21世纪英语新词产生的原因分析

论文总字数：34709字

摘 要

新词是某个时期创造出的词语，通常会与某一事件或人物有相关联系，被特定时期的大部分人所接受。本文以21世纪英语中出现的新词汇为研究对象，结合21世纪英语新词的国内外研究成果，对从官方媒体和报刊收集来的新词进行统计和分析，从缩略、混合、功能转移和借用四种增词法和语义变化总结其发展的内部语言因素，并分析其出现的外在非语言因素，包括经济因素、政治因素、科技因素和心理因素，以便于语言学习者及使用者更好地理解其意义并在交际中更恰当地使用这些词汇，同时也能更好地理解语言发展变化的规律。

关键词：英语新词；21世纪；语言发展因素；非语言发展因素

Contents

1. Introduction - 1 -

2. Literature Review - 2 -

2.1 The Definition of Neologisms - 2 -

2.2 Previous Studies of English Neologisms in the 21^st Century - 2 -

3. Research Methods and Data Analysis - 4 -

3.1 Research Questions - 4 -

3.2 Subjects - 4 -

3.3 Instruments - 5 -

3.4 Data Analysis - 5 -

4. Linguistic Developmental Factors - 6 -

4.1 Addition of Words - 7 -

4.2 Semantic Changes - 10 -

5. Extra-linguistic Developmental Factors - 11 -

5.1 Economic Factors - 12 -

5.2 Scientific and Technological Factors - 12 -

5.3 Political Factors - 13 -

5.4 Psychological Factors - 14 -

6. Conclusion - 15 -

Works Cited - 16 -

1. Introduction

The development and change of language is closely related to the age. After entering the 21st century, the rapid development of science and technology, the changing world political pattern and people’s changing psychological concepts are all exerting impacts on every aspect of our life. Subsequently, language has been inevitably undergoing great changes, a very important part of which is the appearance of large numbers of neologisms that describe new things or phenomena. As a result, varies of kinds of neologisms are sprouting in the English world, which have been promoting the development and change of the language.

Words are one of the elements that constitute a language. From the aspect of language learners, words are the most basic. From the aspect of communication, communication can not be conducted without words, and so do from the aspect of language teaching and research. Therefore, in any period of the whole history, especially in this fast-changing 21st century, research on the linguistic factors and extra-linguistic factors of the appearance of new words has a significant influence on language learners, users, teachers and researchers, who can feel the vicissitudes of the society and life, have a better understanding of current social life in western countries, grasp the popular culture in this modern age, improve their perception and judgment of English, and instantly adjust or correct their social conception to better adapt to the development of the society.

This thesis is structurally composed of six parts. The introduction shows the background and significance of this study. The second part has a literature review on the English Neologisms in the 21^st Century, concluding the definition of English Neologisms and related research home and abroad. The third part goes on the research design, containing research questions, subjects, research instruments and data analysis in quantity. Part Four and Part Five explore and analyze the linguistic developmental factors and extra-linguistic developmental factors respectively. Finally, this paper ends with conclusion and limitation.

2. Literature Review

All the living languages are constantly under changes. Each historical period has some unchanging developmental factors that cause the appearance of new forms and meanings of a certain language. Both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors play very important roles in the research of the development of human language.

This chapter is composed of two parts, including the definition of English neologisms and the previous study on this topic. The working definition is based on the research of the emerging factors and changing meaning of many new words in the 21st century. The literature review offered includes domestic studies about English neologisms in the 21st century and a foreign study from the perspective of lexical system of the modern English words and their major development trends.

2.1 The Definition of Neologisms

According to Oxford English Dictionary (draft revision in 2009), the term neologism is first attested in English in 1772, borrowed from French néologisme. A neologism is the name for a newly coined term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been accepted into mainstream language (Levchenko, 2010: 11). As to Newmark, he defined neologisms as newly-coined lexical units or existing lexical units that acquire new sense (Newmark, 2005: 140).

