The paper addresses metaphor as a cognitive-semantic device which is able to reveal intuitive mechanisms of the thinking process, thus filling the gaps in the sphere of logically objective human knowledge and opening the possibility to describe abstract concepts of the human mind in terms. This paper substantiates the principal possibility of conceptual modeling of the metaphorization process and describes its baseline algorithm, identifies complex metaphors and establishes the cognitive-semantic features of their functioning. The main conclusion of the reasoning confirms the hypothesis that different image schemes have different strength of heuristic potential, which determines the fullness of metaphorical descriptions of concepts.

Introduction. The authors of the article consider one of the interesting technologies in the digitalization segment – a chatbot – from a linguistic point of view. The topic is of particular interest to linguists, since the active development of the digital environment leads to the emergence of new means and forms of speech production and speech perception, with their own distinctive features, patterns and rules of construction. Speech acts in the Internet discourse system within the framework of this work are of key importance: the object of study is located at the intersection of several disciplines (IT, Advertising and PR), but from a linguistic point of view it is practically not considered.Methodology and sources. To clarify some theoretical inaccuracies in the scientific work, corpus analysis of the texts of English-language and Russian-language web corpus is used. English-language web corpus: “NOW corpus” (News on the Web), “iWeb corpus”, “GloWbE corpus” (Global Web-based English). Russian-language web corpora: “ruTenTen2011” and GIKRYA. The analysis of the features of the construction of speech acts in chatbot communication is carried out on the basis of the language material of English and Russian chatbots in various social networks and instant messengers.Results and discussion. Corpus text analysis helps to consider the object of study from a linguistic point of view and supplement existing knowledge with linguistic data. The analysis of empirical material based on two languages allows us to compare, identify the characteristics of chatbot communication texts, trace similarities and differences in the cognitive perception of speech, and also find errors in the construction of speech acts.Conclusion. Systematization of data and a more detailed analysis of such a concept as “chatbot communication” will help in the future to create universal linguistic-cognitive models for bots with a final scenario, which will help to avoid mistakes and make the communication act as successful as possible. Chatbots, from the point of view of the communicative function, when organizing speech acts, must use special rules and linguistic models in order to bring the speech act to success. Just as self-learning bots in the category of artificial intelligence are created with the active participation of linguists, so chatbots in social networks and instant messengers must be subject to uniform linguistic laws.

The paper presents various approaches to defining the essence of a sign in cognitive science and philosophy of language. It offers presentations of critical review of research publications on sign processes. Based on extensive theoretical work in a cognitive approach to communication process, the hypothesis that each speaker of a language acts exclusively within the framework of their cognitive area is supported in the article. Given the results, meaning as a fact of consciousness is closed in it and during the “translation” of meanings they are not transmitted: signs cannot be considered to be carriers of meanings in the sense that meanings making up a part of their material body are contained in them. The material components of signs stimulate the appearance of identical or similar meanings, actuating analogous conceptual spheres in communicating minds.

The relevance of this paper is supported by the fact that recently, under the influence of cognitive linguistics, terminological studies are aimed not only at the system and structural description of terms and terminological systems, but also at the study of the internal, semiotic nature of the term. Due to the connection with professional activities, and cognitive approach it is possible to reveal the causes and mechanisms of dynamic processes in the field of professional terminological nomination and create a more complete understanding of the term. Investment terminology system is characterized by the large number of terms formed by means of the words of general vocabulary through the process of meaning metaphorization. Since the conceptual integration theory and the mental space theory have provided many opportunities for a more thorough investigation of a metaphor the research is aimed at identifying the conceptual metaphors of the investment term system of the English language. The analysis of semantic methods of term formation showed that metaphorical transfer is one of the most productive in investment terminology. Metaphor is considered as a creative way of thinking, a cognitive mechanism that allows to conceptualize a new ontological phenomenon by analogy with the existing system of concepts. The article highlights the role of metaphor in the formation of solve the tasks, the following research methods were used: definition analysis, contextual analysis, component analysis. After carrying out a thorough investigation of investment dictionaries and corpora data it was found out that gray is associated with something unethical, gray is unofficial, gray is unauthorized.