Lexical Innovation Research Articles

Negotiating Linguistic Boundaries: Language Appropriation in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner

The current study attempts to investigate the language-appropriation strategies in post-colonial Afghan-American authors particularly in Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner. Appropriation is the act of adopting another culture and language by modifying it to your own goals and requirements. This method is generally used by post-colonial writers who appropriate English in their literary works due to resistance or/and necessity. During the colonization, the colonizer suppressed all other native languages. They employed the English language as a tool to exercise control in establishing a system of authority based on linguistic dominance. Nevertheless, the writers of the post-colonial era have stood against this dominant force of colonial language and undermined it by implementing different strategies into their own social and cultural context. Various language appropriation techniques are used to investigate the data from this research as recommended by Kachru (1983) and Ashcroft, Griffith, and Tiffin (2002). Findings from the investigation revealed that the language appropriation techniques of glossing, untranslated words, code-switching, lexical innovation, rhetorical and functional styles, translation equivalence, and contextual redefinition have been employed in the text. Among them, glossing, untranslated words, and code-switching are utilized frequently. The strategy of interlanguage has not been utilized by the author in the novel. The study contributes to broader discussions on language appropriation, cultural representation, and decolonization in contemporary literary discourse.

Semantic change and socio-semantic variation: the case of COVID-related neologisms on Reddit

Abstract COVID-19 has triggered innovations in science and society globally, leading to the emergence or establishment of formal neologisms such as infodemic and working from home (WFH). While previous work on COVID-related lexical innovation has focused on such formal neologisms, this paper uses data from Reddit to study semantic neologisms like lockdown and mask, which have changed in meaning due to the pandemic. First, we identify words that have undergone meaning changes since the start of the pandemic. Our approach, based on word embeddings, successfully detects a variety of COVID-related terms that dominate the resulting list of semantic neologisms. Next, we generate community-specific semantic representations for the communities r/Coronavirus and r/conspiracy, which are both highly engaged in COVID-related discourse. We analyse socio-semantic variation along two dimensions: an evaluative dimension, based on amelioration/pejorization, and the loyalty/betrayal dimension of Moral Foundations Theory. Our findings reveal that the detected semantic neologisms exhibit more negative and betrayal-related associations in r/conspiracy, a subreddit critical of COVID-related sociopolitical measures. Mapping the community-specific representations for the term vaccines on a shared semantic space confirms these differences and reveals more fine-grained denotational and connotational differences between the two communities.

Common Kyushu-Ryukyuan substratum in maritime vocabulary: A preliminary analysis

This paper constitutes a preliminary linguistic test of the hypothesis which postulates that shared Kyushu-Ryukyuan lexicon related to maritime knowledge provides evidence for a Kyushu-Ryukyuan subgrouping within the Japonic cladogram. The paper introduces Kyushu-Ryukyuan cognates and potential shared lexical innovations in seafaring vocabulary, cardinal directions and navigation, and marine fauna, all of which suggest a shared Kyushu-Ryukyuan navigation culture, as well as common maritime subsistence and lifestyle patterns. The case is reinforced by several promising cases of common morphological features between Kyushu and Ryukyuan. The overall conclusion is that the compared linguistic data does support the Kyushu-Ryukyuan clade. Finally, we identify a mismatch between lexical and morphological evidence concerning lower-unit classification of the South Japonic node. We observe that while shared innovative vocabulary allows to postulate Proto-Satsugū-Ryukyuan within Kyushu-Ryukyuan as the most direct mainland ancestor of Ryukyuan languages – the predecessor pre-Proto-Ryukyuan language that was still spoken in Kyushu in the first millennium AD – shared grammatical features do not suggest any particular subdivision of Kyushu-Ryukyuan.

