Changes in English vocabulary
Vocabulary system is not a rigid one. It is quite adaptive and closely connected with the life of the people speaking this language.
There are two types of changes that take place in the vocabulary system:
Quantitative changes imply that generally the total number of words is constantly increasing. Though quite a lot of words become obsolete and eventually drop out of the language, much more of new words appear every day.
Qualitative changes imply that old words develop and acquire new meanings.
e.g. meat: OE mete – any food. Now – only animal flesh
The meanings of very few words remain unchanged through ages. When a word acquires new meanings, they become polysemantic. Sometimes a polysemantic word may split into two or more words; as a result homonyms can come about.
A neologism is a new word or a phraseological unit or a meaning of an existing word which is:
felt by speakers as new, and
not included in most dictionaries yet.
Neologisms may appear in all spheres of life, but it’s true that much more neologisms appear in certain spheres of modern life. Some of these spheres are:
New science and technology: faxable, tummytuck.
Lifestyle, new sports, music and fashions: snowsurphing, beach-music, vougeing.
Political and social life: eco-friendly, fattism.
Ways of forming neologisms:
Word-building (affixation): e.g. ageism
Word-building (blending): politiclone
Change of meaning: e.g. dark-green
New words borrowed from other languages: e.g. karaoke
New set phrases: e.g. bedroom community
TRANSLATION TIPS
Some ways to translate neologisms
Transcription, e.g. p.r. – пиар
Transliteration (in rare cases, not recommended), inauguration – инаугурация
Calquing - literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation, nuclear umbrella – ядерный зонтик
Description/paraphrasing, high profile - яркий, очень заметный, выдающийся; runaways - предприятия, переведенные на другую территорию или за границу
An archaism is an outdated word or expression.
There are two types of archaisms:
1. Historisms are words denoting notions which do not exist now but they don’t pass out of use altogether.
e.g. bodkin, vassal, yeoman
2. Archaisms proper are the words which come out as a result of synonymic competition.
e.g. swoon (feel seasick), hap (chance)
Additional reading
Visit the Wordspy website to check the database of neologisms in English.
Please watch two videos from ted.com about making new words in English.
Description: "In this fun, short talk from TEDYouth, lexicographer Erin McKean encourages — nay, cheerleads — her audience to create new words when the existing ones won’t quite do. She lists out 6 ways to make new words in English, from compounding to “verbing,” in order to make language better at expressing what we mean, and to create more ways for us to understand one another. "
"One could argue that slang words like ‘hangry,’ ‘defriend’ and ‘adorkable’ fill crucial meaning gaps in the English language, even if they don't appear in the dictionary. After all, who actually decides which words make it into those pages? Language historian Anne Curzan gives a charming look at the humans behind dictionaries, and the choices they make. "