In this research, a neologism is defined as a word or a phrase that is lately created from sci-tech advancement, economic growth, political evolvement and psychological change and that contains a new meaning which derives from an original word in a new cultural environment.

2.2 Previous Studies of English Neologisms in the 21^st Century

2.2.1 Studies Domestic

After retrieving on the website of CNKI, over 700 essays on English neologisms are found. While there are only no more than 10 essays related to the English neologisms in the 21st century are searched.

The relationship between English neologisms and prototype theory, metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory was briefly researched (Feng Jing and Zang Zhehui, 2012: 132) Zhang Yufang conducted a brief research on the backgrounds of English neologisms in the 21st century from the aspects of society, culture, science and technology, economy, etc (Zhang Yufang, 2010: 216). Besides, there are other four researches about English neologisms in recent decades of years from the perspectives of conceptual integration theory, metaphor recognition, lexicology and word-formation.

2.2.2 Studies Abroad

Few foreign researches about English neologisms in the 21st century can be found in the website of CNKI. At present, the number of foreign books about English neologisms in the 21st century is also very small. Levchenko once investigated the neologisms that appeared in 2000 – 2010 years issues of the following British newspapers: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Economist, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer, and Herald Scotland in his master’s thesis. His attempt was to investigate the neologisms in the lexical system of the modern English language and reveal the major trends and tendencies taking place within the processes of the new words formation and distribution.

As for Levchenko, the appearance of neologisms in a living language is a constant and regular process, its word stock is always adopting new words as a result of social and linguistic changes, innovations and development. The language is rapidly reacting to the emergence of new social phenomena, objects and activities which immediately undergo the process of nomination. The suggestion that new notions appear simultaneously with their signifiers does not seem to be ungrounded, for the most of human mental activity is carried out with the help of verbal means. In addition, he also put forward two hypotheses in his research: first, the majority of newly created and borrowed words should be nouns; second, the prevalent word building type should be affixation (Levchenko: 2010).

Based on the previous studies, there are many studies on English neologisms and their developmental factors, but the research are not enough because English neologisms appear at any moment and research gap still remains though many scholars contribute to this field. Therefore, it is very important to join linguistic and extra-linguistic developmental factors of English neologisms in the modern linguistic research so as to catch up with the fast scientific and technological development, fashion changes and conceptual advancement. In doing this, we can have a better view of the world, and enjoy a better way of expressing emerging things.

3. Research Methods and Data Analysis

This chapter mainly discusses the methodology of the present research, including research questions, subjects, instrument and data description.

3.1 Research Questions

According to the literature review, it’s necessary to further study English neologisms and explore the developmental factors of English neologisms in the 21^st century. On the basis of adequate collection of English neologisms, two questions are put forward in the following:

1. What are the factors of the appearance of English neologisms in the 21^st century?
2. How can the factors be classified and which factors play a more important role?

3.2 Subjects

The subjects of this research are composed of 216 neologisms in the 21^st century, 12 of which come from the 12 monthly magazines English Digest in 2014, 134 from English Tips of China Daily from July of 2014 to April of 2015, and 70 from the website Wordspy. All of the target words are produced in recent years, especially after 2010. The sources of the subjects are from both home and abroad. They are commonly accepted and used by most native speakers and foreign language learners, some of which have been added to Oxford English Dictionary. In a sense, therefore, they can be analyzed and concluded into the productions of several factors in linguistics and extra-linguistics. The following two tables show the distribution of words from the above aspects.

Table 1 The Linguistic Developmental Factors of Research Subjects

Table 2 The Extra-linguistic Developmental Factors of Research Subjects

3.3 Instruments

This study employs documentary research method to explore the developmental factors of English neologisms. Its analysis is based on English neologisms collected on English Digest, English Tips of China Daily and Wordspy. During the research, the most frequently used is the electronic tools: Microsoft Word and Excel for figure statistics and analysis.

