Specialist Vocabulary
247into the digital information a computer is capable of understanding and
displaying’ or optical character reader, which denotes ‘a device which
scans printed or written characters, recognizes them, and then converts
into machine-readable code that can be processed by a computer’ (see the
CTDG and the DPCI).^50 Note how striking is the similarity between the
crucial points of the above-presented definitions (and the relations
between these points) and the conceptual domains (as well as the structure
of their mutual relations) essential to the frames of READING and BEING
EMPLOYED TO READ.
An analogous conceptualization (but, this time, closer to the frame of
READING ALOUD) may be found behind screen reader, which refers to ‘an
application that tries to read what is on a computer monitor using sound or
some other device – more specifically, it attempts to identify and interpret
the data that is being sent as output for display; once the data have been
interpreted, they are presented to the user in speech (in the case of text-to-
speech or simulated voice software) or in Braille’. In the latter case, such
software is termed Braille reader.^51
Interestingly, unlike optical reader or optical character reader (which
follow the COMPUTER HARDWARE IS A WORKER metaphor), screen reader
and Braille reader are more of an instantiation of COMPUTER SOFTWARE IS
A WORKER, which proves that the onomasiological path starting in the
lexical (semantic) field of PROFESSIONS/OCCUPATIONS may equally well
lead either to COMPUTER HARDWARE (abstract only in its function, but
concrete in its form) or to COMPUTER SOFTWARE (which is abstract both in
function and form). Thus, either of the two sub-types of the PROFESSION/
OCCUPATION Æ COMPUTER HARDWARE/SOFTWARE directionality in lexical
semantic change corroborates Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) observations
on the CONCRETE Æ ABSTRACT tendency in metaphorical sense
development, which is highly contributive to computer science
terminology, often used with reference – as Johnson (1994: 97) puts it – to
“highly abstract and arbitrary realities [...] computer scientists are called
on to name”.
Another variation on reader and the frame of BEING EMPLOYED TO
READ is to be seen in card reader (as in media card reader, multimedia
card reader, memory card reader or USB card reader).^52 The formation
(^50) Unless stated otherwise, all the specialist terms and definitions referred to in the
following sections have been quoted after the CTDG and/or the DPCI specialist
dictionaries.
(^51) Otherwise: Braille output device (see the CTDG).
(^52) The unabbreviated form, universal serial bus card reader, is hardly ever used
due to its lengthiness.