Феномен «слов года» в немецком языке

Abstract

This study focuses on the words of the year in German as a comparatively understudied linguistic phenomenon. The article attempts to describe the term “word of the year” in comparison with the close to it term “neologism”. In addition to determining the status of words of the year in modern linguistics, special attention is paid to the further fate of words of the year after their publication, their role in adding to the vocabulary of the German language and lexicographical status. The words of the year are comparable to neologisms: most words of the year are the result of word formation, adoption or expansion of the meaning of the word. However, among the words of the year there is a group of lexical units that have long existed in the German language. This group clearly demonstrates the nature of the words of the year. Words of the year are lexical units, the meaning of which is particularly relevant. Relevance means the significance of a lexical unit for native speakers of language and culture as a whole in a specific time period, as well as the possible increase in its frequency of use associated with it. The short fixed time of existence in the status of the word of the year and its correlation with a specific time period unite words of the year and neologisms. There is also a coincidence of their further life path, which may lead to the fixation of words or their meanings in the language, as well as to their disappearance. The inclusion of words of the year in the dictionary is not determined by high frequency of use, presence of derivative, paradigmatic and syntagmatic activity. These factors are important only for neologisms. The determining criterion for words of the year is their semantics.