3.4 Data Analysis

In order to make clear the distribution of developmental factors from the respects of linguistics and extra-linguistics, figures collected in chapter 3.2 are analyzed and presented in two figures as follows:

Figure 1 Distribution of Linguistic Factors

Figure 2 Distribution of Extra-Linguistic Factors

Figure 1 shows that within the linguistic factors, addition of words plays a major role, which shows to some extent that semantic changes are taking place slowly in just a decade, while addition of words can easily and swiftly occur with the changing environment. In Figure 2, economic and scientific and technological factors account for nearly half of the extra-linguistic factors, followed by political, psychological, cultural, environmental and military factors. In light of this, the huge impact of economic globalization can be deeply felt, which comes first among all concerned factors. Also, politics, science and technology and psychological changes are major causes. Therefore, during the research, focus will be put on the above two linguistic factors of addition of words and semantic changes, and the four major extra-linguistic factors of economy, politics, science and technology and psychology.

4. Linguistic Developmental Factors

Lexical items are the building block of a language, and the changes in this aspect are comparatively more obvious and noticeable (Dai Weidong amp; He Zhaoxiong, 2013:98). How a language changes and how to use existing words to form new words and produce new meanings are determined by the internal linguistic developmental factors of a language, which is the basis of further evolvement.

As is shown in figure 1, addition of words and semantic changes are the major internal linguistic drivers for the appearance of new words, which is fundamentally the result of evolvement within the language system. With further analysis and classification, addition of words include acronym, blending, functional shift and borrowing and semantic changes are classified into semantic broadening and semantic narrowing.

4.1 Addition of Words

4.1.1 Acronym

Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters of the name of an organization or a scientific term, etc (Zhang Yunfei, 2001:114). The 21^st century is an age of creation and development. Just in several years, large quantities of enterprises and innovative products and services can be obtained with easy accession. For the convenience of communication, many organizations or innovations with a long name are often referred as their acronyms.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) are the latest addition to the acronym-bound lexicon of higher education, and quite possibly the most significant of them all. They represent a new generation of online education, freely accessible on the internet and geared towards very large student numbers. RDI, from the phrase repetitive driving injury, refers to aches and pains caused by driving a car, particularly by driving with poor posture or improper seat position. SPIN, the acronym of small plot intensive, means the dense cultivation of vegetables and other crops on small plots, particularly in urban settings. PANK, the abbreviation of professional aunt no kids, represents a woman without children who dotes on her nieces and nephews.

Other English neologisms in the 21st century created in the method of acronym: SIFI (systemically important financial institution), MAMIL (middle-aged man in Lycra), and BYOD (bring your own device).

4.1.2 Blending

Blending is a process of word-formation in which a new word is formed by combing the meanings and sounds of two words, one of which is not in its full form or both of which are not in their full forms (Zhang Yunfei, 2001: 119).

Since the outbreak of the disease ebola in 2014, thousands of people have got affected and died. The word ebolaphobia is subsequently produced. It is combined by the word ebola and the morpheme–phobia, which means being afraid of something as a result of anxiety and disorder. So, it is easy to understand that ebolaphobia is a strong and irrational fear of the Ebola virus as explained by Wordspy.

Mockbuster is a combination of the word mock and the second part of the word blockbuster (Wang Yudan, 2014:1). It is first put forward by Lou Lumenick on The New York Post in 2006 that, “Shakes on a Train is the seventh in a series of low-budget, direct-to-video mockbusters over the past year designed to ride the coattails of big-budget studio releases like The War of the Worlds, King Kong, and The Da Vinci Code.” At present, according to Wordspy, it is a low-budget movie with a title and plot similar to a current blockbuster film.

Geriaction is another new century’s English neologism first explained by Urban Dictionary in 2009 as a genre of action/adventure films featuring over-the-hill actors/actresses reprising roles they had in their much younger years (Wang Yudan, 2014:1). It is the combination of the first part of geriatric and the word action. Now, its meaning has extended to an action movie genre that features aging actors in the lead roles.

