Abstract

Language is the reflection of society. Enormous progress and transformation occurring in the society and cultural communication inevitably bring about new things; as a result, it is no strange that large amounts of new vocabulary come into being. In a word, vocabulary is the most dynamic element in language and changes when changes happen in social life. Meanwhile, neologism, as the most active and open part in vocabulary, has become the focus of research in linguistics in recent years.

This paper aims to explore neologism from the following five parts. Part One gives the general introduction of English neologism, including the definition of neologism. The second part focuses on the classification and divides English neologism into loan words, newly-coined words, and old words taking on new meaning. Subsequently, in Part Three, reasons for the rise of English neologism are discussed and concluded. More importantly, Part Four focuses on the development tendency of English neologism. In the end, a conclusion is made in Part Five. 

Key words: English neologism loan words reason development 

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

   1.1Definitions of neologisms-1

1.1.1 Definitions of of neologism from dictionaries-1

1.1.2 The Concept of neologism in this paper-2

2. Classification of English Neologism- 3

2.1 Newly-coined words by word-formation-3

2.1.1 Affixation- 3

2.1.2 Compounding-4

2.1.3 Shortening-4

2.1.4 Blending-5

2.1.5 Conversion-5

2.2 Loan words-6

2.3 Old words taking on new meaning-6

3. Reasons for the rise of English neologism-7

3.1 Changes in social life-7

3.2 Progress in science and technology- 8

3.3 Development in economy-8

3.4 New events in the field of politics-9

4. The Development Tendency of English Neologism-9

4.1 Diversity in sources-9

4.2 Simplicity and efficiency-10

4.3 Practicality-10

4.4 Systematization-11

5. Conclusion-11

 References