Naming for Sustainability: Interrogating the Efficacy and Sustainability of COVID-19 Metaphor and Nomenclature

Language matters for sustainability, and diseases’ names and attendant terminology should serve language users’ extant and future needs. The currency and pandemic proportion of COVID-19, and the viral or pervasive use of its attendant vocabulary and metaphors, makes it an apt case for interrogating the sustainability of its nomenclature. This paper interrogates the efficacy and sustainability of COVID-19 related English vocabulary and metaphors among the Shona speaking people, as a microcosm of their efficacy and sustainability among Bantu African language speakers. The paper is framed by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which posits that language filters people’s reality and colors their attitudes and actions. By implication, unstainable and inefficacious language compromises an appreciation of one’s reality. Acknowledging that any linguistic inventiveness should serve a utilitarian rather than ornamental function, the paper interrogates the sustainability and efficacy of the ‘war’ metaphor and lexical innovations replete within the COVID-19 discourse. The paper analyzes efficacy regarding the terms and metaphor engendering the desired or intended effects and sustainability of the terms’ intelligibility, pronounceability, memorability, and translatability. The paper concludes that the selected English COVID-19 related terms engendered unintended thoughts and reactions within the language users, and that, owing to them being products of English lexical innovation, they defy translatability into, and intelligibility within, African languages; rendering the COVID-19 discourse exclusive and unsustainable.

Lexical Innovation in Ecotourism Discourse: The Case of Eco(-)lodge

As repositories of the cultures whose language they describe, lexicographical resources partake in the (re)production of dominant ideologies. This is especially relevant with regard to the current ecological crisis. With this in mind, the present article contributes to research within the field of ecolexicography. Combining critical lexicography with ecolinguistics, it acknowledges the role of lexicographical resources in shaping the users’ awareness of environmental protection. In particular, this study investigates lexical innovation within ecotourism discourse in order to understand whether “ecotourism talk” can respond to its sustainable objectives. The research focusses on one specific instance, the noun eco(-)lodge, which is examined by searching both native speakers’ and learners’ dictionaries and specialised and general English corpora. Results highlight a partial clash between the two types of sources. While examples of usage mostly connote ecolodges as a type of luxury and exclusive accommodation placed in natural—i.e., non-urban—contexts, dictionaries define them solely with reference to their supposed minimal environmental impact. Outcomes suggest a semantic bleaching of the combining form eco- in ecotourism discourse, which is exploited in lexical creations to advertise a form of niche tourism that does not always align with ecological concerns.

New Developments in English for Special Purposes (ESP) Lexicology and Lexicography

The fact that languages are living organisms that evolve and vary as a result of different factors, including societal vicissitudes, cultural influences, technological advancements, migration and intercultural communication, among others, requires a continued effort to identify, characterize and represent the new lexical forms and meanings that emerge in various contexts and domains. Lexicologists and lexicographers thus need to always take on new challenges in their attempt to adequately describe and map our ever-changing language landscapes. Not only does everyday language change but also languages for special purposes (LSP) are subject to variation. On the one hand, new terms and senses are incorporated into already existing lexicons, while, on the other hand, micro-languages with a rich variety of novel lexical items keep appearing. Some cases in point are ecotourism discourse which has been accelerated by recent greater awareness of the impact of human activities on the environment (Penz & Fill, 2022); the language of digital technology, now that societies and technologies have become increasingly interconnected (Würschinger, 2021); certain medical talk, as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic (Salazar & Wild, 2022), to mention just a few areas of lexical innovation.

Fenómenos neológicos en español y en rumano durante la pandemia de COVID

Our paper proposes a compared analysis of the main methods to solve neological and terminological necessities in Spanish and Romanian during theCOVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by accelerated language change, especially regarding the quick social acceptance of lexical innovations. We wish to outline, with this approach, that neological creation tools – ex nihilo creations, word formation by means of morphological, syntactic, phonological or semantic resources and loans – are generally the same, especially in the case of typologically related languages.

