20. Neologisms

Different points of view: 

1. if we fell that the word is a neologisms – it is a neologisms.

2. 25 years

Classification of neologisms:

By Haham

1. A word in which the form & the meaning is new.

• Ex.: audiotyping

2. The form is new, but the meaning has already existed in some other word

• Ex.: big C – cancer

3. The meaning is new but the form existed

• Ex.: bread – money

• Greens – dollars

 

By Rosen

1. These are words, which can occur in isolation, but they can be parts of new words.

• Ex.: Euro

• Anythingburger

2. New morphemes, which have appeared in the language

• Ex.:  -nik – peacenik

• -teria – bookateria, washateria

3. A word, which consist of already existing morphemes but in new combination.

• Ex.: skinhead

 

By Zabotkina

1. Phonological neologisms - new words formed from phonemes

• Ex.; zizz – short nap (onomatopoeic word)

2. Semantic neologisms - they are motivated

• Ex.: greens – dollars

3. Syntactic neologisms - can be:

• phraseological (word combinations)

• morphological (formed by means of affixation, conversion, clipping, lexicalization, compounding)

4. Borrowings

• Ex.: Pizza Hut Sputnik

Formation of neologisms:

1. affixation

• peacenik

• bookateria

2. abbreviation/blending

• smaze

3. word overlapping

• swellegant

4. compounding

• skinhead

• greenback

5. forming new words from combinations & sentences

• bold-headish

• 6 o’clockish

• how-do-you-doers

6. forming new words according to already existing productive patterns

• fingersmith – карманник

• tunesmith – настройщик пианино

7. lexicalization

• ism – as an independent word

• teens

8. word plays

• где находится нофелет?

9. quaze lexims (phonemes)

• zizz

• ёпрст

Neologisms are newly coined words or words that have acquired a new meaning because of social, economic, political or cultural changes in human society.

The intense development of science, industry, means of communication has called forth the development of new words and phrases, e.g. hardware, microsurgical, weapons of mass destruction.

There are different types of neologisms:

• scientific – words or phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries or inventions (black hole, laser)

• political - words or phrases created to make some kind of political point (political correctness, big brother /a person, organization, etc., that exercises total dictatorial control/)

• imported – words or phrases originating in another language to express ideas that have no equivalent term in the native language: tycoon, potato

There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday life:

1) food, e.g longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-, vege-/;

2) clothing, e.g. hipsters /trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/;

3) footwear, e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs /open sandals/, backsters /beach sandals with thick soles/;

4) bags, e.g. bumbag / a small bag worn on waist/, sling bag /a bag with a long belt/.

21. Archaism – words which were once common but are now replaced by synonyms (e.g. save 'except', hapless 'unlucky', betwixt 'between', etc.). The predilection of a. in vocabulary and syntax is the main feature of the extreme varieties of written English – the language of law, the language of religion and poetic diction. In this respect, religious, legal and poetic English are the only varieties, which allow a. to such an extent. Unlike the case with historisms (q.v.) the thing or notion denoted does not go into disuse.

Archaisms are most frequently encountered in poetry, law, science, technology, geography and ritual writing and speech. Their deliberate use can be subdivided into literary archaisms, which seeks to evoke the style of older speech and writing; and lexical archaisms, the use of words no longer in common use. Archaisms are kept alive by these ritual and literary uses and by the study of older literature. Should they remain recognised, they can be revived, as the word anent was in this past century.

Because they are things of continual discovery and re-invention, science and technology have historically generated forms of speech and writing which have dated and fallen into disuse relatively quickly. However the emotional associations of certain words (for example: 'Wireless' rather than 'Radio' for a generation of British citizens who lived through the second world war) have kept them alive even though the older word is clearly an archaism.

