With the rapid rise of online communication, internet buzzwords have become integral to daily life, attracting attention from linguists and cognitive experts. Among these, identity-related buzzwords carry rich social and cultural mean-ings, serving as tools for expressing emotions, attitudes, and social con-cepts. However, limited research categorizes these buzzwords as a distinct group. This study, grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory, explores the con-ceptual met-aphors within identity-related internet buzzwords and their influ-ence on se-mantic generalization. Findings reveal that identity-related buzzwords feature structural, orientational, and ontological metaphors, with entity metaphors be-ing most prevalent. The source domains of these metaphors often reflect tangi-ble objects, while the target domains represent abstract hu-man qualities.
Jin Li (2025) studied this question.