Thematic and structural features of English neologisms of the second decade of the 21st century

Размещено на http://allbest.ru

Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University

Thematic and structural features of English neologisms of the second decade of the 21st century

Alona Bovt Ph.D., Associate Professor of the Department

of Germanic and Romance Philology and Translation

Severodonetsk, Ukraine

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse new words that appeared in the English language during the second decade of the 21st century and were posted on a special blog page of the Cambridge online dictionaries website. Currently, hundreds on new words appear every day in the English language due to the rapid development of society, and they quickly spread around the world thanks to the Internet. The paper outlines different approaches to understanding and defining a neologism, the most common fields of neologisms' appearance, and word-formation mechanisms. As the new words reflect the current trends in different spheres of life, this study aims to examine what phenomena new words appeared during 2011 -2020 describe. The results reveal that most neologisms refer to such thematic groups as society, technology, economy, environment, and politics. Furthermore, the paper analyses structural features of neologisms and concludes that they are commonly formed by several main mechanisms. Most of them are compounds. Other methods include blending, affixation, acronyms, conversion, clipping. All the findings are supplemented with definitions.

Keywords: neologism, new word, theme, structure, feature, word-formation mechanism.

Introduction

Problem statement. Language has always been considered one of the most dynamic systems in the world. According to the Global Language Monitor, there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day. In his turn, Metcalf [20] argues that at least 10,000 new words are spotted every day in English. This process is mainly connected with the rapid development of science and technology, mass media and communication, social and political changes, movements and trends.

Analysis of recent research and publications. A great number of outstanding linguists has studied various changes in the English language, for example, Allan Metcalf, Ingo Plag, James and Lesley Milroy, John Algeo, Laurel Brinton, Laurie Bauer, Leonhard Lipka, Marijn Janssen, Peter Hohenhaus, Peter Newmark, Roswitha Fischer, Hans-Jцrg Schmid, William E. Nagy, William Labov.

Main material

The research is focused on 1573 new words that appeared on the Cambridge dictionaries online blog starting since January 2011 and until December 2020, i.e. the second decade of the 21^st century. `New words' is a special blog of Cambridge dictionaries, which posts a list of up to 5 new words and word combinations with their definition and example of use every week. Words and phrases presented on the online blog are carefully observed and collected in written or spoken English by a selected team of Cambridge dictionary employed to monitor the appearance of neologisms. Each word or a phrase is followed by a poll asking the readers to vote whether this particular lexical unit should be included in the dictionary.

The methods used in the given paper are predetermined by the aim of the research that is to analyse the structural and thematic features of English neologisms of the second decade of the 21^st century. Therefore, the author has chosen the structural method (to analyse the morphemic structure of neologisms presented in the Cambridge online blogs and to examine modern English word-formation mechanisms) and the method of systematisation and classification (to group the neologisms into particular categories thematically and according to their formation mechanisms). The results obtained are presented in the form of tables with data in numbers and percentage. All the definitions provided are taken from the same Cambridge dictionary online blog. However, it is also an interesting fact that almost all the examples of using neologisms posted in the online blog are taken from the online media sources, like social media, online newspapers, magazines, etc. that explains such a quick spread on them. The first attempts to define the term `neologism' were made by a French lexicographer Andre Martinet who stated that under some circumstances “the produced language forms are sometimes inadequate in terms of meaning and language norms and therefore produce `a neologism alien to the code' [17]. Some researchers equate neologism with a new word or a new coinage [23]. Others believe that it is a novel lexical item or a new lexeme [4]. neologism cambridge dictionary linguistic word

Kerremans defines a neologism as `a form-meaning pairing (in one of the three possible combinations), i.e. lexical units, that have been manifested in use and thus are no longer nonce-formations, but have not yet occurred frequently and are not widespread enough in a given period to have become part and parcel of the lexicon of the speech community and the majority of its members' [14]. Rey defines a neologism as `a unit of the le xicon, a word, a word element or a phrase whose meaning, or whose signifier - signified relationship, presupposing an effective function in a specific model of communication, was not previously materialized as a linguistic form in the immediately preceding tag of the lexicon of the language. According to the model of the lexicon chosen, the neologism will be perceived as belonging to the language in general or only to one of its special usages; or as belonging to a subject-specific usage which may be specialized or general' [25]. In several definitions of a neologism, one can also spot the term `nonce word', so it is appropriate to provide the difference between these two terms. A nonce word refers to a word or an expression coined for or used on one occasion, i.e., it is unlikely to be used again by other speakers and in other texts. However, if this nonce word or expression is picked up by other language users and is used more often, it becomes a neologism. Thus, a neologism is a lexical unit (a word or a phrase) that is marked by novelty (but not a nonce word anymore) and widely used by members of a language community within a specified period of time. One of the biggest problems in defining the term `neologism' is connected with the issue of defining criteria for neologisms listing. There are distinguished two points of view - lexicographic and lexicological.

