The Semantic Representation of Abstract Artificial Concepts: How Human Brain Lexicalizes Tech-Induced Cognitive States

Abstract

Contemporary English is fast adapting to digital life, producing lexical forms for cognitive states generated by artificial intelligence, algorithmic platforms, synthetic media, and virtual interaction. The present study investigated how the human brain lexicalizes technology-induced experiences of abstract artificial concepts. The research problem stems from the observation that many emerging discursive expressions, such as digital fatigue, prompt dependency, algorithmic drift, deepfake anxiety, doomscrolling, brain rot and virtual presence, are often considered as casual digital terms as opposed to formalised semantic representations of new mental states. The study thus aims to analyse how these expressions encode cognition, affect, agency, social grounding and epistemic uncertainty in contemporary English. The study is a qualitative-dominant corpus-assisted design methodologically. The data are contemporary digital discourse in English, including technology journalism, public online discourse, and user narratives about AI, produced between 2020 and 2026. The selected lexical items are analysed using a multi-dimensional semantic framework encoding cognitive load, affective valence, agency pattern, social grounding and epistemic orientation. The findings show that technology-induced concepts are clustered around five core areas: cognitive overload, affective discomfort, reduced human agency, epistemic instability and altered digital selfhood. The analysis also shows that the main mechanisms in lexicalising these states are metaphor, compounding, semantic extension and modifier-based specialisation. The study concludes that contemporary English is not merely borrowing technical vocabulary but is actively developing semantic resources to represent new forms of human cognition that are being shaped by artificial and digital environments across language, meaning, cognition and technologically mediated human experience today.