Here are other English neologisms in the 21st century created in the method of blending: grandlord (grandparent landlord), feardom (fear freedom), and decaorn (decade unicorn).

4.1.3 Functional Shift

In this new age, almost everything is changing, so are words. In linguistics, neologisms may be produced by shifting their original part of speech to another without adding or clipping affixes, which is called functional shift or conversion. Nowadays, the most obvious shift of the English words may be from nouns to verbs.

The word screenshot, formerly only used as a noun, which means a computer screen at a particular moment, is now also used as a verb sharing text by taking a screenshot to ensure that the text cannot be searched, tagged, or parsed, particularly by an algorithm and personal privacy online can be protected.

Another interesting example is the word street. As we all know, a street refers to a thoroughfare that is lined with buildings. But now, it has a verbed meaning that to release a dangerous or helpless mentally ill person from a hospital because there are no private or public psychiatric beds available. For instance, “She was a danger to others and should have not been streeted.”

A further example is the word lance. It is a new way to describe celebrities who are coming out of the closet. Here the lance is not derived from the noun meaning “a long pointed rod used as a weapon, nor from the verb meaning “piercing with a lance”. It comes from the name of an American pop singer, Lance Bass. In 2006, Lance Bass announced he was gay and in a relationship with Reichen Lehmkuhl of The Amazing Race fame. Now, lance means to force a celebrity to reveal that he or she is homosexual.

Other English neologisms in the 21st century created in the method of functional shift are as follows: ghosting (from verb to preposition: leaving a party, event, or group surreptitiously or without saying goodbye), salmon (from noun to verb: to ride a bicycle against the flow of traffic) and showroom (from noun to verb: to use a retail store to view and research a product and then purchase the product for less money online).

4.1.4 Borrowing

When different cultures come into contact, words are often “borrowed” from one language to another. English has borrowed a large number of words from different languages throughout its history. Of the 20,000 or so words in common use, about three-fifths are borrowed (Dai Weidong amp; He Zhaoxiong, 2013: 100).

We are now living in a century full of cultural exchanges and communications. It is unavoidable for English-speaking countries to be affected by other countries’ cultures and languages, especially China, the biggest developing country in the world. Until now, over 120 Chinese words have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, including Fengshui, Dimsum, Hukou, Wuxia, etc.

The most famous Chinese word added to the Oxford English Dictionary is Guanxi, which describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence, and is a central idea in Chinese society. In Western world, this Chinese word is becoming more widely used instead of the two common translations — “connections” and “relationships”. In 2013, The Atlantic Monthly published an article on a more explicit translation of this word, which reported that every foreign people after going to China will learn a magic word, Guanxi, a necessity of the 1.3 billion-people-country to solve difficult problems.

The Chinese word Shuanggui has become a disciplined English word in the circles of law and politics. According to Wikipedia, it is an internal disciplinary process conducted by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and its lower-level affiliates on members of the Party who are suspected of “violations of discipline”, which usually indication of corruption but can occasionally carry other connotations as well. The Shuanggui process is conducted in secret, in a system which is separate from ordinary Chinese law enforcement processes. At the time the party member is informed of their Shuanggui, often the party disciplinary agencies have already found enough evidence behind the scenes to establish guilt.

Apart from Chinese words that have gone into English dictionaries, some words popular among Chinese people in their daily lives also gain their English forms. For example, the hottest word currently is dobe, which is the Japanese slang word for “idiot”. Now, Chinese young people like to use it to refer to a ridiculous person who is a stranger, or a funny one who is a friend.

The word gelivable is also a popular English neologism created by Chinese netizens. It is derived from the Chinese dubbing of a Japanese kuso cartoon “Journey to the West: the end of the journey” in 2005. The meaning of this word is useful and helpful. During the 2010 World Cup, it became a hot cyberword through the wide use of the Internet users.

4.2 Semantic Changes

With regard to the internal developmental factors of the neologisms in the 21st century, besides the addition of words, the other is semantic changes, which is smaller in number than the former though.