Evidence and Models of Linguistic Relations: Subgroups, Linkages, Lexical Innovations, and Borneo

Abstract: Several recent studies place the languages of Borneo into one of two large groups, the Greater North Borneo subgroup and the Barito–Basap linkage. These same studies place both Greater North Borneo and Barito–Basap with the Western Indonesian subgroup, a large subgroup which is claimed to be a primary branch of Malayo-Polynesian. This paper demonstrates that the exclusively lexical evidence used to justify such subgroups is invalid as subgrouping evidence. Instead, it is shown that the languages of Borneo developed a small number of Bornean-only lexical items through contact, borrowing, and early innovations within the first Proto-Malayo-Polynesian-speaking settlers of the island. To support these claims, a detailed description of both the methods of lexical innovation evaluation as well as the types of linguistic relations that such lexical innovations support is undertaken in this paper. A new standard for the use of lexical evidence in subgrouping arguments is established, with wide-ranging implications for not only the classification of Bornean languages but of western Malayo-Polynesian languages in general.

Doomscrolling or Joyscrolling? A Study of English Lexical Innovations of 2020-2022

The years 2020-2022 experienced a number of world-shifting events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, a global economic recession, the racial justice movement, the US presidential election, and extreme climate conditions. Since no social phenomenon can avoid being represented in language, these episodes have influenced the language system, language use and discursive practices. The English linguistic landscape has not been spared the impact of the aforementioned events. The article focuses on analysing the meaning and formation of new coinages in the English language that reflect the changes in society within the specified timeframe. The data used for this study were collected from 2020-2022 updates to online dictionaries which include new words, revised versions of existing entries and new word suggestions. The research data were analysed both in qualitative and quantitative terms. The study singled out five lexical categories of neologisms based on the thematic criterion: 1) discrimination, 2) the influence of famous people, 3) climate change, 4) lifestyles during the COVID-19 outbreak, 5) the business world and employment. The classification manifests that these coinages have become integrated into the English language as part of everyday use for social and communicative purposes. The research findings show that the most productive word formation processes that contribute to the creation of the selected neologisms include compounding, blending, and compounding + affixation.

On some problems of Ugric etymology: loans and substrate words

In this paper, the shared vocabulary of the Ugric languages (Hungarian and the Ob-Ugric languages Khanty and Mansi) is discussed. Words that have been considered loanwords from Iranian or Turkic languages into Proto-Ugric, the intermediary proto-language of Hungarian and Ob-Ugric in traditional models of Uralic taxonomy, are analyzed critically, and Proto-Ugric words that fulfill the criteria of substrate words are also analyzed. It is shown that a large part of the vocabulary traditionally reconstructed for Proto-Ugric in earlier etymological dictionaries like the UEW, consist of parallel loanwords (sometimes from unknown sources) rather than shared lexical innovations.

Kazakhization and purism: results of assessing lexical innovations on the method of subjective scaling

Kazakhization and purism: results of assessing lexical innovations on the method of subjective scaling

Processes of Lexical Archaiza-tion and Neologization in Modern Yakut Language

The process of redistribution between the active and passive vocabulary of modern Yakut language is being examined. The reasons for the archaization of vocabulary are identified, outdated words are classified by type and lexical-semantic groups, and a layer of lexical innovations is also identified. The material for the study consisted of lexical units from literary works, periodicals, and Yakut language dictionaries. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive examination and classification of layers of outdated vocabulary, neologisms, and de-archaized Yakut language vocabulary. The distribution of Yakut language archaisms into 14 lexical-semantic groups has been carried out. It has been proven that neologisms arise in the Yakut language through changes in the meaning of existing words, through the infusion of other language stocks, and through the activation of derivation processes based on their own means. It has been revealed that the process of de-archaization in the Yakut language is associated with the revival of traditional foundations of material and spiritual culture of the Yakuts. The results of the study confirm the systemic nature of changes in the lexical composition of the language, as well as their interrelation between phenomena of archaization, de-archaization, and neologization. 

«Նապաստակը» իրանական լեզուներում. տաբու ,հնաբանություններ և նորաբանություններ

The presented article discusses the attested forms of the word “hare” in old, middle and new Iranian languages. It has been shown that, except for some Eastern Iranian languages, the attested and still used forms are lexical innovations, which are a result of the tabooisation of inherited archaic form. An attempt is made to show the inherited Iranian form of Indo-European origin, which was used for the zoonym "hare" before its tabooisation and reduction of the use of geography.

