Neologisms

NEOLOGISMS

At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so

called «neology blowup». R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four-

volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every

year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently,

especially with the development of computerization.

New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants

to express his idea in some original way. This person is called

«originater». 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» developed

the meanings: «авиационное прикрытие», »политическое прикрытие».  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

«ghetto» then 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.

Here we can point out several semantic groups when we analize the group

of neologisms connected with computerization, and here we can mention words

used:

a) to denote different types of computers, e.g. PC, super-computer, multi-

user, neurocomputer / analogue of a human brain/;

b) to denote parts of computers, e.g. hardware, software, monitor,

screen, data, vapourware / experimental samples of computers for

exhibition, not for production/;

c) to denote computer languages, e.g. BASIC, Algol FORTRAN etc;

d) to denote notions connected with work on computers, e.g. computerman,

computerization,  computerize,  to troubleshoot, to blitz out / to ruin

data in a computer’s memory/.

There are also different types of activities performed with the help of

computers, many of them are formed with the help of the morpheme «tele»,

e.g. to telework, to telecommute / to work at home having a computer which

is connected with the enterprise for which one works/. There are also such

words as telebanking, telemarketing, teleshopping / when you can perform

different operations with the help of your computer without leaving your

home, all operations are registered by the computer at your bank/,

videobank /computerized telephone which registers all information which is

received in your absence/.

In the sphere of lingusitics we have such neologisms as: machine

translation, interlingual / an artificial language for machine translation

into several languages / and many others.

In the sphere of biometrics we have computerized machines which can

recognize characteristic features of people seeking entrance : finger-print

scanner / finger prints/, biometric eye-scanner / blood-vessel arrangements

in eyes/, voice verification  /voice patterns/. These are types of

biometric locks. Here we can also mention computerized cards with the help

of which we can open the door without a key.

In the sphere of medicine computors are also used and we have the

following neologisms: telemonitory unit / a telemonitory system for

treating patience at a distance/.

With the development of social activities neologisms appeared as well,

e.g. youthquake - волнения среди молодежи, pussy-footer - политик, идущий

на компромисы,  Euromarket, Eurodollar, Europarliament, Europol  etc.

In the modern English society there is a tendency to social

stratification,  as a result there are neologisms in this sphere as well,

e.g. belonger - представитель среднего класса, приверженец консервативных

взглядов.  To this group we can also refer abbreviations of the type

yuppie /young urban professional people/, such as: muppie, gruppie, rumpie,

bluppie etc.  People belonging to the lowest layer of the society are

called survivers, a little bit more prosperous are called sustainers, and

those who try to prosper in life and imitate those,   they want to belong

to, are called emulaters. Those who have prospered  but are not belongers

are called achievers.  All these layers of socety are called   VAL  /Value

and Lifestyles/ .

The rich belong also to jet set that is those who can afford to travel by

jet planes all over the world enjoying their life. Sometimes they are

called «jet plane travellers».

During Margaret Thatcher’s rule the abbreviation PLU appeared which means

«People like us» by which snobbistic circles of society call themselves.

Nowadays  /since 1989/  PLU  was substituted by «one of us».

There are a lot of immigrants now in UK , in connection with which

neologisms partial  and non-partial were formed /имеющие право жить в

стране и его антоним/.

The word-group «welfare mother» was formed to denote a non-working single

mother living on benefit.

In connection with criminalization of towns in UK volantary groups of

assisting the police were formed where dwellers of the neighbourhood are

joined. These groups are called «neighbourhood watch», «home watch».

Criminals wear «stocking masks»  not to be recognized.

The higher society has neologisms in their speech, such as : dial-a-meal,

dial-a-taxi.

In the language of teen-agers there are such words as : Drugs! /OK/,

sweat /бег на длинные дистанции/, task /home composition /, brunch etc.

With the development of professional jargons a lot of words ending in

«speak» appeared in English, e.g. artspeak, sportspeak, medspeak, education-

speak, video-speak, cable-speak etc.

There are different semantic groups of neologisms belonging to everyday

life:

a) food e.g. «starter»/ instead of «hors d’oevres»/, macrobiotics / raw

vegetables, crude rice/ , longlife milk, clingfilm, microwave stove,

consumer electronics, fridge-freezer, hamburgers /beef-, cheese-, fish-,

veg- /.

b) clothing, e.g. catsuit /one-piece clinging suit/, slimster , string /

miniscule bikini/,  hipster / trousers or skirt with the belt on hips/,

completenik / a long sweater for trousers/,  sweatnik  /a long jacket/,

pants-skirt,  bloomers / lady’s sports trousers/.

c) footwear e.g. winklepickers /shoes with long pointed toes/, thongs

/open sandals/, backsters /beech sandals with thick soles/.

d) bags, e.g. bumbag /a small bag worn on the waist/, sling bag /a bag

with a long belt/,  maitre / a small bag for cosmetics/.

There are also such words as : dangledolly / a dolly-talisman dangling in

the car before the windscreen/, boot-sale /selling from the boot of the

car/, touch-tone /a telephone with press-button/.

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

They are subdivided into : phonological neologisms, borrowings, semantic

neologisms and syntactical neologisms. Syntactical neologisms are divided

into morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word-

groups/.

Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of

sounds, they are called artificial, e.g.  rah-rah /a short skirt which is

worn by girls during parades/, «yeck» /»yuck» which are interjections to

express repulsion produced the adjective yucky/ yecky. These are strong

neologisms.

Strong neologisms include also phonetic borrowings, such as «perestroika»

/Russian/, «solidarnosc» /Polish/, Berufsverbot / German /, dolce vita

/Italian/ etc.

Morphological and syntactical neologisms are usually built on patterns

existing in the language, therefore they do not belong  to the group of

strong neologisms.

Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of

different types, such as «free-fall»-»резкое падение курса акций» appeared

in 1987 with the stock market crash in October 1987 /on the analogy with

free-fall of parachutists, which is the period between jumping and opening

the chute/. Here also belong: call-and-recall - вызов на диспансеризацию,

bioastronomy -search for life on other planets, rat-out - betrayal in

danger , zero-zero (double zero) - ban of longer and shorter range weapon,

x-rated /about films terribly vulgar and cruel/, Ameringlish /American

English/, tycoonography - a biography of a business tycoon.

There are also abbreviations of different types, such as resto, teen

/teenager/, dinky /dual income no kids yet/, ARC /AIDS-related condition,

infection with AIDS/, HIV / human immuno-deficiency virus/.

Quite a number of neologisms appear on the analogy with lexical units

existing in the language, e.g. snowmobile /automobile/, danceaholic

/alcoholic/, airtel /hotel/, cheeseburger /hamburger/, autocade /

cavalcade/.

There are many neologisms formed by means of affixation, such as:

decompress, to disimprove, overhoused, educationalist, slimster, folknik

etc. Phraseological neologisms can be subdivided  into phraseological units

with transferred meanings, e.g.   to buy into/ to become involved/, fudge

and dudge /avoidance of definite decisions/, and set non-idiomatic

expressions, e.g. electronic virus, Rubic’s cube, retail park, acid rain ,

boot trade etc.