Effect of Anglocentrism on the Translation of Web Development Documentation into Russian

Abstract

This study examines the Anglocentric nature of terminology in web development as a factor shaping the perception and translation of technical documentation into Russian. The aim of the research is to identify the mechanisms through which English metaphorical and cognitive models underlying contemporary web technologies undergo changes in the process of interlingual transfer, based on official documentation and examples of professional IT discourse. The theoretical significance of the study lies in refining the understanding of IT documentation translation as a process of transferring conceptual models, which allows us to consider Anglocentrism within a cognitive translation paradigm. The analysis demonstrates that a substantial proportion of core web-development terms function as carriers of culturally motivated metaphors that cannot be reduced to formal technical definitions. It is shown that common translation strategies – literal translation, transliteration, and partial adaptation – produce various types of cognitive and stylistic distortions that disrupt the integrity of the original conceptual models. A stable relationship was identified between the mode of terminological transfer, increased complexity of instructional discourse, growing cognitive load, and the emergence of hybrid professional jargon among Russian-speaking developers. In addition, an asymmetry in access to knowledge between English-speaking and non-English-speaking specialists was established. The scientific contribution of the study consists in systematizing Anglocentrism as a translation studies problem affecting the level of knowledge conceptualization in IT discourse. The practical value of the findings lies in their applicability to the translation and localization of web-development documentation, as well as to the training of translators and technical specialists, with the aim of improving semantic accuracy, reducing cognitive load for target-language users, and enhancing the quality of technology acquisition.