Lexical InnovationLexical Innovation

Dennis DavyDennis Davy

University of London Institute in ParisUniversity of London Institute in Paris(ULIP)(ULIP)

18 November 200618 November 2006

25th TESOL France COLLOQUIUM (Paris)25th TESOL France COLLOQUIUM (Paris)

W.W.W.W.W.W.

• While we wait…

• Think of some new words or expressions which have been coined recently

• and new meanings & uses of ‘old’ words

The words you came up withThe words you came up with

• A spin doctor• Podcasting• Bling bling• A bobo• A mouse• An ASBO• A tsunami• A blog

Lexical InnovationLexical Innovationover the last 25 yearsover the last 25 years

• What are ‘new words’

• Various ‘contexts’ for lexical innovation

• Different reasons for producing neologisms

• Processes for forming new words

• Paper-based and electronic collections of new words

• The Pedagogical Potential of new words

The last quarter centuryThe last quarter century

• Changes in the world (politics, technology, fashion, food, society, etc) are reflected in the new words that have been created.

• What happened in the world over the last 25 years ?

• Computers• Internet/the Word Wide Web• Medical problems (AIDS, SARS, avian flu, RSI,

mad cow disease)• Mobile phones (text messages, camphones)• Changes in musical genres (garage, rap, techno,

bhangra)• Climate change (global warming, greenhouse

gases, tsunamis, etc)• World affairs (9/11, fatwa, regime change,

Blairism, the European Union)

• Societal change (chavs, ASBOs, binge drinking)

• Films and TV (Big Brother, soap operas, reality shows, a muggle, quidditch)

• Food (a foodie, tiramisu, balti, banoffee pie)

• See worksheet 1: New words from the 1960s

Various contexts for lexical Various contexts for lexical innovationinnovation

• Children learning their L1• People picking up an L2• Sub-groups of native speakers• People working in specific areas• Advertising and marketing• Language academies and commissions• Literature (poetry, novels and plays)• The media• Comedy• Everyday situations with ‘normal’ people

• See worksheet 2: Reasons for creating new words

Different reasons for creating new Different reasons for creating new words and expressionswords and expressions

• To name new inventions, discoveries etc• To label new concepts, phenomena & fads• To replace taboo or clichéd words• To protect one’s native language• To make language less discriminatory• To show one’s originality and sophistication• To indicate membership of an in-group• To exclude people• To be humorous, playful and to have fun• To compensate for deficiencies in one’s language skills

Academic Studies of Lexical Academic Studies of Lexical Innovation & NeologismsInnovation & Neologisms

• Sornig (1981)

• Sablayrolles (2000)

• Pruvost (2003)

• For full bibliographical references, see attachment 3: Bibliography of Lexical Innovation

Processes for forming new wordsProcesses for forming new words

• Studies of English word-formational processes:

• Bauer (1983)

• Tournier (1985, 1993)

• Cherry (1989)

• Plag (2005)

Comparative Studies of English Comparative Studies of English and French Word-Formational and French Word-Formational

ProcessesProcesses

• Van Roey (1990)

• Paillard (2000)

The mechanisms of lexical The mechanisms of lexical innovationinnovation

• Affixation• Compounding• Conversion• Borrowing• Blending• Reduplication• Back-formation• Semantic shifting

• Shortening:– Clippings– Acronyms– Initialisms

• Onomatopoeia• Words from people &

places• Words from nowhere

Processes for Forming New WordsProcesses for Forming New Words

• See worksheet 4: The Mechanisms and Processes of Lexical Innovation

• See worksheet 5: The different types of new words from the 70s and 80s (word-formational processes)

Paper-based and electronic Paper-based and electronic collections of new wordscollections of new words

• Dictionaries of new words

• Oxford• Longman• Barnhart• Bloomsbury• Collins• Websters

• Newspaper columns

• Radio and TV programmes

Electronic sourcesElectronic sources

• Websites

• Filters linked to electronic dictionaries (through which texts are passed to pick out the new words)

• Corpora

• For details of website addresses, see the attached webliography (attachment 6)

The Pedagogical Potential of new The Pedagogical Potential of new wordswords

• Inherently interesting to students

• Students develop dictionary and IT skills

• Excellent for out-of-class autonomous learning and project work

• Study of new words helps students understand up-to-date language (in films, songs, websites, text messages, emails…)

• An awareness of underlying WF processes can enable students to unpack new words

• … and to be lexically innovative by coining their own new words …

Collections of new words for Collections of new words for teachers and students to exploreteachers and students to explore

• Attachment 7: 190 new words from the 1980s

• Attachment 8: 80 new words from the 1990s

• Attachment 9: 40 new compound words and collocations (1980-2005)

• Attachment 10: 40 new acronyms, initialisms, blends and reduplicatives

• Attachment 11: 20 new prefixes, suffixes and other combining forms

• Attachment 12: New meanings and uses for 15 ‘old’ words

Worksheets for studentsWorksheets for students

• Worksheet 13: Revision of 10 new words

• Worksheet 14: 10 new words and expressions coined in the 1990s

• Worksheet 15: 18 new words from the 2000s (the ‘noughties’)

The End?The End?

• Well, not quite…

• I would love to hear from teachers about how they have used new words with their students

• Dennis Davy d.davy@ulip.lon.ac.uk