Internet terminology in modern German: semantics and structure

Abstract The article presents an in-depth analysis of the formation of terminology in the professional language of the Internet in German and offers predictions about its future development, in line with the evolution of this area of knowledge. Drawing from a corpus of about 8,000 terms and term combinations, the authors explore the dynamics of German Internet terminology, propose a timeline for the emergence of these terms in relation to advancements in science and technology, and identify key methods of term formation along with their semantic characteristics. The primary source of expansion in German Internet terminology comes from Anglo-American borrowings, which, during their adaptation into German, have undergone structural and semantic assimilation. The main methods of term formation within the examined terminology are compounding (with a predominance of binary structures), derivation, and abbreviation. German Internet terminology is characterized by synonymy and polysemy, reflecting the dynamic nature of network technology development. A distinctive feature of this terminology is the formal redundancy in expressing a single concept, leading to the formation of synonymous sets. The uniqueness of the semantic paradigm of these terms lies in the extralinguistic factors that influence terminological synonymy, polysemy, and the broader system of structural relations in German Internet terminology.