Conceptual Metaphors as an Organisational Framework of the Specialist Language of IT

Book excerpt: Magdalena Krawiec provides insight into the underlying conceptual structure of information technology and gives a plausible account of the patterns of metaphorical conceptualisation manifested in the specialist language of IT. Conceptual metaphors map our concrete experience onto abstract experiences, so as to effortlessly get hold of new emergent concepts. On the one hand, our ability to make our world thinkable rests on the use of our past experiences, whereas on the other hand, IT specialists familiarise themselves with yet unknown conceptual structures through the interaction with the specialist scenery. Specialists' thinkability of the specialist surroundings is grounded in their perception of similarity which enables them to adapt both conceptually and linguistically to their specialist practice.