According to the lexicographic point of view, a neologism is a new combination of old lexical forms, which can be syntactic (the semantic expansion of lexis) or morphological (morphological expansion together with semantic expansion of lexis) [3]. Based on the lexicological point of view, neologisms appear if there is a need in a new word or an expression, i.e. neologisms are considered in terms of their demand [8]. The main difference between lexicographic and lexicological perspectives is in the treatment of neologisms in terms of their formal and functional aspects. Thus, a lexicological perspective outlines the semantic ambiguity of a neologism for dictionary explanation while a lexicographic perspective points out findability and occurrences of new words for dictionary record. Before analysing the thematic features of the defined neologisms, it is worth defining the origin and the most common fields of neologisms formation. According to B. Bhagavan B. and M. Priyadarshani [5], there are nine modern domains of neologisms, which include: scientific (lexical units to describe new discoveries and inventions), technological (lexical units to describe innovations and inventions), political (lexical units used for some political phenomena), pop-culture (lexical units that came from the mass media), imported (lexical units originating in the other language), trademarks (lexical units used to define a new brand), nonce words (lexical units created occasionally for a specific purpose), inverted (lexical units derived from spelling a common word backward) and paleologisms (lexical units that are alleged to be neologisms but appear to be obscure words). However, this classification is inconsistent, as putting `scientific', `political', etc. together with `nonce words' is simply wrong, as the difference between neologisms and nonce words has already been outlined.

M. McMahon [18] defines some other causes of the appearance of new words. They are linguistic, historical (subdivided into `ideas' and `scientific concepts'), social, psychological (subdivided into `emotive factors' and `taboo'), words and expressions formed under foreign influence, words and expressions formed due to the need for a new name. In the UK essay `Factors for the Rise of English Neologisms English Language' [9] the following factors of appearance of new words are defined:

1. Sociocultural changes, which include the appearance of new ideas in society and culture due to sociocultural changes; misnomers (words that replace taboo or banned words); prestige and fashion (words appeared due to superiority of some prestigious groups); social or demographic reasons; culture-induced salience (concepts change with the change of culture); word-play (humour, irony and puns).

2. Technological changes (words, which are formed due to the appearance of new terms or concepts in science and technology).

3. Economic changes (words, which turn out in the course of the appearance of new brands, new market slogans).

4. Political changes (words, which appear in the course of political processes).

The author will rely on the latter classification while classifying the neologisms being chosen for analysis in the paper according to their themes. As for the ways new words are built, the study provides several main classifications. Bauer [4] distinguishes the following word-formation methods: affixation (i.e. prefixation and suffixation), compounding, conversion; and the so-called `unpredictable' formations: clipping, blending, and acronyms. Ingo Plag [23] proves that there are several main word-formation methods. Some of them are divided into sub-methods, namely affixation (including suffixation, prefixation, and infixation), derivation without affixation (conversion, truncation, blending, abbreviations and acronyms) and compounding.

L. Zhou [28] argues that neologisms are formed in six main ways: abbreviation (categorized in three groups: acronym, clipping, and blending), compounding, derivation, loan words, analogy (neologisms are formed by analogy with existing words), and meaning transfer (the existing word or a word combination acquires a new meaning). However, the last point seems more like a stage in the development of a word not as a mechanism for forming a new word as the word form stays the same. Felicity O'Dell [22] proposes the following classification of word -formation mechanisms: affixation, repurposing, compounding, blending, importing words, abbreviations, acronyms, eponyms.

