7. Systemic relations in the English vocabulary. Groups of words in the lexicon. Neologisms, archaisms and international words.

neologismis a newly coined word or phrase or a new meaning for an existing word, or a word borrowed from another language.

e. g. aerobic, black hole, computer, isotope, feedback, penicillin, pulsar, quasar, tape-recorder, supermarket.

Neologisms can also refer to an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning.

At the present moment there are 800 neologisms appear every year in Modern English.

New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants to express his idea in some original way. New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers, newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.

   Neologisms can develop in three main ways:

  - a lexical unit existing in the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word "umbrella".

  - A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have transnomination, e.g. the word "slum" was first substituted by the word-group "inner town".

  - A new lexical unit can be introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have "a proper neologism", many of them are cases of new terminology.

   Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed.

  - phonological neologisms

  - borrowings,

  - semantic neologisms

  - syntactical neologisms (morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word- groups)

Different points of view:

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

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

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.

International words. It is often the case that a word is borrowed by several languages and not just by one. Such words usually convey concepts, which are significant in the field of communication. Many of them are of Latin and Greek origin. Most names of sciences are international, e.g. philosophy, chemistry, biology; sports terms: football, baseball, tennis; foodstuffs and fruits imported from exotic countries: coffee, chocolate, banana, grapefruit; clothing: pullover, shorts.