Abstract: The meaning of Cì Kè has been experiencing the semantic generalization motivated by cognitive metaphor, rendering itself one of the buzzwords today. The process of the semantic generalization of Cì Kè is analyzed from three stages, namely, semantic metaphor, semantic abstraction and finally——semantic generalization, finding that the register of Cì Kè has extended beyond the occupational domain to the commodity domain, and then to the emotional domain now. In addition, the reasons for its prevalence are discussed in depth on basis of memetics.

Key words: Cì Kè; metaphor; semantic generalization; meme; buzzword

摘要： “刺客”经过认知隐喻的作用已然发生语义泛化，并成为当下流行语之一。从语义泛化的三个阶段，即语义隐喻、语义抽象以及语义泛化阶段分析“刺客”的语义泛化过程，发现其语域已经过自职业域到商品域、再到情感域的延伸，指谓范围更加宽阔，表达意义更加复杂。此外，在模因论视角下深度探讨其流行的原因。

关键词: “刺客”；隐喻；语义泛化；模因；流行语