COGNITIVE ESSENCE OF THE METAPHOR “CLOUD” IN THE TERMINOLOGICAL SPHERE OF INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

The research of the cognitive essence of the metaphor “cloud” in the terminological sphere of
Internet-technologies is caused by the appearance of new terms and concepts defining new distant
services supporting different data and applications. The object of the research is English and Russian
terms of the terminological sphere of Internet-technologies with the component “cloud” in their
structure. To reveal the cognitive essence of the metaphor it is suggested to analyze the relations between
the components of compound terms representing the objects and their features experienced by
a specialist. The process of term production is considered from the view of transposition of the cognitive
model of source domain to target domain. The analysis shows that the cognitive essence of
the metaphor “cloud” is in its ability to reflect the results of the specialist’s cognitive activity in the
structure of terms pertaining to the sphere of Internet technologies. Looking for a new concept of
professional reality the nominator’s mind relies on the experience received in his everyday life. The
cognitive target domain borrows familiar objects with similar features from the cognitive source
domain. In the process of professional activity special knowledge is closely related to common
knowledge. The cloud-metaphor is not chosen at random. On revealing the specific character of the
cognitive work of specialists this process represents a logical stage of term production. The data received
in the research may be used for the analysis of the cognitive features of different professional
terminological systems.