Cognitive essence of the metaphor “cloud” in the terminological sphere of internet technologies

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.