline in popularity, and changes in semantics and pragmatics. It is hoped that studying the semantic generalization of Chinese Internet buzzwords from the perspective of semantic metaphor can reveal the patterns behind the emergence of linguistic phenomena of buzzwords and people’s cognitive models toward new buzzwords.
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