Bible translation and lexical elaboration

This study investigates how the translation of the word ‘virgin’ in the Igbo Bible has expanded the Igbo lexicon and how this lexical enrichment has spread among Igbo speakers. Although prior to their encounter with Christian missionaries in the 19th century and the subsequent translation of the Bible into Igbo, Igbo people had words that referred to virgin, these words were polysemous as they were also used for young and unmarried persons. In the course of translating the Bible into Igbo, Christian missionaries transferred the biblical euphemism for sex, ‘to know’, into the Igbo Bible and used same to innovate terms for ‘virgin’, thereby distinguishing a virgin from an unmarried or young person who might have had sex. Adapting the concept of language elaboration, this study analyses the lexical processes involved in creating these new terms. Then it presents findings from a questionnaire survey on the spread of the innovated terms among Igbo speakers. The survey findings demonstrate that the biblical innovations have not only spread among Igbo speakers but also became a springboard for further lexical innovations. This article accentuates the impact of Bible translation in reshaping the Igbo language. It also reveals the involvement of the language users in the process of language change.

Are Stylistic Neologisms More Neological? A Corpus-Based Study of Lexical Innovations of Women and Men

To deepen on the study of the concept of neologicity, an exhaustive review of the literature was carried out. Once the different parameters related to this concept were isolated, we realized that some of them were also used to determine the communicative function of neologisms. For this reason, first, we correlated the objective criteria to classify neologisms as prototypical of the denominative or the stylistic function with the parameters related to the neological quality. Second, we defined new criteria, both linguistic and chronological, to broaden the scope of our analysis. Afterwards, all the criteria were applied to a corpus of neologisms from newspaper articles and journalistic blogs in Spanish written by women and men. The results confirmed that neologisms with stylistic features tend to be more neological than denominative neologisms. Consequently, they are usually less frequent lexical units used in general or informal contexts. In addition, they tend to be the result of unproductive word formation rules that might contain subjective linguistic components and also tend to be more recent.

Étude sémantique des verbes préfixés en français dans le discours médiatique sur la crise sanitaire

Despite the tendencies of contemporary French to limit lexical creations by derivation, verbal prefixation remains an active means of linguistic innovation, especially during periods of economic or social crises. To shed light on this phenomenon, but also draw its limits, this article proposes a study of verbal prefixation in media discourse on the pandemic crisis based on a corpus taken from the daily Liberation covering the period from 25 to 31 May 2020. Allow for the semantic opacity of verbal prefixes, this article analyzes the semantic properties of the prefixes identified in the corpus and leads to two complementary results. First, from the point of view of prefix productivity, the discourse on the health crisis differs little from other discourses concerning the types of prefixes used and their capacity to construct verbs. Secondly, as it concerns the lexical innovations observed in the corpus, these are above all already existed prefixed verbs to which a new meaning is attributed. Two cases arise: common prefixed verbs used in new contexts; common prefixed verbs with rare meanings in everyday language. Finally, the only neologism identified concerns the verb “déconfiner” which was very often used during the pandemic crisis.

Lexicological features of modern french-speaking media

This article is devoted to the analysis of current trends in the political and public discourse of the modern French language. The subject of the research conducted on the material of French-language periodicals is lexical innovations found in the language material of the modern press. It should be noted that some topics attract neology more than others, in particular, politics, which is directly due to its dynamics: the constant emergence of movements, groupings, ideas and ideologies that get their name. In this context a paradigm that includes units formed from proper names seems particularly productive. The main focus of the research is on the word-formation and semantic aspects of such neologisms, on the analysis of the most frequent examples of such lexical neoplasms. The results of the study allow us to state the wide prevalence of eponymous neologisms in the political and social French-speaking discourse, as well as to track the actual use of these lexical formations in the press using the Néoveille platform.

