Neologisms in the sphere of information technologies of modern English

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Astana, ENU named after L.N.Gumilyov Astana, Kazakhstan

Neologisms in the sphere of information technologies of modern English

Satubaldina A.Zh.

Неологизмы в сфере информационных технологий современного английского языка

Dealing with such a lexicological phenomenon as neologism requires first of all clearing out what it exactly is and what the criteria to differentiate it among the multitude of lexemes. neologism lexeme semantic internet

After conducting such a scrutinize research, there have been found a considerable amount of captivating information with regard to my topic.

Firstly, it must necessarily be mentioned the concept of the term “neologism”.

Most frequently, neologism is explained and defined as `a new word', which seems quite clear and simple. But when it is essential to identify which words can be regarded as new ones and which not, there arises a problem. The problem lies in the relativity of the concept of novelty, newness as it depends on what period is taken into consideration, for how long the word has status of being new.

According to the Ukrainian philologist professor M.I. Mostovy states “there are no clear criteria of defining neologism as a linguistic phenomenon”. As a result, we face a kind of ambiguity at the very beginning of neologism investigation.

Now, I intend to provide you with a numerous definitions given by diverse scholar representatives.

Actually, there are a number of definitions of neologism offered by various linguists, which brings us some clarity in making out neologisms within the vocabulary of English.

The above mentioned professor M.I. Mostovy writes, “neologism is a linguistic unit that is created for the definition of a new notion”. He does not deepen into the features and characteristics of the new words, but rather displays the main idea of neologism that lies in expressing new objects and phenomena.

The well-known “Dictionary of Linguistic Terms” by O.S. Akhmanova provides a more detailed definition, where there are distinguished two kinds of neologisms. The first definition runs as follows: “neologism is a word or phrase created for defining a new (unknown before) object or expressing a new notion”, the second one says that it is “a new word or expression that has not received the right for citizenship in the national language and thus is perceived as belonging to a specific, often substandard style of speech”.

The linguistic encyclopedia by V.N. Yartseva offers a broader definition, stating that “neologisms are words, word meanings or collocations that appeared in a certain period in a language or that are once used (`occasional' words) in a text or speech act”. Here the notion of neologism expands beyond the framework of a lexeme and includes also new meanings and collocations, which might be conveyed by old and known words. This approach seems to be more profound as it takes into consideration not only the fact of the appearance of a new word form but also the changes of its internal and external organization.

The most abstract definition is given by Russian professor in linguistics V.I. Zabotkina who says that new words are “units that appear in a language after certain temporal bounds taken as initial ones”. This definition is the broadest one and allows including into the category of neologism almost all the possible new trends and tendencies in lexicological and semantic areas of a language.

It can be concluded that, in all the definitions, there is mentioned the fact of a novelty for some lexical units as a new word, phrase or expression. Some definitions add the facts of semantic novelty, e.g. new meaning, or even the syntactic one, e.g. new collocations.

The difference is chiefly in an extent of newness: either it concerns only the shift in meaning or in a structure too. So, the sphere of difference is more or less clear.

Balyuta E.G. points out that there is also a range of terms related to the notion of neologism and they refer to the same object, so along with “neologism” such terms are often used in the lexicological research as “new words”, “lexical innovation”, “neoseme”, “actual derivate”, etc.

Technical revolution as one of the major phenomena of the present makes essential changes to the linguistic model of the world. There are many factors, which shape the development of a language. In particular, the rapid development of new computer technologies and methods for processing information inevitably influences the formation of new words and lexical meanings. The influence of these factors is increasing, however, since technological and scientific progress goes on faster now than ever before in history and especially technologies influence in our lives is increasing.

Technology and Web Neologisms

Nowadays extra-linguistic factors influence the creation of neologisms faster than ever before. Most of the new words are terms connected with the science and technologies, especially the most wide-spread electronic device - computer. The Internet is the largest base for appearing of the neologisms, and they immediately become international and frequently used. «Global Language Monitor» company whose main aim is to observe and fixate the changes in modern English lexis claims that now there are more than 1.490.000 words in English language and this number constantly grows. According to the statistics, one new word appears in English every 98 minutes. That means that every day approximately 15 new words are created. Before a word could be considered a neologism, it should be mentioned in Mass-Media not less than 25.000 times.

