The presence of sea terms and metaphors in the linguistic studies begins with SapirÂ’s idea of Â“driftÂ”. But we can point out a notable increase of the marine vocabulary in the non-linear phonology. Bolinger develops a large metaphorical reasoning in order to interpret and represent the vocal instrument and, above all, the intonation as a multi-dimensional and Â“thalassomorphicÂ” matter; in particular he emphasizes how emotional aspects give rise to vocal tides. Afterwards Goldsmith and the autosegmental phonology enlarge the use of definers (just like Â“driftÂ”) drawn from marine and maritime world, involving specific and complex linguistic phenomena (e.g. vowel armony). Remarkable the idea of Â“anchoringÂ”: we can suppose it has filtered out in Optimality Theory from the Connexionist background and, probably, from a larger use in psychological and cognitive sciences.