Over the time, many English words remain in use, but their meanings have been changed in the course of linguistic development together with the evolutionary process of human society, in which English neologisms are thus created to some degree. In the 21^st century, the most common ways in which the meaning of words change are semantic broadening and semantic narrowing.

4.2.1 Semantic Broadening

Semantic broadening is the process by which the meaning of a word becomes broader or more inclusive than its earlier meaning. It is also known as generalization or extension. Some generalization allows one to capture the unchangeable part of a word’s original meaning across semantic fields (Marina, 2004:122). As Victoria Fromkin points out in his book An Introduction to Language in 2013, “When the meaning of a word becomes broader, it means everything it used to mean and more”. For example, the word movie, which is never strange to everyone, used to refer only to silent movie to differentiate from talkie. But with the disappearance of silent movie, it now refers to every film showed on the screen.

Another example is the word childbirth. In past days, this word means what we call today natural childbirth. But with the development of medical technology, women have another choice, medicalized childbirth. They can choose to have caesarean sections or take labor inducing drugs and epidural anesthesia to relieve their pains during childbirth. So, childbirth is the general reference of giving birth to a child.

4.2.2 Semantic Narrowing

Semantic narrowing is the process by which a word’s meaning becomes less general than its earlier meaning. This kind of semantic change is also known as specialization. Take the word Diaper as instance. A diaper used to be a type of underwear that allows one, especially infants, to defecate or urinate, without the use of a toilet. After the production of disposable diapers, however, diapers are now considered as cloth diapers.

5. Extra-linguistic Developmental Factors

As an international language in this fast-growing 21st century, English has produced a large number of neologisms that reflect the characteristics of the age. During the development of the English neologisms, six factors have been discovered in this research. Among them, four extra-linguistic factors in economy, science and technology, politics and psychology have played a more important role（to see Figure 2）.

5.1 Economic Factors

From figure 2, economic factors play the most important role in the appearance of neologisms. All a slack and a prosperous economy and the trend of economic globalization are the important drivers for the development of English neologisms in the 21st century.

In today’s America, having a hamburger or a spaghetti in an ordinary restaurant is no more attractive. In order to recover from the depressed environment, there emerges a kind of restaurant that takes women breasts as selling points—breastaurants. A breastaurant is a restaurant that is characterized by large-breasted and sexy waitresses.

When shopping online, people tend to read the comments of consumers on some commodities or services in advance. Before having a meal in a restaurant, they are likely to browse in websites like Yelp, Pandora and Spotify to know about the characteristics of meals and the standards of services. Consequently, we have entered the age of reputation economy. Reputation economy represents an environment where brands can be established. The reputation of one brand can be established by its recognition on the Internet and the degree of its fulfillment of commitments.

In recent years, with the improvement of living standards of Chinese people, there have been varies of reports about the extravagant consumption of Chinese people in European and American luxurious shopping malls, where many goods of famous brands are purchased in a short period. Therefore, Chinese netizens create an English neologism Chinsumer to represent those consumers.

5.2 Scientific and Technological Factors

According to figure 2, another main factor that contributes to the emergence of English neologisms is science and technology, which leads this new age.

As the subway goes into our daily lives, it has become the first choice for people to go to work in rush hours. Manspreading is a newly-created word coming from the human unkind behaviors in the subway. It refers to the act of a man sitting with his knees spreading widely apart, particularly when this crowds people next to him or prevents someone from taking an adjacent seat.

In this information-explosion era, almost everyone is constantly receiving information consciously or unconsciously. Some people are unaware that they are infected with infobesity, which refers to a new disease caused by excessive consumption of information. Everyday, even though people don’t open their social softwares, the newest and hottest information will be pushed into their smart phones. It’s a good thing to know about a certain amount of information, but excessive news may cause disturbance. Information fatigue syndrome is a neologism, meaning another psychological disease caused by dealing with excessive amounts of information.

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