English media discourse of the early 21st Century: Lexical innovations

The emergence of a new kind of discourse on the world stage called media discourse or media discourse produces the trends of globalization and the development of communication technologies in the world. The article deals with the phenomenon of English-language media discourse as a relatively new linguistic phenomenon. The aim of this research work is a thorough analysis of the concept of English-language media discourse, reflecting the dynamics of modern language and identifying the features of lexical innovations in English-language media discourse. The comparative analysis method, typological method, method of component analysis, and descriptive method of research were used to study the issue of English-language media discourse. Using the comparative analysis method, the saturation of linguistic innovations and their prevalence were determined. Using the typological method, the common qualities of English and Ukrainian in the projection on their variety of linguistic characteristics were established. The method of component analysis helped in the study of the content part of the newly formed linguistic units. Using the descriptive method, the modern state of English-language media discourse was characterized. As a result of the scientific research trends of modern English-language media discourse in content and form have been studied and analyzed, as well as changes in the potential of modern linguistic means through the mechanism of new word formation, which is a prospect for further scientific research in this direction.

ЛЕКСИКО-СЕМАНТИЧНІ НОВАЦІЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ МОВИ В УМОВАХ СУЧАСНОЇ ВІЙНИ

The article is devoted to the study of the mechanisms of the secondary nomination of the qualitatively categorical paradigm through the prism of cognition, the choice of linguistic tools in particular, and the influence of linguistic personality in general. Issues of the bilateral relationship and mutual influence of the culture and language of the ethnic group, the formation of conceptual and linguistic pictures of world perception are considered. The article analyzes the peculiarities of the formation of lexical innovations in the modern Ukrainian language to denote different domains of the concept of "war". It traces lexical-semantic shifts influenced by the judgment of military aggression and criticism of political and war crimes committed by the aggressor country. The scientific research contains the elements of axiology since the linguistic analysis of lexical innovations makes it possible to clarify the mechanisms of verbalization of linguistic consciousness that are impelled by extralinguistic factors and realized with a vivid change of connotation (sometimes from zero) to strongly pejorative. The article emphasizes that the accelerated pace of the appearance of lexical innovations is dictated by the emotional state of native speakers. Therefore the mental basis of nomination is not limited to the laws and extralinguistic reasons for language development and is a category not only of ethnolinguistics but also of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, because it is formed through the prism of the cognition of an individual speaker and the whole society. Groups of innovations were identified and analyzed for the indication of the following lexical fields: „country”, „military”, „mobilized”, „politician”, „propagandist”, „weapons”, „attitude to the war”. The evident fact of the dynamics of the status and functions of the Ukrainian language lexical innovations in the conditions of the current Russian-Ukrainian war has been proven. The basis of their emergence has been determined, and the norm, the practice of using innovations, and the ways of their appearance have been outlined.

On metonymy-based lexical innovations in Nigerian Pidgin English and Tok Pisin: A cognitive linguistic perspective

Abstract As contact languages, pidgins and creoles arise in mixed linguistic environments. Drawing much of their vocabularies from one, frequently European, language and – to a lesser extent – from a number of indigenous languages, they have lexicons that are reduced in comparison with those of their lexifiers. To compensate for the poor lexification, pidgin and creoles create novel polysemy-based extensions of lexical items or develop periphrastic constructions equivalent of the missing lexical roots. Assuming a cognitive linguistic perspective, which emphasizes the role of conceptualization in the construction of meaning and the figurative character of concepts, the paper deals with the lexicons of Nigerian Pidgin English and Tok Pisin, two contact languages representative for the Atlantic and the Pacific – the two major areas of linguistic contact. The analysis focuses on the first of the above-mentioned compensation strategies. It is argued that (i) the expressions borrowed from English and various indigenous languages acquire senses that are absent in English; (ii) the new senses are frequently based on metonymy, which serves as a major polysemy-based strategy of lexicon extension; (iii) most of the novel lexical extensions fall within the metonymic patterns that are well-established in English.