Neologism

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This article is about the word "neologism" in its various senses. For Wikipedia policy on neologisms, see WP:NEO. For flagging an article as possibly promoting a neologism, see Template:Neologism.

A neologism (/niːˈɒlədʒɪzəm/; from Greek νέο- néo-, "new" and λόγος lógos, "speech, utterance") is the name for a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.[1] Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event. In the process of language formation, neologisms are more mature than protologisms.[2]

History and meaning

The term neologism is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme (1734).[3] A proponent of a new word or doctrine may be called a neologist. Neologists might study cultural and ethnic vernacular.

The term neologism has a broader meaning that includes not only "an entirely new lexical item" but also an existing word whose meaning has been altered.[4][5][6] Sometimes, the latter process is called semantic shifting,[4] or semantic extension.[7][8] Neologisms are distinct from a person's idiolect, one's unique patterns of vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.

Neologisms are usually introduced when an individual or individuals find that a specific notion is lacking a term in a language, or when the existing vocabulary is insufficiently detailed.[9] The law, governmental bodies, and technology have a relatively high frequency of acquiring neologisms.[10][11]

Mental health

In psychiatry, the term neologism is used to describe the use of words that have meaning only to the person who uses them, independent of their common meaning.[12] This tendency is considered normal in children, but in adults it can be a symptom of psychopathy[13] or a thought disorder (indicative of a psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia).[14] People with autism also may create neologisms.[15]

Use of neologisms may also be related to aphasia acquired after brain damage resulting from a stroke or head injury.[16]

Theology

In theology, a neologism is a relatively new doctrine (for example, Transcendentalism). In this sense, a neologist is one who proposes either a new doctrine or a new interpretation of source material such as philosophical or religious texts.[17]

Literature

Neologisms may come from a word used in the narrative of a book. Examples are "grok" from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein; "McJob" from Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland; "cyberspace" from Neuromancer by William Gibson[18] and quark from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

The title of a book may become a neologism, for instance, Catch-22 (from the title of Joseph Heller's novel). Alternatively, the author's name may give rise to the neologism, although the term is sometimes based on only one work of that author. This includes such words as "Orwellian" (from George Orwell, referring to his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four) and "Kafkaesque" (from Franz Kafka).

Names of famous characters are another source of literary neologisms, e.g. quixotic (referring to the title character in Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes), scrooge (from the main character in Dickens's A Christmas Carol) and pollyanna (from Eleanor H. Porter's book of the same name).

Opponents of politically correct language, such as racism, sexism, white privilege, homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia, have often claimed such words to be neologisms, seeing claimed similarities to Orwellian Newspeak.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Sally Barr Ebest Writing from A to Z: the easy-to-use reference handbook 1999– p. 449 "A neologism is a newly coined word or phrase or a new usage of an existing word or phrase."
  6. ↑ Lynne Bowker, Jennifer Pearson Working With Specialized Language 2002 p. 214 "Neologisms can also be formed in another way, however, by assigning a new meaning to an existing word."
  7. ↑ Ole Nedergaard Thomsen Competing models of linguistic change: evolution and beyond 2006 – p. 68 "Extensions, by contrast, are applications of extant means in new usage. Note that since individual speakers differ in their command of their shared tradition of speaking, one person's Extension may be experienced by another as a Neologism"
  8. ↑ Michael D. Picone Anglicisms, Neologisms and Dynamic French 1996 – p. 3 "Proceeding now to the task of defining terms, I will begin with the more general term 'neologism'. ...A neologism is any new word, morpheme or locution and any new meaning for a pre-existent word, morpheme or locution that appears in a language. ... Likewise, any semantic extension of a pre-existent word, morpheme or locution.. but is also, by accepted definition, a neologism."
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ P. J. McKenna, Schizophrenia and Related Syndromes. Page 363.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ B Butterworth, Hesitation and the production of verbal paraphasias and neologisms in jargon aphasia. Brain Lang, 1979
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Dunn, Robin. 2003: "The Generative Edge." Foundation 87 (2003): 73–93.

External links

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