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1、On the Sociality of Language from the Perspective of English NeologismsContents1 Introduction12 Information Related to English Neologisms12.1 Definition of English Neologism12.2 Formation of English Neologisms23 Neologisms and Society34 Sociality of Language from the Perspective of English Neologism
2、s44.1 Development on Science and Technology54.2 Popularity on Computer and Internet54.3 Rapid Change of the Current Political Situation64.4 Change on Thought and Moral Views7Conclusion8Acknowledgements9References10AbstractAs a tool for human to express thoughts and communicate with each other, langu
3、age varies with the development of human society. The formation of new words has a close relationship to development of the objective world, social practice, and culture. Neologisms reflect the social life and cultural psychology of a nation. Social life in a certain period has a special effect on t
4、he language while the language in a certain period reflects the social life then, which is the sociality of language. This paper aims at letting people know about English neologisms and their formation, and illustrating the sociality of language from the following aspects: the development of science
5、 and technology, popularity of computer and Internet, rapid change of the current political situation and change of thought and moral view.Keywords English neologisms, sociality, society, culture 摘要 作为人类表达思想和交流思想的工具，语言是随着人类社会发展而变化的。新词的形成与客观世界的发展、社会实践、文化都有着密切的联系。新词最真实的反映了一个民族的社会生活和文化心理。一定时期的社会生活对语言产生
6、特定的影响，而一定时期的语言也反映了这一时期的社会生活，这就是语言的社会性特征。本文旨在让读者了解什么是英语新词，以及英语新词的一些构成方式，并且从科学技术的发展、计算机和英特网的普及、当前政治局势的变化以及人的思想和道德观的改变四方面阐述了语言的社会性特征。关键词 英语新词，社会性，社会，文化 1 Introduction As we can see, language has developed along with social development as a tool of expressing and discussing thoughts for human beings. La
7、nguage will never stop developing, that is to, say vocabulary will never stop increasing, including Chinese, Japanese, and English.Vocabulary is one of the key elements in language. With the development of the world and widespread use of English, English words are increasing greatly especially in th
8、e latest 50 years. We call these new English words neologisms. Surely these English neologisms are not created abruptly, which are pregnant in a certain period. Since different English neologisms will turn up in different times, we call it sociality of language. As culture has a close relationship t
9、o language, little change in society will cause the change of language. In this paper I will analyse how English neologisms reflect the sociality of language from several aspects. 2 Information Related to English Neologisms In order to know the English neologisms well, I would like to talk about som
10、e basic information about them, including the definition of English neologisms and how they are formed. 2.1 Definition of English Neologisms As the change of vocabulary in a language system concerns the changes in the form, meaning and usage, so if a word is new in any of the three aspects mentioned
11、 above, it belongs to the category of neologisms. According to this standard, there are three categories of neologisms: lexical neologisms that are formed by the way of word building, semantic new words which are the words with new meanings, and loanwords which are borrowed from other languages. A t
12、entative definition for neologisms is that as the change of the social context, including the development of social life and the scientific and technological renovation, new things, new phenomena and new concepts appear, people can not find corresponding words and expressions in the existing vocabul
13、ary so that they must coin new words or add new meanings to old words or borrow from other languages. These words and phrases that have not been popularized and included in standard language dictionaries are neologisms. According to the Oxford Dictionary of New Words (Knowles, Elizabeth & Elliott, J
14、ulia, 1997), neologisms refer to the new words and expressions used in the given period. In my own opinion, English neologisms are those newly-created words in English or those old words with new meanings. 2.2 Formation of English Neologisms Though a great number of English neologisms turn up year b
15、y year, people may worry they are too many to organize in order. In fact, there is no need to worry about that, for most of these English neologisms are subjected to some rules as well as the word formation process. In other words, they are not created freely, and they follow some rules. There are a
16、 lot of ways to form English neologisms, but here I will just introduce the four main ways, including developing new meanings in the old words, compounding, conversion and borrowing.2.2.1 Developing New Meanings in the Old Words One way to get English neologisms is to develop new meanings from old w