A similar desire to evoke a former age means that archaic place names are frequently used in circumstances where doing so conveys a political or emotional subtext, or when the official new name is not recognised by all (for example: 'Persia' rather than 'Iran', 'Bombay' rather than 'Mumbai', 'Madras' rather than 'Chennai'). So, a restaurant seeking to conjure up historic associations might prefer to call itself Old Bombay or refer to Persian cuisine in preference to using the newer place name. A notable contemporary example is the name of the airline Cathay Pacific, which uses the archaic Cathay ("China").

Archaisms are frequently misunderstood, leading to changes in usage. One example is found in the phrase "the odd man out", which originally came from the phrase "to find the odd man out", where the verb "to find out" has been split by its object "the odd man", meaning the item which does not fit.

The compound adverbs and prepositions found in the writing of lawyers (e.g. heretofore, hereunto, thereof) are examples of archaisms as a form of jargon. Some phraseologies, especially in religious contexts, retain archaic elements that are not used in ordinary speech in any other context: "With this ring I thee wed." Archaisms are also used in the dialogue of historical novels in order to evoke the flavour of the period. Some may count as inherently funny words and are used for humorous effect.

22. Affixation. Affix is morpheme that is attached to base morpheme as root or stem, to form word. Affixes may be derivational, like -ness and pre-, or inflectional\functional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. Affixes are divided into several types, depending on their position with reference to the root:

-Prefixes (attached before another morpheme) undo prefix + root. A prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. Prefixes are bound morphemes (they cannot occur as independent words). Etymological cl-on: native (a-, be-, over-, under-) & borrowed (il-, im-, de-, poly-, anti-); m-ng: negative m-ng (un-,im-, dis-), quantitative m-ng (mono-, poly-super-), completion of the action (over-, under-); change the part of speech little-belittle, large-enlarge;

-Suffixes (attached after another morpheme) looking root + suffix. A suffix is a letter or group of letters added at the end of a word to make a new word. Part forming cl-on: noun-f-ng (-age, -ship, -ism, -ist), adj-f-ng (-ful, -less, -y, -ish), verb-f-ng (-ize,

-ate, -fy, -en), adv-f-ng (-ly, -ward), num-f-ng (-th, -teen, -ty), etymological cl-on native (-dom, -ed, -en,-ish,-y) & borrowed (L

-able\ible, -ant\ent; G –ism, -ist, -ic, Fr –age, -ance\ence).

-Infixes (affixes placed within the w, traces of nasal infix in the pres tense of some IE verbs (stand))

Origin of derivational affixes

From the point of view of their origin, derivational affixes are subdivided into native (e.g suf.- nas, ish, dom; pref.- be, mis, un) and foreign (e.g. suf.- ation, ment, able; pref.- dis, ex, re).

Many original affixes historically were independent words, such as dom, hood and ship. Borrowed words brought with them their derivatives, formed after word-building patterns of their languages. And in this way many suffixes and prefixes of foreign origin have become the integral part of existing word-formation (e.g. suf.- age; pref.- dis, re, non). The adoption of foreign words resulted into appearance of hybrid words in English vocabulary. Sometimes a foring stem is combined with a native suffix (e.g. colourless) and vise versa (e.g. joyous).

Reinterpretation of verbs gave rise to suffix-formation source language (e.g. “scape” – seascape, moonscape – came from landscape. And it is not a suffix.).

