Synopsis
neologismword diachronic
Thesubject of the investigation in this study is neologisms and their word buildingmeans in Modern English. Its aims are to present various ways of word building,analyze top 50 neologisms and to determine the most frequently used wordforming types.
Thework consists of two main parts. Chapter I gives a description of neologisms:definition, diachronic analysis, cultural acceptance factor. Chapter II dealswith manor and major word building types, presents latest top 50 neologisms,analyzed and arranged in table according to their word building type, source andtime of appearance, sphere of usage, ability to create new forms, new notionappearance. Both qualitative (semantic, structural, contextual) andquantitative methods of analysis are employed.
Thematerial for the studies was collected in February, 2004, on www.wordspy.com.
Theresults of the analysis are supplied with various schemes and tables.
Introduction
Thereis no doubt that the English language today is the most widely used languagefor international communication. Words and expressions are born, live for ashort time and then die or find their place in our vocabulary according to thetemporary or permanent nature of the fenomena they describe.
Indeed,if no new words were to appear, it would be a sign that the language wasmoribund; the progress of arts and sciences gives birth to a large majority ofnew words: each new word that does appear should be severely scrutinized beforeit becomes generally accepted. So this work does a research into all word - formingmeans to determine the most productive ways of forming new words that appeared inthe eighties, nineties and in the beginning of the XXI century. They areregistered on www. wordspy.com as 50 top neologisms.
Wehave determined some aims in our investigation:
- tooverview neologism diachronically (to present the historical development of thefenomenon);
- toinvestigate the problem of cultural acceptance, as that is the crucial point inthe neologism existance, as stability and suitability, which are determined by thepublic;
- togive the complete classification of word-building means, both minor and major;
- topresent the reasons for high or low productivity of each word-building type given;
- togive the overview of all possible sources, where the information on neologismscan be taken;
- to studythe top 50 neologisms (Wordspy.com) and analyse them using quantative andqualitative analysis, according to their word building type, source and time ofappearance, sphere of usage, ability to create new forms, new notionappearance.
Thenovelty of the investigation lies in analizing the new words that are unstable sofar as a group and still making their way in the language.
Thepaper consists of the introductory part stating the objectives and aims of theinvestigation. Chapter I considers the notion of neologisms and the developmentof the fenomenon, also it deals with cultural acceptance factors. The second chapterpresents the word building types and the sources of new words and then there isgiven a many sided description of 50 top neologisms.
Inthe supplement, we find it necessary to present the exersises (where derivationin neology is the main principle), where students could develop their skills tocreate new words, which would also widen pupils 'outlook and develop theircreational language abilities.
1. Neologism, its definition, development and cultural acceptance
1.1Introductory information, links with other sciences
No new science is possible without neologisms, new words or newinterpretations of old words to describe and explain reality in new ways. Howcould Aristotle have developed the logic of syllogisms or Newton the theory ofdynamics without new vocabularies and definitions? They were neologists, andeverybody wanting to contribute new knowledge must be. В«To reject neologisms,often despicably, is to reject scientific development. No sign of scientificconservatism is so telling as the rejection of all but the established conceptsof a school of thought. Neologisms are, however, relative to the terminologicalparadigm actually dominating a field of knowledge. It may be a radical renewalto introduce terms from a tradition believed to be outmoded. В»(Ingar Roggen,1996)
Thereexist various definitions of such a linguistical event, as neologism, andevery of them expresses the gist of this notion taking into the considerationone of the numerous aspects of neologism. The most general are:
В« Neologism: Neologisms areВ« wordsthat have appeared in a language in connection with new phenomena, new concepts, ...but which have not yet entered into the active vocabularies of a significantportion of the native speakers of the language В». (Woodhouse dictionary, 1972,p. 225)
В«A neologism is the term used to describe aword that has been made-up or invented by a speaker, which appears in atranscript of spontaneous speech dialogue. It can also be described as a wordwhich does not appear in the dictionary of the primary spoken language, butwhich is also not a foreign word. В»(Internet en.wiktionary.org)Or:
Thecommon thing in these both definitions is that neologism is not yetregistered in dictionaries and in most cases it is a colloquial for the timebeing.
Forinstance, the word В«nigilistВ» (nihilist) [ (Shanskii 1971, p. 128) ; and waspopularized in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons (1962) , through hisdepiction of the radical doctor of the 1860's, Bazarov. В»The reason forintroducing the word into the language was that there were many young people ofthat time believing that nothing had meaning or value. As soon as the word wascoined it was accepted by the society and has existed in a number of languagessince then.
If wetake some sciences in particular, we may see, all of them reflect theessence of the notion, as there is В«always something newВ». For instance, in linguistics ,a neologism is a recently-coined word, or the act of inventinga word or phrase. Additionally it can imply the use of old words in a new senseie, giving new meanings to existing words or phrases. As it was mentionedabove neologisms are especially useful in identifying new inventions, newphenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. The word В«neologismВ»was coined around 1800 and was, at that time, a neologism itself.
In psychology, a neologism is a word invented bya person suffering from psychotic disorders; psychiatrists sometimes use theseneologisms, which often have meaning only to the subject, as clues to determinethe nature of the subject's disorder. In theology, a neologism is a relatively new doctrine (for example, rationalism). In this sense, aneologist is an innovator in the area of ​​a doctrine or belief system, and isoften considered heretical or subversive by the mainstream church.
The main point in all these defenitions is that the word ormeaning is new and the implication is that the word might be adopted by thesociety and take roots or ignored and shortly forgotten.
1.2History and the development of neologisms
Asa literary concept and term, neologism appeared in the early 18thcentury, at the time when the neoclassical practices of the French Generationof 1660 began to consolidate, throughout Europe, into a body of normativeteaching. The idea that different domains of human experience should be representedin literature by distinct literary styles ent...
