Anthropomorphic metaphors in contemporary technical discourse: a cognitive-linguistic analysis of the IT terminological system

Abstract

This work examines anthropomorphic metaphors as a structured cognitive mechanism in contemporary IT discourse rather than as a purely stylistic feature. The study addresses the problem of how abstract computational phenomena are conceptualised through human-centred models of body, behaviour, cognition, social hierarchy, health and agency. Drawing on cognitive metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory, the chapter analyses IT terms such as computer virus, zombie process, parent/child component, smart agent, memory leak, daemon and client-server architecture. The findings show that anthropomorphic metaphorisation is organised around three dominant microsystems: biological-physiological, psychological-intellectual and social-hierarchical. These metaphorical models reduce abstraction, support professional communication and facilitate the onboarding of new developers through familiar cognitive frames. The chapter also demonstrates that anthropomorphic terminology has significant pragmatic value in user-oriented communication, technical documentation, debugging discourse and interface design. At the same time, the study identifies potential risks of over-anthropomorphising artificial intelligence systems, especially when terms such as learning, reasoning or hallucination are interpreted too literally. The results are relevant for technical writers, translators and localisation specialists, as they show the need to preserve both conceptual accuracy and communicative accessibility in IT terminology.