Metaphor As a Tool of Social Construction in Professional Communication in the Digital Era: A Linguosemiotic Perspective

The contemporary era of the information revolution and rapid advances in digital technologies makes the role of professional discourse increasingly significant both in the formation of sociocultural identities and in the segmentation of various institutional communicative interactions. This study attempts a systematic linguosemiotic analysis of metaphors in English professional discourse, aiming at identifying their core semantic features and elucidating the mechanisms of metaphorization in the domain of business communication. The empirical basis of the research is an authentic corpus of 1200 professional metaphors from The Economist. This corpus made it possible not only to identify the conceptual and structural essence of the phenomenon under study but also to develop a classification of the most typical types of metaphors by content and cognitive basis. As a result, the analysis identified four main semantic-cognitive categories and 23 subgroups reflecting the reasons for the emergence of metaphors, their conceptual foundations, and functions in professional speech. The study’s interdisciplinary approach, integrating principles from linguosemiotics, cognitive linguistics, and discourse analysis, adds novelty and comprehensiveness to the research. The findings afford a deeper understanding of the specifics of metaphorical modeling in corporate and professional discourse, demonstrating the potential of metaphors as powerful tools for social construction and managerial impact. The relevance of these results is especially important in the context of global transformations due to growing digital effect when transmitting emotional states, value orientations, and identity constructs through business language. This proves the importance of metaphors in shaping the modern professional space in the era of digitalization.