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The article highlights a semiotic approach to the study of specific language units: abbreviations and phraseological units. The relation between the signifier and the signified helps to perceive the process
of the formation of new linguistic signs which can be both motivated and arbitrary. In both cases the asymmetry of a linguistic sign causes the appearance of either a new signifier (in abbreviation), or a new signified (in phraseology).

The article studies the semiotic character of an IT-term and sheds the light on its binary structure. The relationship between the signifier and the signified helps understand the correlation between the form and content of a term. The ideal term is supposed to possess one-to-one correspondence between the signifier and the signified. When this correspondence is violated and becomes asymmetric, polysemy and homonymy may occur.