Concept “smart” in the modern urban discourse

Abstract

Purpose: The research is aimed at determining the basic patterns of the nominative process associated with functioning of the concept ‘smart’ in English, German and Russian urban discourse. Design/Methodology/Approach: Linguosemiotic load of the concept ‘smart’ has been specified with regard to the urban discourse. The choice of discourse type is conditioned by the leading role of cities in civilizational movement towards Industry 4.0. Special attention is paid to linguacultural, cognitive and nominative characteristics of the concept, studied in the framework of etymological, conceptual and contextual content analysis. Findings: Analysis of the language means that ensure functioning of the concept ‘smart’ in the urban discourse in the Russian, English and German languages indicates similar nominative processes that represent cities as complex phenomena undergoing information and communication technological modernization in all spheres of life. The verbal representation of the concept ‘smart’ in the urban discourse is primarily associated with the use of the adjective ‘smart’ with names of gadgets and technologies, which implies their ability to perform intelligent actions and manifest intelligence. Originality/Value: Novelty of the research consists in revealing linguistic tools of the urban discourse that express both highly intelligent component of the IT phenomena forming the basis of a ‘smart city’ (Russian – ‘umnyy gorod’) and their high responsibility for residents’ well-being: use of the Russian word ‘umnyy’ (‘smart’, ‘brainy’) instead of transliterated ‘smart’ with the word ‘city’ in the Russian linguaculture emphasizes semantics of “brain-generated” technologies and gadgets.