Universität Mainz, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
PS: Etymology and Morphology of American English
WS 04/05, 5th Semester

Neologisms in American News Reporting

by: Natalia Gavrylenko

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Definitions and Major Features of Neologisms 4

3. Morphological Classification of New Words 5

4. Semantic Fields of Neologisms 9

5. Conclusion 11

6. Works Cited 12

“Et Verba Nova Et Origines Exquirere” (To seek out new words and their origins)¹

1. Introduction

Every nation is known by the culture represented through the language it keeps, and every aspect of the life of a people is reflected in their vocabulary. Like the history of a country, its vocabulary bears witness of its past and present. As the community changes in its technological development or social transformation, so does its language. Some words get out of usage or get transformed; new words are created to represent the reality brought to us by mass media in particular through news reporting.

Although there are general patterns of word-formation, language is not a fixed, rigid system; according to the current stage of development new words enter the vocabulary continuously, and certain tendencies of forming new words appear and may disappear again. This work will be focused on current trends in American English word-formation and new words in news reporting. After the presentation of general definitions of neologisms, their aspects and major word-formation patterns, morphological classification will be shown. Although various semantic fields of neologisms will be introduced, it is almost impossible to present all tendencies. In order to fix certain trends, largely have been chosen and examined examples from John Algeo′s Fifty Years Among the New Words ( A Dictionary of Neologisms, 1941 – 1991) and Jonathon Green′s Neologisms - New Words since 1960.

2. Definitions and Major Features of Neologisms

In order to clarify the major question of this paper it is important to define clearly what "new words" are - "…a new word is a form or the use of a form not recorded in general dictionaries". (Algeo 2) The main condition for the inclusion in dictionaries is frequent usage of a new word.

The term neologism was coined around 1800 and can also refer to “…an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context.”(http://www.therfcc.org/neologism-6822.html) Thus the basic purpose of new words is to fill representational gaps new meanings or new mental concepts open on a special step of technological, scientific or social development. Neologisms are called “nonce” words (from the 16th century phrase meaning ′for the once′). A “nonce-word” is one that is constructed to serve a need of the moment. The writer is not seriously putting forward his word as one that is to have an independent existence for the future; he merely has a fancy to it for this once. The motives of word creation can be of two types: pragmatic and esthetic. The first one implies social or technological development: “changes in society, whether material or intellectual, call for new words; and the more intense the social change, the more need we have to name new things or rename old one.”(Algeo 14), whereas the latter one defines the creative feature of a language: “we use some new words because we take delight in them” (Algeo 15).

3. Morphological Classification of New Words.

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1 The motto for „Among the New Words“. (Algeo 2)