Comparing to the previous classifications, we can distinguish some other names for the same notions, e.g., derivation - affixation, repurposing - meaning transfer, importing - borrowing words. However, Felicity O'Dell distinguishes abbreviations, blending, and acronyms into different categories. Though there are some doubts as for repurposing as a mechanism of forming a neologism. It is more likely to be a semantic shift, a stage in a word development not a mechanism. Having analysed the material presented on Cambridge Dictionaries Online from January 2011 till December 2020, the author has found out the parts of speech the given neologisms belong to. Most of them (1415 out of 1573) are nouns. It proves that the majority of words and word combinations that appear in the English language are used to name new objects and phenomena. The next groups are adjectives (83) and verbs (65), which appear less frequently. Finally, there are several adverbs (`automagically' meaning `independently, without effort and as if by magic'; `totes' used as a very informal word for `totally'; `abs' as a very informal word for `absolutely'), and one pronoun (`ze' - a non-gender-specific pronoun). Having analysed the thematic features of the proposed neologisms, the following thematic groups are present:

1. Society (844 words or 54% of all the neologisms). They include phenomena connected with everyday life of people. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 greatly changed lives of people of all over the world having led to more than thousand new words appeared in the English language. Therefore, the words from this group may be divided into some subgroups, namely:

- COVID-19 pandemic (social distancing - `the practice of keeping away from other people as much as possible, or of keeping a certain distance from other people, in order to stop a disease from spreading to a lot of people'; quarantini - `literally any drink with alcohol that helps you get thr ough a challenging year like 2020'; anti-buddies - `two friends who have tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies and can hence hang out together'; mask-shaming - `calling out those who enter close proximity to others and don't wear a mask').

- accommodation (microflat - `a very small apartment, usually found in large cities where there is not enough housing for all the people who live there'; coffin cubicle - `a very small living space for one person made from an apartment that has been subdivided into units'; twodio - `a small apartment with one large room for sleeping and living in, a bathroom, and a kitchen that is shared with another apartment'; micro-condo - `a very small apartment'; tiny house noun - `a very small home (measuring less than 37 square metres) whose residents are usually supporters of the Tiny House movement, which promotes a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle');

- beauty trends, procedures and equipment (nutricosmetics - `substances, especially in the form of a liquid or a pill, that are intended to improve your appearance'; tweakment - `a cosmetic procedure that is carried out by a trained specialist but does not involve surgery; face ironing - `a cosmetic procedure aimed at reducing wrinkles'; velaterapia - `a treatment for split ends that involves burning the hair and which originated in Brazil'; cinderella surgery - `cosmetic surgery to the feet');

- sports activities and equipment (droneboarding - `the activity or sport of moving over snow standing on a snowboard and being pulled by a drone'; Broga - `a type of yoga designed to appeal to men'; skyrunning - `the sport of running at 2k metres or more above sea level'; packrafting - the sport of hiking and rafting, using an inflatable raft that you carry on your back; snow diving -`the activity of jumping into snow, dressed in swimwear and endeavouring to `swim' through the snow');

- travelling (last-chance tourism noun - `visiting parts of the world that are endangered and so may no longer exist as a travel destination in the future '; skip-gen trip - `a holiday taken by grandparents and their grandchildren, or by other family members two generations apart'; set-jetting -`travelling to places because they have been the locations for films or TV programmes'; air cruise - `a journey on an aeroplane for pleasure, either to look at something from the air, or to enjoy activities onboard the aeroplane'; flashpacking - `a type of backpacking (travelling or camping while carrying everything you need in a backpack) that is more comfortable and luxurious than traditional backpacking');

- lifestyle and habits (death cleaning - `the practice of throwing away things you don't need as you get older, so that after your death your friends or family do not have to deal with a large number of possessions you have left behind'; mindful drinking - `the activity of consuming little or no alcohol at social events'; HEN - `a happy empty nester: a mother who is enjoying the freedom of having had children leave home'; grey gapper- `a person of retirement age who takes a year out of their normal life to go travelling');

- social trends and movements (STEMinist - `someone who promotes equal opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (known collectively as STEM'; manosphere - `a loose network of websites, blogs and online forums on issues related to men and masculinity, normally with an anti-feminist perspective'; F rating - `a classification awarded to a film written or directed by a woman, or with important female characters'; non-binary - `denoting a gender identity that does not conform to the generally accepted binary of male or female';

