Metaphorical modeling of "cloud computing" technology

In the article metaphorical modeling processes of the term "cloud computing" in the field of scientific IT-discourse are reviewed. The general principles for metaphorical modeling of the given term are given. During the 20th century new research fields and technologies were developed thus requiring their linguistic nomination. The task that the language faces is to denominate the new field in such a way to make it possible to describe. Development of new research fields shows that new notions which are important for their development are usually formed on the basis of metaphorical conceptualization, on the basis of current knowledge re-thinking. In this respect at the present time study of terminology in different research fields is actively conducted. According to the following research most of term systems contain a fair number of terms-metaphors allowing us to conclude that scientific knowledge is metaphorical and given to people in terms of notions and images usual and regular for them. It is interesting for us to study the conceptual field 'cloud computing' within the sphere of scientific IT-discourse which is relatively new, not adequately studied and described in the context of its metaphorical modeling. In modern linguistics there is a great number of research devoted to the study of metaphors in the field of computer technology. The goal of our research is searching of metaphorical models of 'cloud computing' within IT-discourse. The given study is conducted on the basis of cognitive approach, and theoretical base for the present article lies on the theory of conceptual metaphor by J. Lakoff and M. Johnson founding on metaphor cognitive function - "function of new knowledge acquiring". The study object is metaphorical nominations of cloud computing within scientific IT-discourse. We suggest a hypothesis that conceptual field 'space' dominates and lies in the center of regular metaphorical interpretation of the given research field. The presupposition is based on the semantic meaning of the lexical item according to which 'clouds' are spatial objects far away from the land and having some special place in that space. In the article the results of the analysis of metaphorical lexical items in the field of 'cloud computing' according to continuous sampling from the articles of present-day periodicals are given. In accordance with the carried out analysis we conclude that there are three central conceptual domains compiling regular metaphorical interpretation: 'a human being', 'space' and 'nature'.

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