1

Universidad Central Del Ecuador

ARCHAISMS AND NEOLOGISMS

Members:

Gallegos Carvajal Nataly Michelle

Meléndez Estévez Johanna Estefanía

Plaza Tirado Patricia Paola

Seventh semester

July, 20th 2018

Archaisms and Neologisms

In a world of constant changes, it is common to find things that are not used anymore

and others that become a trend. Due to the fact that those things have stopped being necessary

for people of this new epoch, new things are created day by day because of the evolution of

society. Something similar happens in the linguistic field, some words called archaisms and

neologisms. Through time language subject to changes caused by the users of it, such as the

increase of number of words or the loss of those ones. These new items added to the current

language are spread due to the globalization of the information which become the adaptation

of the language as result of the society progress. Neologisms have had an important

development in the way in how were created and formed since the use of affixation until the

use of acronyms and others. In this process, neologisms have been determined as a new form

to communicate with others using words that are sometimes formed by the time that they are

used, having not only semantical changes but also morphological modifications.

In every single language exist words that nowadays are strange for most youths and adults

to hear, for example, thrice (three times) or yarely (briskly, lively) this phenomenon happens

because of the less usage that people have been given to this kinds of words that are consider

obsoletes. The mentioned words are called archaisms. According to Chiru, C (2015) “An

archaism is a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. Archaisms are most often

used in publications in the field of poetry, law, science, technology or geography” (p.1), this

concept clearly indicates the reason why it is difficult to hear any of these kind of words in a

daily life conversation.

Regarding the few uses of archaisms in the present time, it is essential to be conscious of

the importance of knowing how to use this type of words when they are necessary. The main

reason of the awareness of archaism usage is that it is going to help people to avoid

misunderstandings of word meaning in the context that it has been applied. Archaisms are

used to refer to old terms of specific fields, also in poetry like William Shakespeare´s

writings, sometimes can be confused with formal language due to the high level of complexity

that those terms seem to have. Szerszunowicz, J (2015) marks out that “archaisms can be

divided into three kinds according to the phraseological units of the language, they are

historisms, archaic lexical constituents and paleosemantism.

Historisms are words that do not exist any longer. They are a kind of realia and also they

are commonly showed as the names of very old things, for example, horse-drawn carriages

that are a vehicle used before the appearance of the motor-cars, but horse drawn carriages do

not exist anymore. Something similar happens to the archaic lexical constituents which are

words that are no longer used, for example aglet that is the final part of a lace or an object that

people use all the time, but the term is no longer produced by them since they do not need it.

Finally, paleosemantisms are words used with different meanings; for instance, the objects

that antique people used to call with one name, nowadays the same object has a different

name because of linguistic accommodations that the society do along the time.

As we can understand the context and origin of archaic terms, it is possible to be conscious

about the importance to know the function that those words carry out within the language.

Unfortunately, it has been created a great debate among linguists. On the one hand, some

believe that archaisms are only ancient words that do not need to be used anymore, and they

should be forgotten permanently because they hinder the use of language in every single field
 4

of the daily life. On the other hand, there are others that say archaisms are a valuable part of

the language and they should be rescued by current people in order to increase the wealth of

the language, to give elegance to the speech. Moreover, some say that few archaic words let

new words called neologisms appear naturally. So, the apparition of neologisms and the

disuse of archaisms allows the language evolution.

Thus, neologisms can be defined as words which already exist in a language but

acquires a new meaning over the current years: e.g. umbrella 1) ‘device used as protection

against rain’; 2) ‘a protecting force or influence’. So, understanding neologisms as a newly

coined word or expression as a product of the constant changes and evolution of language

within a society, the use of new words produces the loss of other ones that conformed the

regular lexis used by a society or incorporation of new meanings to an existent word that has

become relevant in current days. While the main function of the use of archaism is the poetic

heightening of language, the main function of neologisms is to permit a rapid communication

using trendy words stablished by the change in language due to social and cultural changes.

Due to the fact that the humanity evolves not only culturally but also even anatomically, the

linguistic aspect is not the exception.

The society progresses leaving behind them a lot of words that will be lost in the through

the pass of years. Even if these words are not more used right now, they do not lose their

semantic value. They will only be replaced by new words that will mean the same as them.

