INTRODUCTION Language is an intermediary between the individual and society. Meaning does not reside in language but in the individual. Therefore if a person seeks meaning in life through language, he goes round in circles. What needs to be done is to first find meaning in life, and then encapsulate it in language. Language has the function of converting meanings into values. Language incorporates social values. However, social values are only the same as linguistic values when the society is a stable and unchanging one. Language contains traditional values – this is what is implied in the ideas of social conditioning and social learning. In a static society, traditional values are unquestioned. Hence social learning takes the form of social conditioning. Social conditioning is the unquestioned or confused adherence to social norms, and occurs when society is taken to be self-referential. Society is the judge of its own needs. The only circumstance that normally breaks social conditioning in some degree is change. Once society starts changing, then language change produces special effects. Every living language can readily be adapted to meet changes occurring in the life and culture of its speakers, and the main weight of such changes falls on vocabulary. Grammatical and phonological structures are relatively stable and change noticeably over centuries rather than decades, but vocabularies can change very quickly both in word stock and in word meanings. Consider as an example the changes wrought by modern technology in the vocabularies of all European languages since 1945. Before that date transistor and cosmonaut did not exist, and nuclear disarmament would scarcely have had any clear meaning. Language can alter its vocabulary very easily, it means that every speaker can without effort adopt new words, accept or invent new meanings for existing words, and of course, cease to use some words or cease to use them in certain meanings. Dictionaries list some words and some meanings as “obsolete” (no longer in use or no longer useful) or “obsolescent” (becoming obsolete) to indicate this process. No two speakers share precisely the same vocabulary of words readily used and readily understood, though they may speak the same dialect. They will, however, naturally have the great majority of words in their vocabularies in common. In the present paper work we touch upon the questions of coinages and nonce-words in literature. Not only word meanings are somewhat different in different literary works; they are not fixed for all time in language. Semantic changes take place all along, and at any moment the semantic area covered by a word is indeterminately bordered and differs from context to context. This is one of the aspects and conditions of the inherent and necessary flexibility of language. This argument will be developed in the pursuit of the main aims of the study, which are as follows: - to define different types of literary coinages; - to present detailed presentations and classifications; - to compare the existing types; - to investigate the literary work by Lewis Carroll, whose style of writing; is one of the brightest examples of new words coinages;
By dividing this study into two parts, we have tried to give due weight to the range of vocabulary units such as literary coinages, neologisms and nonce-words used in works of literature. There is no doubt that the study of literary coinages is actual nowadays, for modern language produces more and more newly coined words and their fate is also one of the aspects of investigation.
THEORETICAL PART
1. The main aspects of neologisms 1.1. The notion of neologisms Neologisms are by definition “new”, and as such are often directly attributable to a specific individual, publication, period or event. The term “neologism” was itself coined around 1800; so for some time in the early 19th Century, the word “neologism” was itself a neologism. In linguistics a neologism has two definitions: 1. A neologism is a recently created (or coined) word, phrase or usage which can sometimes be attributed to a specific individual, publication, period or event. In this case we have a proper neologism; many of them are cases of new terminology. A neologism can also refer to an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word umbrella developed the meanings: air-cover (авиационное прикрытие), political protection (политическое прикрытие). So, neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. 2. By the Oxford English Dictionary a neologism is defined as “a new word or expression”; “innovation in language”: the implication is that a word has passed beyond the stage of idiosyncrasy and has settled down to become a recognized part of the lexicon, used in a variety of spoken or written settings-though still felt to be a “new arrival”. But every¬thing in these definitions is vague. How long should words or their mean¬ings be regarded as new? Which words of those that appear as new in the language, say during the life-time of one generation, can be regarded as established? It is suggestive that the latest editions of certain diction¬aries avoid the use of the stylistic notion “neologism” apparently because of its ambiguous character. If a word is fixed in a dictionary and provided that the dictionary is reliable, it ceases to be a neologism. If a new meaning is recognized as an element in the semantic structure of a lexical unit, it ceases to be new. However, if we wish to divide the word-stock of a language into chronological periods, we can convention¬ally mark off a period which might be called new. Every period in the development of a language produces an enor¬mous number of new words or new meanings of established words. Most of them do not live long. They are not meant to live long. They are, as it were, coined for use at the moment of speech, and therefore possess a peculiar property —that of temporariness. The given word or meaning holds only in the given context and is meant only to “serve the occasion.” However, such is the power of the written language that a word or a meaning used only to serve the occasion, when once fixed in writing, may become part and parcel of the general vocabulary irrespective of the quality of the word. That's why the introduction of new words by men-of-letters is pregnant with unforeseen consequences: their new coin¬ages may replace old words and become established in the language as synonyms and later as substitutes for the old words. In this connection it might be noted that such words as субъект, объект and their derivatives as well as mun, прогресс, пролетариат and others introduced into the literary Russian language by V. G. Belinsky have become legitimate Russian words firmly established in the word-stock of the Russian language and are no longer felt to be alien to the literary language as they were in the nineteenth century.
