We propose to analyse the principal metaphors that we, as users of the web (in Catalan), employ to refer to the internet and to the activities, tools and people related to the web within the framework of the theory upheld by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The first part of the work analyses these authors’ Conceptual Metaphor Theory, while the second part examines the various metaphors that we, as users, employ to refer to the conceptual world of the web on the basis of what has been set out in the first part.

Collecting linguistic expressions related to the internet (a compilation amassed by a few pupils of 4th of ESO and myself) we have carried out an abstraction of all them to discover the underlying conceptual metaphors behind them. This has led to a group of quite clear expressions at an explanatory level and which can be brought into classes of Catalan as L2.

Our analysis for the Catalan language is based on works already carried out in English and Spanish (cf. Maglio & Matlock (1998), Porto Requejo (2007), Núñez (2004), Ratzan (2000), etc.).

This work should not only allow us to take note of the ontological-structural-orientational continuum represented by the use of metaphors that relate to the web, (progressively, with a space, with a space that is above, with a space containing things, with a space that takes the form, usually, of the sea, home or text) but it should also allow us to be aware that the reasons why we use these metaphors and not others are rooted, successively in our body, our interaction with the things of the world and with other people in a culturally defined context (as stated by Lakoff and Johnson in their texts).

Maglio, P.P. & Matlock, T. (1998), “Metaphors we surf the web by”, In Workshop on Personal and Social Navigation in Information Space, Stockholm, Sweden.

Ratzan, L. (2000), “Making sense of the web: a metaphorical approach”, Information Research, 6 (1).

Núñez, R. (2004), “Metáforas de Internet”, Digithum, Revista Digital d’Humanitats, 6.

Porto Requejo, M.D. (2007), “The construction of the concept INTERNET through metaphors”,  Cultura, lenguaje y representación = Culture, language and representation: revista de estudios culturales de la Universitat Jaume I = cultural studies journal of Universitat Jaume I, Nº. 5