Yeltayeva A.N., Latanova R.U.

Ways of neologisms formation in modern English

Eurasian national university named after L.N.Gumilyov

Any language is a dynamic system, which constantly develops, transforms and alters. The processes in social, cultural, scientific and political life, the contemporary level of technology development and intercultural communication implies constant language evolution. Both linguistic and extralinguistic factors play a substantial role in appearing new units in the language (neologisms). These new units help us to comprehend and cope with change by creating mental bridges between the old and the new one. The language vocabulary is changing, renewing the words and phrases. Neologisms play an essential role in the contemporary system of language and speech. Term "neologism" is used by linguists to describe a new word, usage, or expression. It is often created by combining existing words or by using a word in diverse contexts. Some neologisms have now become a part of Standard English, while others have faded away. In the same way, some of todays neologisms will become a part of the dictionaries of the XXII century, while others will be discarded, replaced by more descriptive language.

Indeed, if no new words were to appear, it would be a sign that the language was moribund; the progress of arts and sciences gives birth to a large majority of new words: each new word that does appear should be severely scrutinized before it becomes generally accepted. A word comes to be a very powerful means of communication but also can be a cause of a great misunderstanding if it is not clearly understood and pronounced by one of the speakers. So this work does a research into all word – forming means to determine the most productive ways of forming new words that appeared in the XXI century. Neologisms are the basic problem of modern scientific research. Many new objects and processes are continually created in technology. We can find new ideas and variations in social life, science. Neologisms can be defined as newly coined lexical units that acquire new sense. Every time neologisms appeared in our life. Words and expressions are born, live for a short time and then die or find their place in our vocabulary according to the temporary or permanent nature of the phenomena they describe.

Neologisms are quite significant in our life, especially now, because we have a science and technology development, the new courses in the field of literature, art and music etc. And there are great quantity of new words is created in various domains especially in terminological system of computer technologies which is saturated with a great number of new terms.

No new science is possible without neologisms, new words or new interpretations of old words to depict and explain reality in new ways. How could Aristotle have developed the logic of syllogisms or Newton the theory of dynamics without new vocabularies and definitions? They were neologists, and everybody wanting to contribute new knowledge must be. "To reject neologisms, often despicably, is to reject scientific development. No sign of scientific conservatism is so telling as the rejection of all but the established concepts of a school of thought. Neologisms are, however, relative to the terminological paradigm actually dominating a field of knowledge. It may be a radical renewal to introduce terms from a tradition believed to be outmoded." [1]

The common thing in these both definitions is that neologism is not yet registered in dictionaries and in most cases it is a colloquial for the time being. For instance, the word "nigilist" (nihilist) [<Latin "nihil" (nothing)] was first used in an essay in 1829; and was popularized in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons (1962), through his depiction of the radical doctor of the 1860's, Bazarov". [2]

There exist various definitions of such a linguistical event, as neologism, and every of them expresses the gist of this notion taking into the consideration one of the numerous aspects of neologism. The most general are:

« Neologism: Neologisms are «words that have appeared in a language in connection with new phenomena, new concepts, but which have not yet entered into the active vocabularies of a significant portion of the native speakers of the language». [3]

The 16^th century was the period of the great course in literature called “Renaissance”. A significant number of writers used new words in their poems and stories in order to “enrich” the English language. But some neologisms are short-lived. Initially they seem unfamiliar for us but eventually the users are being accustomed to consuming it in everyday virtual and real life as well. According to the statistics of The Barnhart Dictionary Companion, there are 1,500 to 1,600 words and meanings inputting into the computer database each year. [4] Classification of neologisms usually is made according to the following four standards:

Neologisms can be classified according to their functions. Innumerable neologisms can be classified as either referential or expressive. Referential neologisms are neologisms created to fill the gap in a specific special field. They are produced to solve communication difficulties, for example, “core dump” (to clear out a computer’s memory). Expressive neologisms are neologisms developed to introduce new forms of expression into discourse, for example, “open collar workers” (people who work at home or telecommute).

The language produces new words by means of its formation rules. It is the need of society and the impetus of development of the language itself. Words are being made up all the time. The shapes of words we know lead us to shape new words. John Algeo, a leading scholar of new words, has demonstrated that almost all new words have familiar origins. They are extensions of our established vocabulary rather than completely new creations. The expansion of vocabulary in modern English depends chiefly on word-formation. There is variety of means being at work. The most productive are affixation, compounding and conversion. According to Pyles and Algeo, words produced through affixation constitute 30% to 40% of the total number of new words; compounding yields 28% to 30% of all the new words; conversion gives us 26% of the new vocabulary. Finally, he offers his own definition that he named as an “extended lexicographic diachronic”one and which is stated as follows, “Any word that does not occur in the morphologicaldatabase derived from the dictionary because of its recentness is a neologism.” [5]

Neologisms often cause serious difficulties еvеn among people, who know English very well. And if they intentionally avoid using neologisms, in this case their oral and written spееch, most likely, will be dull and high-flown. So we assume that this research is quite actual. Neologisms make our spееch more ехprеssivе, vivid and imaginative. Having a rich vocabulary of neologisms, you can not only comprehend the shades of meaning, stylistics, emotion, but you also will expand your spееch, made it more natural, that, undoubtedly, will make your intercourse еasiеr with foreign colleagues and friends. People, who work at ameliorating their English should precisely comprehend that using neologisms in daily discourse isn’t foppery or tribute to a style of the end of the ХХ century. On the contrary, understanding and right using neologisms testifies about high level of possession of the English language.

References:

1. Ingar Roggen, 1996

2. Woodhouse dictionary, 1972, p. 2251

3. Rothstein, R.A. (1985). "While Reading Dictionaries of Neologisms." SEEJ, 29 (4), 461-470.

4. Barnhart Dictionary Companion. Hyde Park. NY.: Lexic House.- 1982

5. Algeo J.- Fifty Years among the New Words: A Dictionary of Neologisms. Oxford University Press 1991.