This means that the apparition of neologisms responds to the necessity of human beings to

give not only a new meaning for an already existing word but also a name for a novelty object

that nowadays exists as Sturtevant (1959) mentions “In the case of new inventions, scientific
 5

discoveries, philosophical theories, etc., the new name is usually the work of one name or a

very few” (p.103)

To understand better, we can say that this process is caused by current changes in

technology and research, research and social sciences, economics and sciences, and the last

but no less important the communication process as well as by the expansion of intercultural

interaction. Nowadays, the easy way of keep in contact in this globalized era can allow to

spread a new trendy word that used either in social medias or simply text chats. Then, most of

the neologisms that function in everyday language originate in socio-political, scientific and

cultural areas of human activity defining its meaning through social and cultural references as

well as Rets (2016) points out:

The social and cultural reference of neologisms proves that they are more the

products of our conceptual system and not simply meaningful language signs. They

codify new cultural experience of society and provide evidence concerning the current

trends of its development. For this reason, by studying neologisms of a certain language

we can learn about present-day cultural values, way of thinking and living of the

community which speaks this language (p.3)

This change in language or in other words, this novelty in language recognizes new

words or neologisms as useful tools for understanding how culture is evolving and provides a

way for reflecting back the culture as it changes.

Due to nowadays human beings live in a technological age, all the new words that are

incorporated to the most of the lexicon used by current society are provided by the

technological scientific progress instead common communication without the use of

technological devices. “Considering the influence digital technology has had on society, it is
 6

not surprising then that lexicographers have found that science and technology are by far the

most prolific sources of neologisms in recent times.” (McDonald, 2005) Thus, the most of

new words found by linguists responds to technological advance. For instance, the

incorporation of the neologism, 1) google to refers to the use of an online search engine as the

basis for looking up information on the World Wide Web or 2) tweet cred that means social

standing on Twitter. (Oxford Dictionary) Besides, the importance of cultural interference in

the language, some new words are being added to the lexicon managed by current people for

example, the word 1) chillax that means to calm down or relax or the term 2) staycation that

means to have a vacation at home or in the immediate local area; where both words were

originated in the early 21th century according to lexicographers of Oxford Dictionary.

Many authors, including Crystal (1997), describes neologisms as “nonce” words, he

suggests that a “nonce” is “a term describing a linguistic form which a speaker consciously

invents or accidentally uses on a single occasion [… ] Nonce formations have occasionally

come to be adopted by the community – in which case they cease by definition to be ‘nonce’

and become neologisms.” (p.329) Thus, many neologisms created or adapted survive only by

the use of speakers. The rest of neologisms because of their spreading, they have been

accepted by the most of the speakers and this gives them more linguistic value to be accepted

by the lexicographers since many of the them consider that nonce words mutilate and demean

the language due to the accidents within the intentionality of the speakers.

Apart from the derivation of neologisms from nonce words, there are other ways of

neologisms development such as, 1) Semantic neologism and 2) Trans nomination. The first

one suggest that a lexical unit existing in the language can vary its meaning to define a new

object, e.g. “to cowboy" to drive recklessly" or shit "something excellent". And the second
 7

one indicates that a new lexical item can be introduced to define an object which already has

some lexical unit to denote it, e.g. “slum” => ghetto.

Due to the fact that neologisms are new words or expressions, it is important to know

the way in how they are formed because of the necessity of speaker to communicate. In fact,

the technology has had a big impact in the society in order to name new discoveries and to

describe electronic devices such as laptop, smartphone or tablet, some new words have

appeared through this time. There are some examples in which the neologisms have been

adapted to a new language and have could been used in both, English and Spanish language.

For understanding the creation of neologism we must bear in mind their classification.

The first one is through affixation. It is important to remind that morphology is the branch of

linguistics that involves the process of affixation. According to Loman, Arens and

Cunningham (1995) “a neologism is a new word that is made of common prefixes, roots and

suffixes” (p. 24). For illustrate, there are Greek prefixes as “acro-, dis- and hemi-“ that

contribute to this process; for example, some Spanish words such as “acromático”,

“disenteria” and “hemiplejia. Besides, we can find some neologisms as “diner+alor” or

“patriot+ero’’, both suffixes express exaggeration to illustrate the formation of new words as

well as in the other languages.

In English occurs the same, neologisms formed from prefixes such as “cyber+speak”

or “franken+word”. Italian speakers use prefixes too; for instance, “archi + nariz” for the

creation of a new word “archinariz” that has a denotation of a person who has a big nose. In

French occurs the same case with the word “mot-valise” for referring a motel. The English

language use the same process as “sophaholic” or “drinkipoo”. For Italian language, the
 8

process of using suffixes for forming neologisms is the same “nar+isimo”. In French the

words “hydrocèphale” and “dactylographe” are a good example that through suffix “–phale”

and “–aphe” neologisms can be created.

The second one is the existence of a semantic neologism where a word that has a

meaning is changed for another. According to Cabré, Domenech, and Estopá (2014)

“Semantic neologisms contribute to renewing and enlarging the capacity of expression and

communicating resources of languages. They usually help speakers to make their descriptions

more powerful and their speech more effective” (p. 179). For illustrate, in Spanish the word

“ratón” has another meaning apart from a kind of animal, nowadays this term is used for

referring to a device that belongs to a computer due to similar shape that show this

technological device.

