The problems of IT language culture. An example of a terminological issue

Abstract

A contemporary information society should be able to use the terminology associated with information technology. Unfortunately, even a superficial observation of publications and speeches on IT related topics in the media indicates a low level of IT language culture. Moreover, even the professionals from the information technology industry often make mistakes in terminology. The article presents an attempt to assess the scale of this phenomenon in terms of semantic errors. For that purpose, the author studied and reviewed publications for correctness of the use of the term functionality, one of the words of the highest controversy in the world of information systems. The study showed that the term is often used incorrectly in the meaning of a function. This error occurs in marketing publications, official software documentation, as well as in scientific publications. Moreover, this is an error characteristic for publications in the field of information technology. On the other hand, similar mistakes were not detected in publications in other fields. The author also discussed the features of the IT language that may contribute to the formation of such errors.