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Parunov, Suk 1

University of Zadar English department Morphology Antonio Otari, Research Assistant

Pavao Parunov, Martina Suk Affixational Neologisms seminar paper

Zadar, December 2011.

Parunov, Suk 1

Pavao Parunov Martina Suk Antonio Otari, Research Assistant Morphology English department University of Zadar 15 December 2011. Affixational Neologisms 1. Introduction In lingustics, a neologism is defined as a newly coined word or newly used word or simply a phrase with the changed meaning. Neologisms often come to use in the process of identifying new inventions, social and cultural changes. It is so because of the process of creating a new word which can often be placed in the social or cultural context; changes and inventions in technology, mass media, popular culture or science can result in new words that are specifically related to a certain phenomenon. Many linguists suspect that neologisms enter the language through elements of mass media and popular culture in general since their top demographic group is younger population. Neologisms often become accepted parts of the language but it is also not unusual for them to completely disappear from common usage. There are several factors included in the process of accepting a neologism into the language but cultural acceptance might play the biggest role in this regard. As Susie Dent proposes in her work The language report: English on the move five primary contributors in this process: there are five primary contributors to the survival of a new word: usefulness, user-friendliness, exposure, the durability of the subject it describes, and its potential associations or extensions. If a new

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word fulfils these robust criteria it stands a very good chance of inclusion in the modern lexicon.

Once a neologism enters an official dictionary or it stops being reffered to as new it is no longer considered a neologism but rather an element in the word inventory of a language. A factor that might delay the acceptance of a neologism are often linguists themselves who seem to have difficulties on agreeing whether a certain neologism should enter a language and become widely accepted. Nevertheless, a recently coined word might be quite useful for many, especially in everyday colloquial speech. If the public continues to use a new word, it will likely become generally accepted. Linguists usually suggest that there are three broad types of neologisms according to the type of formation: first, neologisms formed by the addition or combination of elements, especially compounding, affixation, blending and acronymization; second, neologisms formed by reduction of elements, namely, abbreviations, backformation and shortenings; and, third, neologisms that are neutral with respect to addition or reduction: semantic change, coinages, conversion or loans. This seminar paper will focus on neologisms formed by affixation by explaining the processes with given examples.

1. Word-building Processes: Affixation

Word-building processes can be divided into two categories: inflection and derivation. The process of inflection is driven by a requirement to ensure a proper form of a word in a grammatical context. This process contributes a morpheme that is required in order

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to fulfill a proper grammatical form. For instance, present tense verb related to a third person subject must take the s ending. She cooks her own meals. The verb in this sentence would not have a proper grammatical form without s ending. The process of inflection does not result in creating new lexical items. The usual idea for derivation is to be carried out by recycling and combining pre-existing morphemes and words. It enables us to add new words in open word-classes (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) through one of the three forms: compounding, conversion and affixation. Derivation is therefore of crucial importance to forming neologisms. However, Affixation is possibly the most common method of forming new words in the sense of lexical items. They are added before or after the base; polite (base) + ness (affix). When an affix is added before the base, it is called prefix; im (prefix) + polite. When added after the base it is called suffix (see previous example). Affixes can seem to have no meaning, especially when isolated, but they in fact do denote meaning. Furthermore, it is possible to classify them according to their meaning. A class of negative prefixes can be recognised in these word forms: im (im-possible), dis- (dis-aprove), non- (non-combatant). Besides meaning, prefixes and suffixes can be classified according to their phonological properties: neutral and non-neutral. This is particularly related to their effect on stress in the base to which they are attached. Here are examples of some common prefixes used with the given meaning they denote as proposed by Francis Katamba (2002):

co-/con-/com- (together) co-operate, co-habit, co-appear re- (again) re-think, re-take, re-play

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mis- (wrongly, badly) mis-understand, mis-manage, mis-take

Prefixes un-, dis-, in- denote negative or sometimes, reverse meaning: unexciting, unhappy, disagree, dislike, inarticulate, inactive, undo, unblock.

Here are examples of some of the most used derivational suffixes with their meaning:

-ation (derives nouns of action from verbs) don-ation, reconcili-ation, regul-ation -ant (person that does whatever the verb means) inhabit-ant, celebr-ant, protest-ant -er (person who does whatever the verb means) teach-er, runn-er, writ-er -ist (derives agent nouns from verbsone who does X) cycl-ist, typ-ist, copy-ist -ment (the result or product of the action of the verb) pave-ment, appoint-ment, accomplish-ment -ery (derives nouns indicating a place where animals are kept or plants grown) catt-ery, pigg-ery, orang-ery -ee (passive; person who undergoes action indicated by the verb) employ-ee, detain-ee, pay-ee

These examples of prefixes and suffixes are the most usual forms used in building new forms. Their meaning is easily recognised once when put together with the root of the word. In the

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process of creating neologisms we encounter and use affixes whose meaning is not completely clear. In order to reveal the meaning they give to a new word one should look up their etymology or the cultural and social context they derive from. A recent example of such neologism is the word fashionista (fashion + ista; suffix from Spanish language), representing a person working or deeply involved with the high fashion industry, such as designer, model, photographer, buyer or simply a devotee to clothing fashion. It could be said that this neologism was created when global fashion industry arose in the late 1980s since the obvious need of a word that would describe people involved in such industry. (http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/a-z-new-words-in-the-last-fiftyyears/)

Here are examples of some recent neologism with their meaning and/or context

described:

Cyberfeminism cyber (related to computers and technology) + femin (femina, ae) + ism(doctrine, belief) A community, philosophy and set of practices concerned with feminist acts in cyberspace. (http://www.wordnik.com/words) IPod -i (interface) + POD as in the phrase Open the pod bay door, HAL! as in the science fiction movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The phrase refers to the white EVA pods of the Discovery One Spaceship. The EVA pods were small, one-man maintenance vehicles. Cyberessay cyber (related to computers and technology) + essay (a short piece of writing on a particular subject) An essay existing in the virtual interspace, the internet. Iraquification Iraq (ific) + ation (that which is)

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Giving power to the Iraqui people. Killage kill + age (french noun forming suffix) To hunt an animal for sport and/or for food. ( http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/a-znew-words-in-the-last-fifty-years/ )

2. Conclusion Neologisms are recently coined words or verbs and phrases with the changes meaning. They are an area of interest for many linguists since there are more and more new words coined every day, mostly because of the rapid changes in popular culture and mass media. Some neologisms showed their useful potential in describing a new phenomenon when there is simply a need for a new word. There are several recognized forms of building new words but compounding, conversion and affixation are the ones most used.

Works Cited

Parunov, Suk 1

Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew. An Introduction to English Morphology Words and Their Structure. Edinburgh: Edinbugh University Press Katamba, Francis. English Words: Structure, History, Usage. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2005. PDF. < http://www.public-domain-content.com/encyclopedia/History/Coined.shtml> Web. December 14 2011 < http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/neologismterm.htm> Web. December 14 2011 http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/a-z-new-words-in-the-last-fifty-years/ Web. December 14 2011 http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/neologismterm.htm Web. December 14 http://www.wordnik.com Web. December 14 http://grammar.about.com

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