The cryptocurrency terminology as an object for metalanguage reflection of Russian and English speakers

Abstract

The research aims to prove the assumption that the terminology of such an extraordinary socio-economic digital phenomenon as the cryptocurrency market is involved in the sphere of the Russian and English speakers’ metalanguage consciousness, and is subject to pronounced metalanguage reflection. Observation over "naive linguists" is a way to monitor lexical changes in both languages due to the emergence of the crypto market. Metalanguage reflection is understood here as the ability of an individual to reflect on the elements and patterns of language and speech: to observe the language, to notice new phenomena in it, to make generalizations, describe and explain the results of the observations. It has been shown that at present, both Russian and English speakers feel the need for clarification of the new terms and explicitly express this need. Analysis of the discourse on the Internet reveals a huge number of metalanguage comments in both Russian- and English-speaking segments of the Internet. A high degree of metaphoricity in the cryptocurrency language is noted. Another manifestation of metalanguage reflection is amateur lexicography. It was also found that professional cryptocurrency market participants feel the need for terminology standardization and are making attempts to do so.