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- Title
FROM WATERGATE TO BREMAIN: FORMING NAME-BASED NEOLOGISMS FROM ALREADY EXISTING ONES.
- Authors
Aleksandrova, Aleksandra
- Abstract
Neologisms are defined by Newmark as “newly coined lexical units that aquire a new sense” (Newmark 1988:140). The present paper deals with the mechanism in which name-based neologisms are able to continue the process of creating new coinages by forming other neologisms. As stated by Aleksandrova, the process of the creation of neologisms based on proper names is determined by the social and political context as well as by the attitude that texts producers express towards people and situations (see Aleksandrova 2016). In the process of this research, three mechanisms of creating neologisms from already existing name-based neologisms were noticed. The first is by copying the pattern in which one neologism was coined and applying it to the new coinage. Such is the case with neologisms based on Watergate. The meaning of Watergate is created through metonymy of the type place-for-the event. Consequently, the suffix - gate began to be used to form names of scandals or controversies not only in English, but also in Bulgarian media texts referring to scandals. Other ways of further creation of neologisms based on already existing ones are deriving new expressions from comparatively established neologisms by affixation, and by blending. A well-exploited example of such coinages is the word “Brexit” and the newly coined neologisms based on it. Brexit is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union” (en.oxforddictionaries.com ). According to The Dictionary.com, the term “Brexit” dates back in 2012 and is formed from “Br(itain) or Br(itish) + exit; probably patterned on Grexit, which dates from earlier that year” (https://www.dictionary.com). As the termed acquired certain stability, the pattern on which it was formed became a basis for the creation of neologisms of the type Frexit, Oexid, Nexit, which did not reach stability. However, another way of forming new coinages - derived from Brexit - turned out to be very productive. Among the popular examples found in media texts are Brexitee, Brexiter, Brexiteer, anti-Brexiteer Brexitophile, Brexit-phobe, Bremain. Those new coinages could be sometimes used in plural form and with variation in their phonological form. The study aims at tracing the way such name-based neologisms are exploited in British and Bulgarian media texts and the mechanisms in which they were formed.
- Subjects
NEW words; NAMES; METONYMS; SUFFIXES &; prefixes (Grammar); BULGARIAN language
- Publication
Knowledge: International Journal, 2019, Vol 30, Issue 5, p1161
- ISSN
2545-4439
- Publication type
Article