English neologisms in modern times

Abstract

The study on neologisms or the new words created in a language has been gaining strength lately and has been getting the attention of linguists. It is obvious that neologisms produce a feeling of curiosity since they frequently appear in the vocabulary of speakers quite suddenly. For this reason, researchers have tried to explain how they are created and have also tried to classify them into different categories, even though they do not always coincide in their approach. While there is a general awareness of the meaning of neologisms that we use daily, researchers have investigated the reasons for their emergence, the preference that speakers show among competing forms of these new words and how they develop. The main aim of this paper is to understand neologisms in English and in the second place to discuss their role in the classroom of English as a foreign language briefly. In order to do so, based on previous research on the topic, I have classified neologisms into four main categories of neologisms: those that are newly coined terms, when the new word is a word that already exists in the language but with some changes in its form, when the new word has the same form but has undergone some non-formal changes, such as a change in its meaning or grammatical category, and finally when the new word has a foreign source (i.e. has been adopted from another language). Next, I will show that many modern neologisms have emerged in different areas as a consequence of a number of specific factors and circumstances such as the development of technology and science, new situations like Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, neologisms can also be found in news and advertising. I will propose that neologisms in these areas have spread quickly especially due to the Internet, websites and social media which have become the ideal channels for their spread. In the last part of this paper, I will discuss neologisms in EFL and I will argue that it is important to incorporate neologisms in the EFL lessons because they are part of the English culture and language and therefore EFL students should know them too.