Abstract
Drawing on frame semantics as a framework, the current article studies metaphoric and metonymic pseudonyms. The corpus is made up of 128 pseudonyms produced by Saudis over mass and social media. The argument runs as follows: Pseudonym Bearers use metaphor and/or metonymy as an Instrument to construct a pseudonymous frame to mask their identity. Sociocultural reality, which is called the Trigger of the frame, is the motivation behind conceptualizing the self via a pseudonym. The Goal of the pseudonym is to change the Trigger and Benefit psychologically from this change. To measure this change of reality, the researchers submit the pseudonyms under study to Lakoff and Turner's Great Chain of Being Metaphor. The findings of the article point to a scaling of the Bearer down the Chain, thus re-categorizing the self as less than human. These findings will be shown to occasion possible theoretical implications for the contemporary theory of metaphor.