17、ords. Usually old words can have new meanings nowadays, and this causes the appearance of new lexemes, which is an important way to add new words to the language. This way of formation includes meaning expansion, narrow meaning, transfer and some other conditions. For example, the original meaning o
18、f “cherry-pick” was “to pick cherry”, but now it means to “pick up the best thing”. The former meaning of “plastic” was a kind of material, but now it can refer to “plastic credit card”. As for transfer, we can take the word “spine” as an example, initial meaning “was bone in the back of people”, bu
19、t now we often compare it to our salary range. A lot of new words related to computer are formed in the way of transfer such as “mouse”, “import” and “export”, etc.2.2.2 Compounding The second way is compounding, which is the most frequently used in word-formation. It means independent words can be
20、put together to make one word. For example, “sandstorm”, “playboy”, “fat farm”, “mail order”, and so on. Compounding has been a source of new words since earliest times and it takes the largest parts of modern English neologisms.2.2.3 Conversion The third way I will introduce is conversion. Conversi
21、on is a word-formation which means a word is shifted into another speech without changing the word form. Essentially, it is an extension of grammar function, which can change nouns into verbs or adjectives, or make the verbs have the function of nouns. For the process of conversion, nouns are shifte
22、d into verbs occurring most frequently. For example, in the two sentences, “the boss gave no answer, but eyed him with anger”; “I had to moonlight to support the family”. Even compound nouns get shifted to verbs, the secretary who said, “I did not back-file the letter, I waste-basketed it” was speak
23、ing twenty-century English, but it is inelegant. Conversion is one of the three major word-formation processes through the history of the English language. For the vast number of English neologisms, it has contributed much more.2.2.4 Borrowing The last I want to talk about is borrowing. English is f
24、amous for its “open-up” character. It has assimilated or naturalized a great many words from the outside. So English is heavy borrower. It is estimated that English loan words are 80 percent of the modern English vocabulary. During the eighth to the tenth centuries, a large number of Scandinavian wo
25、rds were borrowed. Some centuries after Norman Conquest, vast number of French words were introduced. Since the foundation of English speaking nations, words have been widely adopted from almost every language with which it has contacted, which is called “linguistic omnivorousness”. Borrowing as one
26、 of the sources for new words will develop continuously, and create more neologisms.3 Neologisms and Society Human society is developing over and over again, which contributes a lot to the formation and evolution of language. The developing of language can not happen alone beyond our society. Vocabu
27、lary, as the element of the most marked, change the fastest. Without doubt, it summarizes the range of cultural thoughts, ways of cognition and values, then it reflects all kinds of sociality and the psychological state of people. The essence of neologisms is a kind of expressions of social values,
28、cultural mind and aesthetic orientation. The appearance of so many new words not only explains that our society has developed a lot but also illustrates that the neologisms can not meet our needs. We are going to look for new expressions. This proves neologisms can reflect the cultural psychology of
29、 the nation. Vocabulary is a mirror of our social culture. On one hand, as a special social phenomenon, it has direct dependence on society. On the other hand, language has compliance to the development of society. The development of the society enriches English neologisms, and English neologisms gr
30、ow up with these new things, reflect these things. At the same time, to adapt modern times and development of new things, English neologisms use more simple and flexible words to reflect our society. They depend on each other and promote each other. From one popular word, we can know clearly about h
31、ow our society develops. That is the sociality of English neologisms.4 Sociality of Language from the Perspective of English Neologisms The development of our society has an important impact on the generation of new words. To these new words, whether their existence and development have vitality dep
32、ends on the pragmatic conditions of social culture. Another reason why neologisms develop so fast is the wide use of media. Objective condition limits the spread of new words in the feudal society. But its totally different today, one new word will be known to millions of people only overnight, it i
33、s all because the rate of media is too fast and magical. Along with the further diversification of our society, neologisms will continue to increase with a fast speed, and these English neologisms reflect the development of our world. Next I will talk about how English neologisms reflect the sociali
