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Making
Sense of Neologisms
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Learners of English are usually taught only
those words that are well- established in the vocabulary. However, language is in a
permanent state of renewal and change. Language is the mirror to society and the
vocabulary of English reflects the quick social, cultural, and scientific changes
undergone by modern society. New entries are constantly added as speakers have to refer to
new concepts, objects, and ideas, but very few textbooks, if any, contain newly coined
words. Neologisms do not always appear in dictionaries, either, because they have to be
used frequently enough to be found there. Nonce words, for example, those which are coined
for a particular occasion, rarely earn a place in current dictionaries.
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I think that it is not enough to teach learners
only the words that already exist in the language. They must also be provided with tools
that will allow them to understand the latest additions to the English vocabulary.
Advanced learners should be taught the productive processes by which new entries enter the
vocabulary so that they can make sense of the new words that they will come across.
Teachers of advanced learners should acquaint them with the rules of word formation which
native speakers intuitively apply to form new terms and understand those created by
others. The knowledge of the patterns involved in word formation will help students to
increase their vocabulary permanently.
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In the vocabulary of English, verbs, nouns,
adjectives and adverbs belong to open classes, that is to say, they are open because they
can be extended indefinitely by the addition of new items. But these new words, save
exceptions, are not created ex nihilo , but are either borrowed or formed by
combining words or parts of words which already exist in the language, abbreviating them
or changing their word class.
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Speakers of English can easily coin new terms to
suit their needs. Journalists, in particular, take advantage of the power that the English
language has to generate new terms. When we read a newspaper or a magazine we are likely
to come across words which we have never seen or heard before because they have just been
coined by a creative speaker or writer. However, native speakers are perfectly able to
process innovative word uses, and neologisms can be easily understood because they share
the pattern of established words in the vocabulary. If alcoholic is familiar, then
other words formed on the same pattern, such as workaholic or shopaholic ,
are also comprehensible.
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Moreover, new words tend to be transparent in
meaning. The sense of nonce words, in particular, has to be easily inferable. If learners
know how new terms are formed and which patterns of word formation are prevalent today,
they will be able to make sense of a great part of neologisms. Although using context
clues is the most frequent means of understanding unknown words, in the case of neologisms
we can teach learners to use clues which are provided by the words themselves. Mastering
the rules which native speakers intuitively apply to form new terms and knowing which
patterns of word formation show a higher productivity will help learners to make
generalisations and to understand at least a significant part of newly formed terms.
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New words can be coined by combining already
existing words into a new unit (compounding) or a word with an affix (derivation),
changing their word class (conversion or zero- derivation), abbreviating them (clipping,
acronyms) and combining abbreviated forms (blending).
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Compounding , combining two or
more bases to form a new lexical unit is statistically the most productive process in
English, since it is a characteristic word-formation strategy of Germanic languages. Most
new compounds are formed combining two or more nouns. If a learner knows the meaning of
the elements that form a compound, s/he will easily make sense of a fairly large number of
compounds. There is little difficulty, for instance, in knowing the meaning of the
following new combinations, once one knows the meaning of the separate elements. Alcoholfree
, for instance, refers to a drink which does not contain alcohol, a bodyscanner is
a scanner which produces images of the whole body, cable television is a system for
transmitting television programs by cable.
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Learners, however, must be aware of the fact
that the meaning of the compound cannot always be interpreted as the composition of the
elements alone. From a semantic point of view, the meaning of well- established compounds
cannot be fully inferred from the meanings of the elements that form it since, with the
passage of time, complex words become more and more specialized. In many cases, learners
must become aware of the subtle semantic relationship between the elements that form the
compound, and which give it a specialized meaning, not fully predictable from the meanings
of the parts. An oil truck , for instance, is a truck that carries oil, whereas a diesel
truck is a truck that runs on diesel fuel. Thus, an expert system is a computer
system which uses software intended to work as a skilful consultant. This system, then, is
founded on expert knowledge. A convenience store is a shop that has extended
opening hours and is conveniently placed, and convenience food is food which is
sold ready-to-eat.