For understanding the term semantic neologisms, it is important to know the causes

that contribute the change of the meaning of words that already exist. The first one is because

of linguistic reasons. In this aspect the acquisition of a new word is given through the

influence of context. The historical reasons are another factor that it is important to analyse.

The creation of new semantic fields in terms of technology have permitted that the

neologisms have had an upgrade in the world. For example, hardware, software, blogger and

Wi-Fi are terms that are used in the daily life by speakers around the world. The term hipster

is also a neologism of this era that denote a vintage style and is a good example of how the

beginning of a look can create new words. These two illustrations can exemplify the birth of

some neologisms for both cases.

The social cause is another reason of what people tend to create a neologism. For

instance, the term euphemism is implicit in the process of neologism. It reflects the

substitution of another meaning because of “prohibition”. According to Dirven, Langacker

and Taylor (1998) “euphemism evidently prevails in the context of reference to distasteful or

taboo matters” (p. 358). For example, in Spanish instead of saying “viejo” people say “adulto

mayor”. In English the situation is similar, instead of saying “cancer” people tend to say “the

big C”.

Talking about the different ways in how the neologism are created. It is important to

take into account that neologism could be formed from syntactic conversion. It means that

words can change the form through a grammatical category. For example, in Spanish the verb

“agenda” is from the noun “agenda”. The meaning denotes a situation that implies to

remember a meeting or something similar. Consequently, we can appreciate the formation of

a new word since a noun.

Addiotionally, there are neologisms that could be created from acronyms. According

to Rowe and Levine (2016) “acronyms are words formed from the first letter or letters of

more than one word. Acronyms are popular they can be said faster, and remembered, more

easily than the whole phrase they represent” (page 94). Due to the fact that neologisms are

new words that speakers create to easily communicate, acronyms contribute to the formation

of neologisms. For example, in Spain some citizens go to the “RENFE” for traveling. They do

not use all the terminology “Red Nacional de Ferrocarrriles Españoles”, so we could say that

this word is a neologism. In English occurs the same situation, some acronyms that are well

known pass to form a new word even if some acronyms are used for both English and
 10

Spanish, such as the term “NASA” (The National Aeronautics and Space Agency) that is

pronounced as a single word.

Talking about a single word, the abbreviation is another way of forming neologisms.

For example, in Spanish the abbreviation of “universidad” is simplified not only in a sound

but also in a letter “u”. Even though in some countries as Spain people say “uni”. “Mañana

tengo que ir a la uni porque tengo examen” or in the case of the word “departamento” some

speakers use only the word “depa” for referring the same thing. In English the application

“Instagram” is reduce in “insta”. We can understand de meaning of this abbreviation through

the next example “How Can I find you in your insta?”

In summary, archaisms play a fundamental role in language where they can be seen as

the background for the language evolution. Archaisms are ancient words that even though they

seem to be useless nowadays, the roots that they have provide the society the previous

unconscious knowledge that they need to construct the meaning of new terminology for the

vocabulary of a language. While archaisms are sometimes not used any more, neologisms open a

new gate to the adaptation of the language through the addition of new words that correspond to

the evidence of progress of the society not only technologically but also culturally. Finally, the

formation of neologisms has the capacity of forming new words that are incorporated to a

lexicon and are used by a lot of speakers. This process involves linguistics changes that are a

result of social, cultural and political reasons. Neologisms are flexible words due to the fact that

it can be modified through different resources that a community need in order to express new

meaning. It can be said that at the end neologisms are significant language items that show the

evolution of a society.
 11

Bibliographic References

Cabré, M. Domenech, O. Estopa, R. (2014). Mots nous en catalá New words in

Catalán. Amsterdam Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Chiru, C. (2015). Archaisms and neologisms identification in texts. Bucharest,

Romania. Politehnica University of Bucharest.

Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and Phonetics. United States of

America, Blackwell Publishing, 6th Edition

Dirven, R. Langacker, R. Taylor, J. (1998). Speaking of Emotions Conceptualisation

and Expression. Berlin, New York Mouton de Gruyter.

Loman, K. Arens, A. Cunningham, P. (1995). Month –by-month Phonics and

Vocabulary. Greensboro North Carolina, Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company Inc

McDonald, L. (2005). The Meaning of “e-”: Neologisms as Markers of Culture and

Technology. Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies

Rets, I. (2016) Teaching Neologisms in English as a Foreign Language Classroom.

Hendek, Turkey, Sakaray University

Rowe, B. Levine, D. (2016). A Concise Introduction to Linguistics. New York USA,

Routledge Taylor and Francis Group

Sturtevant, E. (1958). Linguistic Change: An introduction to the Historical Study of

the Language. Chicago, Illinois, Cambridge University Press

Szerszunowicz, J. (2014). Phraseological units containing archaic elements in

bilingual lexicography. Bialystok, Poland.,The University of Białystok.