34、ty of language from the four aspects as follows.4.1 Development on Science and Technology In the human society, the progress of science and technology play an important role in the development of our society. At the same time, they are the fountainhead of new words. Their appearance proves that grea
35、t changes have taken place in this age. With the development of aviation, a great many of new words about space navigation turn up just like “space-age”, “space- station”, “launching pad”, and so on. After people walking on the Moon, many new words come out related to the Moon. For example, “moonfal
36、l”, “moonwalk”, “moonquake” and “mooncraft”. These new words are becoming popular gradually and their quantity is getting bigger and bigger. At the same time when people explore the deep space, astronomers in the earth are discovering new theory. We hear about “quasars”, “pulsars”, “neutronstar” and
37、 the “mystical blackhole”. The “big bang theory” and “steady state theory” provide two different explanation for the “originate of the Universe”. Besides, rapid progress on medical science and genetics bring many neologisms for English too, such as “test-baby”, “genetic code” and “DNA”. Among these
38、new words, we are familiar with the “SARS”, “clone” and “DNA fingerprinting” most. “DNA fingerprinting” is the product in the late 80s of 20th century. It was a case related to a famous person, which made this word become popular. I just take some examples to elaborate the importance that science an
39、d technology play in the appearance of English neologisms. We all know science involves all kinds of fields, so what I have talked is just a corner of iceberg.4.2 Popularity on Computer and Internet As I said, there used to be no media to propagate new words, so if there were some new words created,
40、 only a few people could know them. Most people did not even know the existence of these words. It is different today, we have advanced media to promote them, which ensures almost everyone can know these new words in the shortest time. Especially with the popularity of the Internet, rate of spread i
41、s getting faster and faster. Due to the popularity of the Internet, a lot of new words combined with “cyber” become popular in papers or on TV. This prefix “cyber” comes from Greek “kuabevnan”, which means “to control something”. As computers turn up, computer controls more and more, the meaning of
42、this prefix develops into “use computer to control”. So “cybernaut reads cyberthrillers in cyberlibrary” comes up. The wide use of computer change peoples life a lot. We can do the “house-sitting” and “telecommunicating” under the “information highway”, or we can “surf” the Internet, “cut and paste”
43、 or “download” what we need. In addition, we can establish his own “batch file” or “datewarehouse”. We can avoid the attack from “hackers”, but we maybe threatened by the “ADD”. On the other hand, a lot of new words created by the people who were born after 90 are getting popular very fast through t
44、he Internet. Those people in this age are very fashionable, so words from their mouths will easily get popular, and with the help of computer, these new words spread into everyone as they have wings.4.3 Rapid Change of the Current Political Situation Beside science and technology, unrestful politica
45、l situation, changeable environment and the development of world trade all contribute to the appearance of English neologisms. When Nixon campaigned president in1972, one guy of the Grand Old Party went into the watergate in Washington secretly, trying to get information from the Democratic Party of
46、 the United States, but he failed and later was arrested. This case forced the president to hand in his resignation, which was the first time in American history. This is the famous “watergate”. After that, “watergate” became the word of “political scandal”, then the words with “gate” always express
47、 scandals in political world, just like “Irangate” and “Debategate”, etc. The replacement of leaders in every country offers a lot of new words to English. For example, The United States Democrats Clinton beat republican rivals in 1993, and participated in the re-election in 1997. His name was natur
48、ally linked with political words, such as “Clitonian”, “clitonite”, and so on. Of course these new words disappear quickly after the new leader comes into power, but it really brings a great many of new words to English. Along with the promoting of globalization, the world economy is going to link t
49、ogether, in this situation, many new economic organizations and theories are created. European Union in 1992 brought EU for English, then “EURO”,“ EUROland” came out one after another. In addition, we know WTO, which is the short form of the World Trade Organization. Frequent trades bring many new words to English, like “trade war” and “level paying field”. The financial crisis in Asia and global eco