Transition, transmission, translation: compounding in the Digital age. A corpus-based reading of Anthropocene and its language cloud

This essay investigates the socio-cultural implications of newly formed compounds, blends, and multiword sequences in the English language, particularly those arising from socio-economic transformations. It examines whether these lexical innovations create a persistent framing that shapes our ideological perspectives and our discussions surrounding Nature. In light of the significant changes induced by emerging technologies and devices, we draw upon Sapir's assertion that the vocabulary of a language reflects, though may not entirely capture, the physical and social realities of its speakers. The study focuses on contemporary English words rooted in Nature, analyzing their meanings, figurative framing, and diachronic evolution via a corpus-based quantitative and qualitative analysis. Special attention to the term ‘cloud’ allows to trace its metamorphosis from compounds such as ‘cloud cover’ in meteorology to ‘cloud space’ in computing. This exploration includes an analysis of three key processes: transition, i.e., mapping the shift across semantic fields; transmission, i.e., how innovative concepts are defined borrowing from Nature and filtering through a technological lens; and translation, i.e., intralingual rewording (JAKOBSON 1969), encompassing metaphoric and metonymic expansions and conceptual reconfigurations.