23. Conversion. Conversion is derivational process where item changes its word-class without addition of affix. Conversion is particularly common in English because basic form of nouns and verbs is identical in many cases. It’s curious and attractive subject because it has wide field of action: all gram. categories can undergo conversion to more than one word-form, it is compatible with other word-formation processes, and it has no demonstrated limitations. The meaning is perfectly comprehensible and speaker can rapidly fill meaningful gap in his language or use fewer words. The major cases of conversion are from noun to verb (eye-to eye, dog-to dog) and from verb to noun (to play-play). Conversion from adjective to verb (clean-to clean) and from adj to n (rich-the rich) are also common, but it has lower ratio. Conversion may be combined with other word-b-ng processed, such as composition. Attributive phrases like block list, pin point, stone wall form the basis of such firmly established verbs as to blacklist, to pinpoint, to stonewall. The same pattern is used in nonce-words such as to my-dear, to my-love. Semantic associations: 1.The noun is the name of a tool or implement, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: to hammer, to nail, to pin, to brush. 2.The noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behaviour considered typical of this animal: to dog, to wolf, to monkey.3. The name of a part of the human body — an ac tion performed by it: to hand, to leg (sl.), to eye, to elbow. 4. The name of a profession or occupation — an activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to maid, to groom. 5. The name of a place — the process of occupying the place or of putting smth./smb. in it (to room, to house, to place, to table, to cage).6.The name of a container — the act of putting smth. within the container (to can, to bottle, to pocket).7. The name of a meal — the process of taking it (to lunch, to supper).

Synchronic and diachronic approaches to conversion

Conversion is the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm (category of a part of speech). As a paradigm is a morphological category, conversion can be described as a morphological way of forming words (Смирницкий). The term was introduced by Henry Sweet.

The causes that made conversion so widely spread are to be approached diachronically. Nouns and verbs have become identical in form firstly as a result of the loss of endings. The similar phenomenon can be observed in words borrowed from the French language. Thus, from the diachronic point of view distinctions should be made between homonymous word-pairs, which appeared as a result of the loss of inflections (окончание, изменяемая часть слова).

In the course of time the semantic structure of the base nay acquire a new meaning or several meanings under the influence of the meanings of the converted word (reconversion).

Synchronically we deal with pairs of words related through conversion that coexist in contemporary English. A careful examination of the relationship between the lexical meaning of the root-morpheme and the part-of-speech meaning of the stem within a conversion pair reveals that in one of the two words the former does not correspond to the latter.

24. Word-composition (compounding) Compounding or word-composition is one of the productive means of word-formation in Modern English. Compounds are words that are made up of two immediate constituents which are both derivative bases. Derivative bases in compounds can have different degrees of complexity: 1. both bases are simple (weekend, girlfriend). 2. one base is simple, the other is derivative (a shoemaker). 3. one base is compound and the other is either simple or derivative (fancy-dress -> fancydress-ball, маскарад; fancydress-maker). Classification of compounds. 1) According to the type of word-formation: a. compounds proper – are words made up of two derivative bases (red-current, girlfriend) b. derivational compounds – are words formed by affixation or conversion from a compound derivational base (blue-eyed, a breakdown) c. pseudo-compounds - The constituent members of compound words of this subgroup are in most cases unique, carry very vague or no lexical meaning of their own, are not found as stems of independently functioning words. They are motivated mainly through the rhythmic doubling of fanciful sound-clusters. (loudmouth). 2) Semantic a. subordinate (подчинительные) – words where one of the derivative bases is the grammatical and semantical center of the word, as a rule – the 2 one – a head member. It expresses the general meaning of the word, and the first one specifies it (girlfriend) b. coordinate (сочинительные) – words where both components are equally important: - reduplicated – formed by repeating the base (fifty-fifty) - rhyming (walkie-talkie, willy-nilly) - additive – denote an object or a person that is two things at a time (Anglo-Saxon, an actor- manager) Meaning in compounds. The lexical meaning of compounds is determined by the lexical meanings of its bases and the structural meaning of its distributional pattern. The distributional pattern shows the order and arrangement of the bases. Two compounds that have the same bases but different distributional patterns will have different meanings (a finger-ring, a ring-finger). As a rule a second base determines the part of speech meaning of the compound. The lexical meaning of a compound doesn't coincide with the combined meanings of its bases. There is always some additional semantic element that reflects among objects and phenomena in the outer world. Semantic relations between the compounds can be described as certain types: - spacial (пространственный) – a garden-party, a finger-ring, a nose-ring - functional – a key-hole, a dollhouse / a babysitter, a bodyguard - resemblance (сходство) - snow-white - producing a similar effect or acting in a typical way – a rattle-snake (гремучая змея) If the meaning of the compound and the semantic relations between the bases are clear then the compound is motivated (red-current – красная смородина). If the meaning of the compound and the semantic relations between the bases are not clear then the compound is non-motivated (redneck – рабочий). Criteria of distinguishing between compounds and free-word combinations. Compounds are inseparable lexical units that are presented in dictionaries in special entries and sub-entries. Compounds are reproduced and used in speech as lexical units, they are not formed in speech like free-word combinations. They are only pronounced as lexical units (a red rose, a redskin). Inseparability of compounds has graphical (one word or a hyphen), phonetic (stress), morphological (only 2 base shows grammatical category) and semantic (grammatical formes differ from the forms of the motivating words (richer – more oil-richer) criteria.

