Telescopic Neologisms of Modern English: Structure and Semantics

Abstract.

TELESCOPIC NEOLOGISMS OF MODERN ENGLISH: STRUCTURE AND SEMANTICS

Oksana Vorobiova

Germanic Philology and Translation Department, National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, Poltava, Ukraine.

Anhelina Lazebnyk

Germanic Philology and Translation Department, National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”, Poltava, Ukraine.

Abstract

Background: The study of neologisms, among the ways of formation of which a special place is given to such a way of word formation, as telescopy (a kind of compressive word formation, which involves the combination of two or more truncated word bases) is engaged in a special section of lexicology – neology, the increased interest to which, especially recently, is due to the important role of neologisms as the so called “mirrors’ of language development. The topicality of the study is accounted for by the need for further, more detailed description of word-forming and semantic peculiarities of modern English neologisms, formed through telescopy as a special kind of compressive word-formation (telescopic neologisms or telescopisms).

Purpose: The purpose of the research presupposes a comprehensive complex study of the tele­scopic neologisms in terms of their structural and semantic features.

Results: As a result of the research, structural types, subtypes and models of the studied telescopic neologisms are established, their productivity being identified – the most productive in quantitative terms appear to be the telescopisms, which are a combination of two truncated bases with the additional imposition of certain fragments at their junction (e. g.: acrobsession (acronym + obsession), slanguist (slang + linguist)).

The analysis of the part-of-speech reference of the units under consideration shows the predominance of telescopic nouns, which, in turn, once again confirms the common belief that the expansion of the vocabulary of the language is mainly due to the names of objects and phenomena (e. g.: Engnet (English + Internet)). However, the units in question are not limited exclusively to substantival telescopisms, and less productive in quantitative terms adjectival (e. g.: tradigital (traditional + digital)) and verbal (e. g.: to jalk (to jog + to walk)) telescopic units also function alongside them.

Discussion: Structural “hybridity” of English telescopic neologisms, is correlated with their semantic “hybridity”, which, in turn, is manifested through combining the meanings of their immediate constituents.

Keywords: compressive word formation, telescopy, telescopism, telescopic neologism, structural / semantic “hybridity”.

Vitae. Oksana Vorobiova is a Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, Head of Germanic Philology and Translation Department at National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. Her areas of research interests include contrastive linguistics, translation studies, derivational semantics, lexicology, linguocultural studies.

Correspondence: vorobyovaoksana27@gmail.com

Vitae. Anhelina Lazebnyk is a Bachelor’s student of Germanic Philology and Translation Department at National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. Her areas of research interests include lexicology, translation studies, contrastive linguistics.

Correspondence: lazebnik.apple@icloud.com

Article.

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