BLM (Black Lives Matter) - `a political movement (= a group trying to create change) that protests about violence against Black people and emphasizes that Black people's lives are of equal importance to other lives');

- pets (hound pound - `the money that dog owners as a group spend on their pets'; peticure - `a pedicure (a beauty treatment for the feet and toenails) given to pets such as dogs'; pet-nup - `a pre-nuptial agreement about who will have care of a pet in the event of a marriage ending'; therapet - `an animal, usually a dog, that is specially trained to calm people who are stressed or anxious, or to visit ill or elderly people'; dog manor - `a luxurious shelter for a dog to sleep in outside');

- work (supertasker - `someone who is very good at doing more than one thing at the same time'; gig - `a short-term job; silverstriver -`someone who continues to work after they have passed the typical retirement age'; sweatworking - `any activity that combines exercise with networking, such as going to the gym with business clients'; disloyalty bonus - `a salary increase gained through changing to a new job rather than staying in your old one, where salaries for existing workers tend not to increase at the same rate');

- social relations and traditions (groomsmaid - `a female friend of a man who is getting married who has special duties at the wedding'; astral divorce - `a type of therapy session during which someone is helped to move on from a past relationship that is still causing them unhappiness'; LAT - `abbreviation for living apart together: a type of close romantic relationship w here the partners choose not to live together'; rental family - `actors who are paid to pretend to be someone's family members in order to provide companionship or to accompany the person to social events such as parties and weddings'; mommune - `a group of mothers who live together with their children, sharing possessions and responsibilities').

- social media (DoggoLingo - `a special language used on the internet, especially on social media sites, to refer to and describe dogs and their behaviour'; fit-shaming - `informal the online trolling of people who post pictures of themselves exercising'; cleanstagrammer - `someone who posts advice and tips about housework and cleaning on the Instagram social media site; OP - `original poster; used to denote the first person who writes on an online thread'; outfluencer - `an influencer (someone who uses their social media posts to change the way that other people behave or the things they buy') who posts about outdoor adventure, extreme sport, etc.; social graph - `a record of a person's online contacts'; virtual vanity - `feelings of insecurity over appearance brought on by seeing pictures of oneself on social networking websites'; doomscrolling - `the activity of spending a lot of time looking at your phone or compu ter and reading bad or negative news stories').

2. Technology (321 words or 20% of the given neologisms). These words and word combinations are connected with appearance of new devices, technologies in various fields (nanotecture - `small-scale, experimental architecture'; tricorder- `a handheld device for diagnosing diseases and storing data about them'; awareable - `a device worn on the body that uses computer technology and connects to the internet, and is used to monitor and decrease stress'; textalyzer - `a device that the police could use to check if a driver has been using their phone while driving'; Industry 4.0 - `the processes involved in producing goods for sale in which technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things play an important part'; Qi - `a wireless protocol for charging electronic devices such as smartphones'; phablet - `a hybrid device that is halfway between a smartphone and a tablet computer').

3. Economy (220 words or 14%). Neologisms connected with economy, business, and commerce also form quite a big part of new words. It is connected with the rapid development of the world economy and business relations (the flat white economy - `the network of media, internet and creative businesses that are bolstering the UK economy'; Amazon effect - `the increase in e-commerce and the resulting closure of many physical shops, named after the online retailer Amazon, the success of which has had a significant influence on shopping habits'; circular economy - `an economic model that prioritises the longevity of goods, for instance by sharing or recycling them'; collaborative economy - `the practice of collaborating with others on owning, renting, exchanging or donating goods and services'; anxiety economy - `the wealth created through the production and sale of products designed to ease anxiety').

4. Environmental issues (141 words or 9%). Environment-related neologisms take less than 10%, however, their share emphasizes the interest of the population in the current environmental problems, which are urgent nowadays (carbon bomb - `a set of conditions that will likely give rise to a catastrophic increase in carbon emissions in the future'; eco-bot - `a robot with an ecologically beneficial function'; latte levy - a tax paid on disposable, non-recyclable coffee cups the aim of which is to encourage customers to bring their own cup and therefore reduce waste'; responsible luxury - `high-end, green tourism and hospitality'; greentailing - `environmentally-friendly retailing'; plastic footprint - `a measurement of the amount of plastic that someone uses and then discards, considered in terms of the resulting damage caused to the environment').

