Neologism

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 * || formation ||
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 * Development ||
 * || reasons ||
 * || process ||
 * || types ||
 * || problems ||
 * Literature ||
 * Activity ||
 * References ||
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A neologism is a new word or expression, or a new meaning for an existing word.（1） A neologism is a newly coined term, word or phrase, which may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event. (2) (from "neo" //new// and "log" //word//).(6)

**Background** <span style="color: #10109e; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">**————————————————————————————————————————** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Formation

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Neologisms are often created by combining existing words or by giving words new and unique suffixes or prefixes. Portmanteaux are combined words that are sometimes used commonly. "Brunch" is an example of a portmanteau word (breakfast + lunch). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Neologisms also can be created through abbreviation or acronym, by intentionally rhyming with existing words or simply through playing with sounds.(2) Take "SINK SCUM" for example, which means" Single, Independent, No Kids: the Self-Centered Urban Male". It can be used to describe the growing number of heterosexual men who have little or no interest in marriage and children.(4)

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"><span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Examples <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">** Monday morning idea,noun ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">A fuzzy, incomplete idea that is clearly the product of a mind not quite yet in synch with the workaday world. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">"I think Bill needs to rethink that 'Corporate retreat/triathlon' concept. That must have been a Monday morning idea."
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Bozone ,noun **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">** squirrel gardening, adj. ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The accidental "gardening" that occurs when squirrels transfer seeds and bulbs from one one part of a garden to another, or even between gardens.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">** awkword, noun ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">A word that is difficult to pronounce.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">** overworking class, noun ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">A segment of society in which the chief characteristic is the desire or need to work long hours. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">"Before too long, the idea of the 'working class' will vanish and society will split into two camps: the overworking class —people with too much on their plate—and the underworking class—people with not enough to keep them busy."

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 56.25pt;">** briet ** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">n. A diet that a bride uses to lose weight before her wedding day. [Bridal + diet.] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Example Citations: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Magazines have taken to publishing before and after shots of "painfully thin Kate", calling her "Queen of diets" and "Slimline Kate", and speculating on the "briet", or bridal diet.(4)

= Development = = ——————————————————————————————————————————— =

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Reasons
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The reasons why new words enter a language are of external and internal nature. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Language internal reasons:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The language internal reasons such as shift of grammar, shift of meaning, euphemism, taboo, folk etymology, metaphor, and metonymy can be classified as linguistic causes. Internal reasons are due to semantic change and have nothing to do with external factors.(10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Language external reasons:** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The vocabulary of a language undergoes many changes. Existing words disappear or change their meaning, and new words come up. The urge for neologisms is mainly due to pragmatic reasons, i. e. there is a lack of words in every language to express new ideas. Whenever cultural habits change, the language changes as well.（10）Creating new words is made, especially as reflected in language needs of society in terms of new concepts, constantly arising from the development of science, technology, culture, public relations. (7)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">When words are first coined, instant approval is not what they meet with. Usually the first reaction is disapproval. For instance, when USA Ex-President John Fitzgerald Kennedy first used the word **finalized**, much to the horror of purist and most other users, the usage was roundly condemned.(5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**First domain:** neologism are coined in modern science and technology. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Second domain:** industry, where new words are being created nearly everyday as the names for new products or as trademarks. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Third domain:** politics and the government is another domain to “mass-produce” neologisms.(8)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Scientific** — words or phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries. Example: prion

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Political** — words or phrases created to make some kind of political or rhetorical point. Example: pro-life.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Imported** — words or phrases originating in another language. Typically they are used to express ideas that have no equivalent term in the native language. Example: tycoon <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Trademarks are often neologisms to ensure they are distinguished from other brands. If legal trademark protection is lost, the neologism may enter the language as a genericized trademark. Example: Kodak

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Nonce words** — words coined and used only for a particular occasion, usually for a special literary effect.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Inverted** — words that are derived from spelling (and pronouncing) a standard word backwards. Example: redrum

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">**Paleologism** - a word that is alleged to be a neologism but turns out to be a long-used (if obscure) word. Used ironically.（10）

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">Problems

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In neologism, there are some unsolved in theoretical and in practical terms the problems. For example, the topic that how long the word should be used in the language to be a neologism and go into the dictionary is much debated.(7) When longer "new", it is no longer a neologism. Neologisms may take decades to become "old", however. Opinions differ on exactly how old a word must be to cease being considered a neologism.(2)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Whether a neologism continues as part of the language depends on many factors, probably the most important of which is acceptance by the public. It is unusual, however, for a word to enter common use if it does not resemble another word or words in an identifiable way.（2）

** Literature ** ** ———————————————————————————————————————— ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> Many neologisms have come from popular literature and tend to appear in different forms. Most commonly, they are simply taken from a word used in the narrative of a book; a few representative examples are: "[|grok]" (to achieve complete [|intuitive understanding]), from //[|Stranger in a Strange Land]// by [|Robert A. Heinlein]; Sometimes the title of a book becomes the neologism, for instance, //[|Catch-22]// (from the title of [|Joseph Heller]'s novel). Alternatively, the author's name may become the neologism, although the term is sometimes based on only one work of that author. This includes such words as "[|Orwellian]" (from [|George Orwell], referring to his novel //[|Nineteen Eighty-Four]//)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Another category is words derived from famous characters in literature, such as //[|quixotic]// (referring to the [|titular character] in //[|Don Quixote de la Mancha]// by [|Cervantes]).（2）

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Can you guest meanings of these neologisms?
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**KEY** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Man-drought** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">n. A relative shortage of eligible bachelors in a particular area. . <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Example Citations: <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">A large middle class presented its own problems, though, such as the high proportion of well-off spinsters and a "man drought" as eligible men left Edinburgh to seek fortunes abroad. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">—Sandra Dick, "Bringing us to our census," Edinburgh Evening News, March 24, 2011 (4)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Man-drought? **
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Catfooding? **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Passive overeating? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Catfooding** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">The inverse of dogfooding – to use your competitors products in day-to-day business operations. Whereas dogfooding is a means for becoming familiar with and showing confidence in your own product, catfooding is a means of getting acquainted with your market and developing your niche.(11)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">**Passive overeating** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">This term refers to excessive eating of foods that are high in fat because the human body is slow to recognize the caloric content of rich foods and also eating whatever is prepared before someone, even to the point of discomfort. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">(3)

= References = = ——————————————————————————————————————————— = 1.[]

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8.Xinzhang Yang, //An Introduction to Linguistics ,//HIGHER EDUCATION PRESS ,2010.

9. [|www.ku-eichstaett.de/SLF/EngluVglSW/schule5.doc]

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=<span style="color: #10109e; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">External links = = ——————————————————————————————————————————— = 1. [|www.ku-eichstaett.de/SLF/EngluVglSW/schule5.doc] It is a useful file which introduces some basic knowledge and differences between nonce formation and neologism, as well as word-formation amd word-creation. 2.[] There are numbers of examples in it and also detailed citations. 3.[] These are neologisms collected by an undergraduate linguistics class at Rice University during the fall of 2003.


 * Catagories: || Neologisms Lexicology || Terminology |||| Academic Words ||