WAYS AND MECHANISMS OF COINING NEW ENGLISH WORDS AND SET EXPRESSIONS (2009 – 2019)

Abstract

Analyzed in the paper are new English words and idioms coined in the latest decade. Since innovations were mostly formed from the material available in English through active word-building processes, the emphasis was laid on the study of these processes, patterns and productive affixes, specifically on affixation, composition, blending, abbreviations. In affixation the most productive were prefixes bio- (e.g bioartificial, biobag, biocremation, biodesign, bioprinting), cyber- (cyberhoarding, cyber-scriber, cybersickness, cybersoldier ), eco- (eco-bling, ecosexual, ecotherapy, eco-thriller ) micro- (micro-adventure, micro-credential ,micromastery, microstay ), nano- (nanoblock, nanobreak nanodegree, nanogardening , nanotecture), super- (superAger, supercoffee, superdiversity, supergentrification, supertunnel), suffixoid –bot, fragment of “robot” (chatbot, cobot, nukebot). Pattern N + N was very productive in coining compounds. In most cases both nouns were root words (barrel bomb, bee brick, diesel farm, size inflation). The bulk of the compound words were not only structually but semantically “complex” as well, with the sence of them not being a mere sum of the meanings of component words, often acquering figurative sense. Latest decade was characterized by very active process of telescopy (blending, contamination, fusing), i.e. when a new word is formed from the fragments of two words or from one word and a part of another. Such mechanism is considered to be an economical way of reflecting a complex or extended notion in a single unit. The most productive model is a combination of first full word with the final fragment of the second: churnalism (churn + journalism), farmscraper (farm + skyscraper), fatberg (fat + iceberg), floordrobe (floor + wardrobe), shaleionaire (shale + millionaire). Attention was also given to analogy as an effective mechanism of coining innovations. Relationship between different word-forming processes was established. Mechanisms of creating idiomatic innovations and their semantic centers were demonstrated.