A Pilot Study of Neologisms in Kuwaiti English.

Abstract

The present work offers insights into lexical aspects of this emerging variety to systematically look into neologisms in Kuwaiti English (KE) using corpus linguistics methods and techniques. Such research results in a deeper understanding of lexical development, productivity, and creativity in the variety under scrutiny, as well as how reciprocal lexical influences develop within a variety (Anesa 3). The study focuses on a written corpus of 337,102 words to see whether or not written English-language texts in Kuwait can provide sufficient data worthy of further exploration. The current project in broad strokes focuses on (i) local neologisms and (ii) L2 neologisms. To flesh out the latter, namely suffixation, compounding, and borrowing, a predetermined list, wildcards, and corpus query language (CQL) were used. For the former, keyness analysis was used, and it was found that this technique provided more insight into indigenous words than suffixation, compounding, predetermined lists, wildcards, and CQL, all of which did not reveal sufficient evidence of neologisms in KE. Overall, keyness analysis was the most successful method in uncovering neologisms in the corpus. As the data indicate, the most productive features of KE seem to be those that are related to culture or religion. It could identify words that were not detected by the other methods. Moreover, more research should be done on more types of neologisms, such as blends, in order to obtain a better understanding of the use of English in Kuwait. According to the study, neologisms are used because they are practical, culturally influenced, and socially acceptable. Additionally, KE neologisms are mainly the result of semantic change, such as semantic restriction. Research on neologisms, especially geared towards understanding cultural or religious concepts incorporated within a variety, seems to be best examined using keyness analysis as it highlights such terms and concepts effectively.