6. Politics (47 words or 3%). The study has revealed a small share of neologisms in the field of politics. Their appearance is connected with new political trends and movements appearing in the world of politics (trumpkin - `a pumpkin made to look like Donald Trump'; virtue signalling - `demonstrating that you are right-thinking in your politics, for example, by wearing a charity ribbon or by updating your profile on a social media website to signal your support for someone'; disaster capitalism - `a policy of political officials to take advantage of a shock or disaster to push free-market economic policies and privatization in the management of recovery and reconstruction'; Trumpism - `the views and cultural and political statements of Donald Trump'; alt-right - `a political movement composed of a segment of conservatives who support extreme right-wing ideologies'). The summarised results are presented in table 1.

Table 1: Thematic Feal ures of Neologisms

References

1. Algeo, J. (1980). Where Do All the New Words Come from. N.Y.: American Speech.

2. Algeo, J. (1991). Fifty Years among the New Words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

3. Atkins, B.T.S. & Rundell, M. (2008). The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

4. Bauer, L. (1983). English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

5. Bhagavan B., Priyadarshani M. (2013). The Burgeoning Usage of Neologisms in Contemporary English. Journal of Humanities and Social Science 18 (3), pp. 25-35.

6. Cambridge Dictionaries Online blog (2020-2011). Retrieved from: https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/category/new-words/

7. Cambridge Dictionaries. About New Words. Retrieved from: https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/about-new-words/

8. Considine, J. & Iamartino, G. (2007). Words and Dictionaries from the British Isles in Historical Perspective, Newcastle. Cambridge Scholars.

9. Essays, UK. (2018). Factors for the Rise of English Neologisms English Language Essay. Retrieved from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/factors-for-the-rise-of- english-neologisms-english-language-essay.php?vref=1

10. Fischer, R. (1998). Lexical Change in Present-Day English: a Corpus-Based Study of the Motivation, Institutionalization, and Productivity of Creative Neologisms. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag Tubingen.

11. Hohenhaus, P. (2005). “Lexicalization and institutionalization”. In: Stekauer, Pa vol and Rochelle Lieber. (Eds.). Handbook of Word-Formation, 353-373. Dordrecht: Springer.

12. Janssen, M. Orthographic Neologisms: Selection Criteria and Semi-Automatic Detection. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f320/b00df14281db1d959624c161f7 301b08e644.pdf?_ga=2.95767708.188245255.1570174707-815026146.1568196453

13. Jespersen, O. (1938/1962). Growth and Structure of the English Language. (9th edition). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

14. Kerremans, D. (2015). A Web of New Words A Corpus-Based Study of the Conventionalization Process of English Neologisms. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Edition.

15. Leech, G. (1974). Semantics. The study of meaning. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

16. Lipka, L. (2002). English Lexicology: Lexical Structure, Word Semantics and Word- Formation. Tьbingen: Narr.

17. Martinet, A. (1964). Elements of General Linguistics. Chicago: Faber and Faber Ltd.

18. McMahon, A. (1994). Semantic and Lexical Change. Understanding Language Change, 174-199. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, DOI:10.1017/CBO9781139166591.008

19. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Coronavirus and the New Words We Added to the Dictionary in March 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/new- di cti onary-words-coronaviru s-covid-19

20. Metcalf, A. (2002). Predicting New Words. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

21. Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. London: Cassel.

22. O'Dell, F. (2016). Creating New Words: Affixation in Neologisms. ELT Journal 70 (1), pp. 94-99.

23. Plag, I. (2003). Word-formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

24. Rets, I. (2014). Studying the New Vocabulary of the Dutch Language in the Context of Globalization. Philological Sciences. Theoretical and Practical Questions 6, pp. 149-152.

25. Rey, A. (1995). Essays on Terminology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

26. Schmid, H.-J. (2008). “New words in the mind: concept-formation and entrenchment of neologisms”. Zeitschriftfьr Englische Philologie 126:1, pp. 1-36.

27. The Global Language Monitor. Retrieved from: https://languagemonitor.com/global- english/no-of-words/

28. Zhou, L. (2016). Neologism in News English. Beijing: Youth University of Political Studies.

Размещено на Allbest.ru