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Lexical Innovation

Explore the evolution of language through newly coined words and meanings over the past 25 years, analyzing contexts, reasons, and mechanisms for lexical innovation, alongside its pedagogical potential.

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Lexical Innovation

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  1. Lexical Innovation Dennis Davy University of London Institute in Paris (ULIP) 18 November 2006 25th TESOL France COLLOQUIUM (Paris)

  2. W.W.W. • While we wait… • Think of some new words or expressions which have been coined recently • and new meanings & uses of ‘old’ words

  3. The words you came up with • A spin doctor • Podcasting • Bling bling • A bobo • A mouse • An ASBO • A tsunami • A blog

  4. Lexical Innovationover the last 25 years • What are ‘new words’ • Various ‘contexts’ for lexical innovation • Different reasons for producing neologisms • Processes for forming new words • Paper-based and electronic collections of new words • The Pedagogical Potential of new words

  5. The last quarter century • Changes in the world (politics, technology, fashion, food, society, etc) are reflected in the new words that have been created. • What happened in the world over the last 25 years ?

  6. Computers • Internet/the Word Wide Web • Medical problems (AIDS, SARS, avian flu, RSI, mad cow disease) • Mobile phones (text messages, camphones) • Changes in musical genres (garage, rap, techno, bhangra) • Climate change (global warming, greenhouse gases, tsunamis, etc) • World affairs (9/11, fatwa, regime change, Blairism, the European Union)

  7. Societal change (chavs, ASBOs, binge drinking) • Films and TV (Big Brother, soap operas, reality shows, a muggle, quidditch) • Food (a foodie, tiramisu, balti, banoffee pie) • See worksheet 1: New words from the 1960s

  8. Various contexts for lexical innovation • Children learning their L1 • People picking up an L2 • Sub-groups of native speakers • People working in specific areas • Advertising and marketing • Language academies and commissions • Literature (poetry, novels and plays) • The media • Comedy • Everyday situations with ‘normal’ people • See worksheet 2: Reasons for creating new words

  9. Different reasons for creating new words and expressions • To name new inventions, discoveries etc • To label new concepts, phenomena & fads • To replace taboo or clichéd words • To protect one’s native language • To make language less discriminatory • To show one’s originality and sophistication • To indicate membership of an in-group • To exclude people • To be humorous, playful and to have fun • To compensate for deficiencies in one’s language skills

  10. Academic Studies of Lexical Innovation & Neologisms • Sornig (1981) • Sablayrolles (2000) • Pruvost (2003) • For full bibliographical references, see attachment 3: Bibliography of Lexical Innovation

  11. Processes for forming new words • Studies of English word-formational processes: • Bauer (1983) • Tournier (1985, 1993) • Cherry (1989) • Plag (2005)

  12. Comparative Studies of English and French Word-Formational Processes • Van Roey (1990) • Paillard (2000)

  13. Affixation Compounding Conversion Borrowing Blending Reduplication Back-formation Semantic shifting Shortening: Clippings Acronyms Initialisms Onomatopoeia Words from people & places Words from nowhere The mechanisms of lexical innovation

  14. Processes for Forming New Words • See worksheet 4: The Mechanisms and Processes of Lexical Innovation • See worksheet 5: The different types of new words from the 70s and 80s (word-formational processes)

  15. Paper-based and electronic collections of new words • Dictionaries of new words • Oxford • Longman • Barnhart • Bloomsbury • Collins • Websters

  16. Newspaper columns • Radio and TV programmes

  17. Electronic sources • Websites • Filters linked to electronic dictionaries (through which texts are passed to pick out the new words) • Corpora • For details of website addresses, see the attached webliography (attachment 6)

  18. The Pedagogical Potential of new words • Inherently interesting to students • Students develop dictionary and IT skills • Excellent for out-of-class autonomous learning and project work • Study of new words helps students understand up-to-date language (in films, songs, websites, text messages, emails…)

  19. An awareness of underlying WF processes can enable students to unpack new words • … and to be lexically innovative by coining their own new words …

  20. Collections of new words for teachers and students to explore • Attachment 7: 190 new words from the 1980s • Attachment 8: 80 new words from the 1990s • Attachment 9: 40 new compound words and collocations (1980-2005) • Attachment 10: 40 new acronyms, initialisms, blends and reduplicatives

  21. Attachment 11: 20 new prefixes, suffixes and other combining forms • Attachment 12: New meanings and uses for 15 ‘old’ words

  22. Worksheets for students • Worksheet 13: Revision of 10 new words • Worksheet 14: 10 new words and expressions coined in the 1990s • Worksheet 15: 18 new words from the 2000s (the ‘noughties’)

  23. The End? • Well, not quite… • I would love to hear from teachers about how they have used new words with their students • Dennis Davy d.davy@ulip.lon.ac.uk

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