Internet has greatly promoted language change. A neologism used on the Internet is spread almost instantly to readers who are miles away from the physical location of the creation of this word. In today's world, neologism appearing on the web also enters verbal communications in people's real life. Internet has provided rapid sharing of information to 40 million registered users.

Modern world develops rapidly, so neologisms created a decade ago are now common general words. For example, some neologisms appeared in 1990-2000, and now they are used so often that they become ordinary elements of contemporary people's active vocabulary and they can't be considered as neologisms anymore. Here are some examples of technology neologisms that have recently become common words:

E-mail (noun) - a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. This term appeared in 1993 and is still considered a new word but nowadays it is used so frequently that it must have become a common word during the last two decades.

Reboot (verb) - to restart a computer by reloading its operating system into workingmemory; to cause the system or a program to be reloaded in this way.

Flame (verb) - to post an electronic message to someone in the Internet which is destructively critical, abusive, or intended to provoke dissent or controversy.

At the present time we can consider neologisms the terms that appeared ten years ago or later.

The most common ways of creating technology and web neologisms are:

1)Blendings - words formed from parts of two or more other words. This way is also called portmanteau words, fusions or telescoping, because the words seem to slide into one another like sections of a telescope. Blends may be defined as formations that combine two words and include the letters or sounds they have in common as a connecting element. e.g. Mindcasting - mind + broadcasting (Posting a series of messages that reflect one's current thoughts, ideas, passions, observations, readings, and other intellectual interests).

2) Compounds - lexemes that consist of more than one stem. It is one of the most productive types in Modern English, the other two are conversion and affixation. Compounds, though certainly fewer in quantity than derived or root words, still represent one of the most typical and specific features of English word-structure: e.g. Darknet (The collection of networks and other technologies that enable people to illegally share copyrighted digital files with little or no fear of detection. Formed as an idiomatic compound).

3) Metaphors - figures of speech that describe a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object:

Cuckoo egg (An MP3 song file that contains either a song different than what its name suggests, or a short sample of the song followed by noises or a message).

4) Abbreviations - shortened forms of a word or phrase. This type is called initial shortenings. Usually they consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase: Captcha - Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart (A computer-generated test that humans can pass but computer programs cannot).

There is one more productive way of creating Internet neologisms. The prefix Їe-?, which is the shortening itself from the word Їelectronic is widely used for creating the new terms such as e-commerce, e-solution, e-vite, e-newsletter, e-book, epublishing, e-politics and egovernment. This prefix can be added to almost any word to generate a link to the Internet. There are some other prefixes, but none of them are as productive asЇe-prefix.

We can subdivide the technology and web neologism according to their lexical meaning into four large groups by convention:

The first group includes the terms that name the hi-tech devices themselves. Examples: iPhone (noun) -line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc.

Tablet PC (noun) - a one-piece mobile computer.

Candy-bar phone (noun phrase) - a cell phone with no lid and with a rectangular shape that resembles a traditional candy bar.

The second group includes the terms connected with software and applications (a collection of computer programs and related data that provides the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it):

To Alt-Tab (verb) - to switch from one running computer program to another.

From the Alt-Tab key combination that cycles through running programs in Windows.

Brogrammer (noun) - a male programmer who eschews the stereotypical nerdy characteristics associated with programming culture.

Careware (noun) - computer software in which the only "price" is to do a good deed or donate something to charity. The software is free, but if you care you can donate some money for the charity using this program.

Formed as a blending: careful + software.

Chrome (noun) - splashy program features that attract attention but do little or nothing to make the program more useful or more powerful.

Machinima (noun) - an animated short or movie created entirely on a personal computer and "filmed" in real-time using computer graphics rendering software or computer game technology. Machinima is a blend of machine and cinema.

Microbrowser (noun) - a small-footprint Web browser that can be used with next-generation telephones and other small devices.

Perfect Programmer Syndrome (noun) - an arrogant belief in one's own infallibility.

Skinnable (adjective) - describes a software program that is capable of using different modules -- called skins -- that change the program's colors and interface design.

The third group is linked with online communications:

Civilogue (noun) - a civil dialogue, particularly one in which the participants avoid insults, personal attacks, and negative generalizations. Blend of civil and dialogue.

Compunication (noun) - any form of computer-based communication, including e-mail, fax, and voice mail. Blend of computer + communication.

