“Computer” as the Source Domain for “Brain”: A Case Study of Online Vietnamese Articles

Based on the theory of cognitive linguistics, this article investigates computer-related conceptual metaphors in discourses in online Vietnamese newspapers to clarify how Vietnamese people conceptualize the target domain of "brain" via the source domain of "computer". This study aimed to answer two questions: "In online Vietnamese articles, which thinking mechanism is used to conceptualize the human brain as a computer?" and "What similarities from the target domain are activated and mapped onto the source domain?" With the correlations in experience and knowledge projected from the source domain to the target domain, the logical relationship in organizing the mapping scheme of conceptual metaphors, the article points out a type of thinking in the conceptual structure dominated by the 4.0 industrial civilization which is both universal and typical of Vietnamese people's mind.