25. Shortening (Contraction). This comparatively new way of word-building has achieved high degree of productivity. Shortenings (contracted words) are produced in 2 different ways. The 1st is to make new word from syllable of original word. The latter may lose its beginning (as in phone made from telephone), its ending (as in hols from holidays) or both beginning and ending (as in flu from influenza).The 2nd way of shortening is to make new word from initial letters of word group: B.B.C. from British Broadcasting Corporation. This type called initial shortenings. They are found not only among formal words also among colloquialisms and slang. The history of American okay seems to be rather typical and was supposed to stand for all correct. Onomatopoeia is a deliberate use of words or combinations of words whose sounds produce an imitation of a natural sound, such as animal noises like "oink" or "meow", or suggesting its source object, such as "boom", "zoom", "click", "bunk", "clang", "buzz", or "bang". It is often based on and combined with alliteration. Reduplication is a morphological process by which the root or stem of a word, or part of it, is repeated. Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., and in lexical derivation to create new words. It is often used when a speaker adopts a tone more "expressive" or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often, but not exclusively, iconic in meaning. There are various categories of this: rhyming, exact and ablaut (vowel substitution). Examples, are respectively, harum-scarum\ hocus-pocus, wee-wee\ blah-blah\ bye-bye and zig-zag\ ping-pong\ tip-top.

26 The correlation of a curtailed word with its prototype is of great interest. Two possible developments should be noted:'

The curtailed form may be regarded as a variant or a synonym differing from the full form quantitatively, st>listicaily and sometimes emotionally, the prototype being stylistically and emotionally neutral, e. g. doc : : doctor, exam : : examination. Also in proper names: Becky : : Rebecca, Frisco : : San Francisco, Japs : : the Japanese. The missing part can at all times be supplied by the listener, so that the connection between the prototype and the short form is not lost. The relationship between the prototype and the curtailment belongs in this case to the present-day vocabulary system and forms a relevant feature for synch- ronic analysis. Much yet remains to be done in studying the complex relations between the prototype and the clipping, as it is not clear when one should consider them two separate synonymous words and when they are variants of the same word.

In the opposite extreme case the connection can be established only etymologically. The denotative or lexico-grammatical meaning or both may have changed so much that the clipping becomes a sepa­ rate word. Consequently a pair of etymological doublets (see p. 259) comes into being. C f. chap : : chapman 'a pedlar'; fan 'an enthusiastic devotee' : : fanatic\ fancy : : fantasy; miss : : mistress. A speaker who calls himself a football fan would probably be offended at being called a fanatic. A fanatic is understood to have unreasonable and exaggerated beliefs and opinions that make him socially dangerous, whereas a fan is only a devotee of a specified amusement. The relationship between curtailed forms and prototypes in this second group is irrele­ vant to the present-day vocabulary system, and is a matter of historic, i.e. diachronic study.

In both types the clipped forms (doc, exam, chap, fan, etc.) exist in the language alongside their respective prototypes. The difference, how- ever, is that whereas words belonging to the first group can be replaced by their prototypes and show in this way a certain degree of inter-changeability, the doublets are never equivalent lexically as there are no contexts where the prototype can replace the shortened word without a change of meaning.