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Moreover, there are cases when it will be very
difficult to derive the meaning of a compound. Even native speakers are unlikely to deduce
its meaning from general principles. There are no rules that can account for the meaning
of a semantically opaque compound. These compounds are said to be lexicalized. They cannot
be processed by the mechanisms of meaning extraction because of extralinguistic
associations which depend on the speaker's background, knowledge, or education. Whereas
the meaning of acid rain , rain which contains harmful acid, can be easily
inferred, it is impossible to deduce the meaning of acid house , which is a style
of popular music, by just knowing the meaning of acid and house. The element acid
probably refers to the drug LSD, and house is the abbreviation of Warehouse, which
is the name of a nightclub in Chicago where this form of dance music originated. Fern
bar is another good example. A fern bar referred to a bar in which expensive
drinks were served to upwardly-mobile customers. These bars were usually decorated with
hanging ferns, whence the name: a bar containing ferns. However, later on, a fern bar
still referred to an expensive bar, but there were not necessarily ferns in the
decoration.
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Derivation or affixation
, the addition of prefixes and suffixes to a base, has also been very common from the
earliest stages of English. There are many traditional affixes that are still productive
and are used to generate new words. For example, the negative prefix un (from OE
un) is still one of the most common prefixes: unfriendly "unhelpful or
harmful"; ungreen "not concerned about or harmful to the
environment"; unwaged "unemployed"; unleaded "not
containing lead."
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Although it is sometimes difficult to process
the meaning of words that have been formed by affixation, new ones are generally
transparent. Once one knows the meaning of the root and that of the affix, the combination
can usually be easily predicted. Among the most common prefixes that are used to form new
words we have:
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anti- "in opposition
to": antipsychiatry "a movement that rejects traditional
psychiatry"; antihero "a central character who lacks the traditional
heroic characteristics"; antinovel "prose fiction in which traditional
novelistic elements are rejected." The prefix anti- can also be used in the
sense of "preventing, neutralizing": antifreeze "liquid added to
water to prevent it from freezing"; antilock brake "a braking system set
up as to prevent locking and skidding."
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de- "removal, reversal":
decommunize "to remove communism from a country, to democratize"; deforestation
"destruction of forests"; de-acquisition "to dispose of items in
libraries, museums ."
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extra- "outside, outside the
scope of": extraterrestrial "nonhuman being coming from other parts of
the Universe."
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multi- "many": multilevel
"operating on several levels simultaneously"; multicultural "a
community in which several cultural groups can be found"; multimedia
"combined use of a variety of media technologies."
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non- "negation, exclusion,
refusal": non-aligned "a country which has not aligned itself with any
superpower"; non-dairy cream "synthetic cream lower in fat and
cholesterol than real cream"; non-proliferation "activity that prevents
the spread of nuclear weapons."
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post- "after": post-bang
"belonging to the period after big bang"; post-boomer "a person born
after the baby boom"; post-viral syndrome "debilitating condition which
sometimes follows a viral infection."
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There are also many suffixes that are productive
and generate new words:
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-able "fit for": bankable
"certain to bring in a profit"; microwavable "which can be put into
a microwave oven."
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-dom "domain, realm,
status": yuppiedom "the condition or fact of being a yuppy."
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-er "agent": channeler
"medium, somebody who communicates with spirits"; afterboomer "a
person born in the generation after the baby boom"; bagger "one who puts
customers' purchases into paper bags at the checkout."
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-ee "recipient of an
action": secondee "person who is temporarily transferred to another
department"; mentee "person who is advised and guided."
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-ette "female": majorette
"a girl or woman who leads a marching band, twirling a baton"; "small"
superette "a small store"; launderette "a selfservice
laundry"; leatherette "material which simulates leather."
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-ie -y in hypocoristic
forms: wrinklie "an old person."
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-ize/ise "causative": marginalize/
marginalise "to treat a person as marginal, unimportant, to relegate", containerize/containerise
"to carry cargo in standard-sized containers", pedestrianize/pedestrianise
"to convert a street for use of pedestrians only."
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-ism "discrimination
against": ageism "discrimination against elderly people"; fattism
"discrimination against fat people"; also "system or body of principles;
ideology" greenism, environmentalism "concern with the protection of the
environment."