Flog (noun) - a blog that appears to be written by an individual, but is actually maintained by a corporate marketing department or a public relations firm. Blend of fake and blog.

Lifestreaming (noun) - an online record of a person's daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person's online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos.

Smexting (present participle) - sending text messages while standing outside on a smoking break. Blend of smoking and texting.

Tweetup (noun) - a real world meeting between two or more people who know each other through the online Twitter service.

Wiki (noun) - a collaborative web site that allows users to add, edit, and delete the site's content; the software that enables such collaboration.

The fourth group is connected with data and its security:

Cybrarian (noun) - a librarian who specializes in locating, prioritizing, and organizing information on the internet. Blend of cyber- + librarian.

E-wallet (noun) - a computer database or online site that stores a person's name, address, and credit card data and then enables easy retrieval of that information for online purchases.

Narb (noun) - an item of personal information posted online, particularly as it contributes, often unwittingly, to a personal narrative that individual is creating online. Blending from narrative + bit.

Phishing (present participle) - creating a replica of an existing Web page to fool a user into submitting personal, financial, or password data.

Except these large categories there can also be singled out much more small groups or subgroups, like, for instance, hardware, hacking, slang and jargon, etc, e.g. crime-as-a-service (a web-based software that enables or enhances online criminal activity - this term is connected with hacking), fleshmeet (a meeting in the flesh, especially one composed of people who usually or only converse online - this term belongs to jargon).

Among technology neologisms we can usually notice nouns (e.g., flog ), verbs in their finite and non-finite forms (e.g., to alt-tab, smexting ), and noun phrases (e.g., sock puppet). Sometimes adjectives also appear (e.g., skinnable). Neologisms can be either lexical or semantic. Lexical neologisms appear with the help of affixation, compounding or borrowings (skin- skinnable). Semantic neologisms appear when the already existing words accept the new meaning (cuckoo nest). The intense development of computer technologies maintains the invention and introduction of an enormous number of new words and changed the meanings of old ones. In modern society Internet is the main way to invent and spread neologisms. And most of the new terms are set in English - the basic language of online-community. There from the neologisms extend into the other languages, including Russian. The main difficulties connected with the translation of neologisms, for example, from English into Russian, is that the new words do not exist in the dictionaries, so a translator has to clear up the meaning of the new word on his own. Fortunately, nowadays this problem is not so huge - using the Internet the translator can find either the context in which the neologism appears or its meaning in the online dictionaries, which are updated almost every day. A number of techniques can be used when we translate neologisms from one language to another. The most common of them include transliteration and transcription, tracing, descriptive translation, and the direct inclusion.

Transliteration is the way of borrowing new word with the help of transmission of the letters that constitute the original word, e.g. the English word Їblog? became

Russian «блог». Transcription is very close to transliteration, but in this case not the letters but the sounds are transmitted: Ї interface? -- «интерфейс». Tracing is the replacement of the morphemes or words composing the neologism by the morphemes and words that correspond to them in the target language: cyber store -- интернетмагазин. The combined ways of borrowing are also used. For instance, by summing up the transcription and tracing the English word Їweb-page? became the Russian word «веб-страница». The method of descriptive translation is used when it is impossible to translate the notion straightly into the target language because there is no such idea in the culture to which the neologism is transferred. This method commonly is not used for web neologisms. The direct inclusion method is often used nowadays. It is the easiest way of translating the neologisms. According to this method, the borrowed neologisms consist of two parts: the English one, in which the original spelling is saved; and the Russian one, e.g. web - страница, on-line - доступ, etc. The use of the direct inclusion may be justified if the neologism cannot be translated with the help of any other method of translation due to the specificity of its pronunciation or spelling. Usually one and the same neologism can be translated in various ways, but after a while one of the options displaces all the others. The main criterion that must be taken into account in translating the neologisms is shortness and unambiguous interpretation. The option proposed by the translator must be clear. Neologisms are perhaps the non-literary and the professional translator 's biggest problem. New object and processes are continually created in technology. Previously, the development of the language was rather slow, because natural and social processes of accepting the new terms were continuing during a long period. It took English several centuries to develop its terms in science and technology, and they are still developing. But nowadays this process has to be sped up. Developments that took hundreds of years in English are expected to happen in ten years, or one year, or perhaps just in one month. The Internet became a wide base for composing neologisms, and we have to watch it carefully to catch up with the Modern English language.

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