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The lack of a clear dividing line between compounding
and derivation is shown by pseudosuffixation and neoclassical
compounds. Pseudosuffixation , as Lass (1987) calls this process, consists
in using the second part of a word as a suffix to form new terms. This word-formation
strategy is now very popular and used to coin informal terms. Among the most productive
ones are:
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-gate , derived from Watergate
, has been widely used since 1972 to refer to scandals: Irangate or Contragate
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-(a)thon , meaning a large-scale
event or activity, derives from marathon and has created, among others, telethon
"a very long television programme whose main aim is to raise funds"; workathon,
sellathon, shopathon, bikeathon.
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-aholic "addicted to",
from alcoholic , has been used to form workaholic "somebody addicted to
working"; shopaholic "a compulsive shopper".
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Whereas in a compound both elements are
generally independent words, neoclassical compounds have at least one
element of Latin or Greek origin which cannot occur as a free item. On the other hand,
these forms carry a "higher density of lexical information" (Bauer 1989) than
affixes and can combine with each other. One of the most productive combining forms today,
is from Greek tele- "afar." Once one knows this it can easily be inferred
that teleshopping means shopping from home using a computer and/or a telephone, teleconferencing
means a conference held by several people linked by telephone, television or computer
screens, and telebanking means conducting banking transactions electronically.
Among other popular combining forms we have:
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bio-, from Greek bios
"life". It was first used in scientific terminology, but it now appears in many
current terms: biodegradable "able to decay through the action of living
organisms"; biogas "gas which derives from the decay of organic
matter."
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eco-, from Greek oikes
"house" was also first used in science ( ecosphere, ecosystem ), and is
now used in nontechnical terms which refer to the environment, ecological: ecodefender
"one engaged in the defense of the environment"; ecocommunity "a
community living in harmony with the environment."
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Conversion, zero-derivation or functional
shift, whereby a word changes its part of speech, is also a common way of
producing new words in the English language; i.e., by turning nouns into verbs or verbs
into nouns. There are, among others: to modem "to send by modem" from the
noun modem; to fast forward "to hit the fast-forward button of the remote control
device."
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Clipping, the shortening of a word
by deleting some part of it, is another popular way of producing new words, especially
nouns. Trying to guess the full form and using context clues effectively will be the best
strategy to understand the meaning of a new clipped form: decaf (decaffeinated
coffee); enviro (environmentalist); sitcom (situation comedy); high tech
(high technology); soap (soap opera).
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If we combine two clipped forms, we have a blend
. Although blends are generally ephemeral, they are frequent in the language of
journalism, advertising, and business. Again, a guess at the full forms and the use of the
clues provided by the context will help us to deduce its meaning. Recent examples are: advertorial
(advertisement + editorial); affluential (affluent + influential); animatronics
(animated + electronics); caplet (capsule + tablet); faction (fact +
fiction); infomercial (information + commercial); infotainment (information
+ entertainment); chunnel (channel + tunnel); magalog (magazine +
catalogue); monergy (money + energy); parasailing (parachute + sailing), fantabulous
(fantastic + fabulous).
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Finally, alphabetisms or initialisms
are words formed from the initial letters or from syllables from other words, pronounced
as sequences of letters. Examples are CD "Compact Disc"; PC
"Personal Computer"; RPI "Repetitive Stress Injury." Acronyms
are alphabetisms pronounced as words. The word yuppie was a
particularly popular and successful acronym in the eighties, on which model a number of
other humorous acronyms were coined: grumpie (grown-up mature professional); yuffie
(young urban failure); woopie (well-off older person). Other acronyms are: WYS/WYG
(what you see is what you get); dumbo (drunken upperclass middle-aged businessman
over the limit). This word-formation strategy is highly productive in present-day English,
especially for names of organisations. However, we will not be able to offer much help to
our students to interpret the meaning of unknown acronyms, if the context does not provide
it.
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To summarize, these word-formation strategies
can be grouped into four types: combining (compounding, derivation,
pseudosuffixation, neoclassical compounds); shifting (conversion); shortening
(clipping and acronym); and blending . If we teach our students that many new
formations are created on the basis of old words and that they can be transparent in
meaning, they will be encouraged to understand a great number of new terms.
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Isabel
Verdaguer teaches in the English Department at the University of Barcelona, Spain.
She is co-author of the English coursebooks Hands On! |
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Return
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- Algeo, J. 1991. Fifty years among the new words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Bauer, L. 1989. English word-formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Lass, R. 1987. The shape of English. London: J. M. Dent and Sons.
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