1.2. Types of neologisms
The coining of new words generally arises first of all with the need to designate new concepts resulting from the development of science and also with the need to express nuances of meaning called forth by a deeper understanding of the nature of the phenomenon in question. It may also be the result of a search for a more economical, brief and compact form of utterance which proves to be a more expressive means of commu¬nicating the idea. The first type of newly coined words, i.e. those which designate new¬born concepts may be named terminological coinages. The second type, i.e. words coined because their creators seek, expressive utte¬rance, may be named stylistic coinages. Neologisms tend to occur more often in cultures which are rapidly changing, and also in situations where there is easy and fast propagation of information. Neologisms often become popular by way of mass media, the Internet, or word of mouth – especially, many linguists suspect, by younger people. So neologisms can be of the following types: 1. Scientific – words or phrases created to describe new scientific discoveries (display, keyboard, computerization, to telework: videobank – “computerized phone which registers information received in your absence”). 2. Political - words or phrases created to make some kind of political point (pro-life (1961) – “prohibiting abortions”, pro-choice (1975) – “allowing abortions”). 3. Pop-culture – words or phrases evolved from mass media content or used to describe popular culture phenomena (carb for “carburettor”). 4. Social – (youthquake – “riots among the young”; Euromarket belonger – “a representative of the middle class”; yuppie – “young urban professional people”; sustainer - “a prosperous person”; welfare mother – “a non-working single mother living on benefit”). 5. Many neologisms have come from literature. Most commonly, they are simply taken from a word used in the narrative of a book; a few representative examples are: grok (to achieve complete intuitive understanding), from Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Also worthy of note is the case in which the author's name becomes the neologism, although the term is sometimes based on only one work of that author. This includes such words as Orwellian (from George Orwell, referring to his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four) and Ballardesque (from J.G. Ballard, author of Crash). Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle was the container of the Bokononism family of Nonce words. Another potential category would be words derived from famous characters in literature, such as Quixotic referring to Don Quixote (from Don Quixote de la Mancha by Cervantes), Lewis Carroll's poem “Jabberwocky” has been called “the king of neologistic poems“ as it incorporated some dozens of invented words. 6. Food (macrobiotics – “raw vegetables/fishburgers”). 7. Clothing (stimster – “one-piece bathing suit”, hipster – “trousers or skirt with the belt on hips”, bloomers – “lady’s sport trousers”). 8. Imported – words or phrases originating in another language. Typically they are used to express ideas that have no equivalent term in the native language (tycoon – “промышленный или финансовый магнат”). 9. Trademarks are often neologisms to ensure they are distinguished from other brands (Kodak). 10. Nonce words – words coined and used only for a particular occasion, usually for a special literary effect (cyberspace from William Gibson’s Neuromancer). There is such notion as portmanteau (plural: portmanteaux) that can be also regarded as a type of neologisms. It is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words to give a combined meaning. A folk usage of portmanteau refers to a word that is formed by combining both sounds and meanings from two or more words: e.g. spork – spoon +fork animatronics – animation + electronics Typically, portmanteau words are neologisms. One of the most well-known examples is cyborg, a term which is commonly used to refer to a cybernetic organism. This usage of portmanteau has been eliminated in modern linguistics. It has a certain historical currency, but has been superseded by the word blend in modern linguistic usage. Words such as those cited below and other words such as motel, smog, brunch, etc. are now called blends. Morphemes which have more than one meaning are still called portmanteaux. This usage of the word was coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871). In the book, Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice words from the verse Jabberwocky, saying, “Well, slithy means lithe and slimy ...” We see it's like a portmanteau— there are two meanings packed up into one word. Carroll often used such words to a humorous effect in his work. Portmanteau, from Middle French porter (to carry) and manteau (a coat or cover), formerly referred to a large travelling bag or suitcase with two compartments, hence the linguistic idea of fusing two words and their meanings into one. Portmanteau is rarely used to refer to a suitcase in English any more, since that type of a suitcase has fallen into disuse. In French, the word has the different meaning of coat hanger, and sometimes coat rack, and is spelled porte-manteau. The French word for Portmanteau is mot valise, which translates literally as “suitcase word”. Portmanteau word was the original phrase used to describe such words (as listed in dictionaries published as late as the early 1990s), but this has since been abbreviated to simply portmanteau as the term (and the type of words it describes) gained popularity.
1.3. Ways and means of formation
New words are mainly coined according to the productive models for word-building in the given language. But the new words of the literary-bookish type may sometimes be built with the help of affixes and by other means which have gone out of use or which are in the process of dying out. In this case the stylistic effect produced by the means of word-building chosen becomes more apparent, and the stylistic function of the device can be felt more acutely. Among new coinages of a literary-bookish type must be mentioned a considerable layer of words appearing in the publicistic style, mainly in newspaper articles and magazines and also in the newspaper style— mostly in newspaper headlines. To these belongs the word Blimp — a name coined by Low, the well-known English cartoonist. The name was coined to designate an English colonel famous for his conceit, brutality, ultra-conservatism. This word gave birth to a derivative, viz. Blimpish. Other examples are backlash (in “backlash policy”) and its opposite frontlash. There are several different ways of forming neologisms: 1. Phonological neologisms are formed by combining unique combinations of sounds, e.g. rah-rah (a short skirt which is worn by girls during parades, because girls repeat in chorus rah, rah when they are marching). 2. Among morphological neologisms there are a lot of compound words of different types, such as free-fall (“slump - резкое падение курса”), rubber-neck (a tourist who remains in the coach and is not curious about the country), sheepskin – “дубленка”, shelflife – “expiry date”, to bottle-feed – “to feed a baby with a bottle”, to catlick – “to wash the dishes carelessly.” 3. Neologisms can be formed by means of conversion from attributive-nominal phrases (to hero-worship, to Mickey-mouse). 4. Many compound verbs are formed by means of back formation “to headhunt from head hunter - to recruit experienced specialists for ones firm”. 5. There are compound neologisms of morphological type, mainly nouns. Most of them are terminological neologisms. They are built on the pattern of Latin compounds and are called neoclassical compounds. Latin and Greek stems are used: aero-aergram, aeronaut, aerospace, aerocapture; allo-alhmorph, ailophone. Sometimes the second component is of classical origin and is repeated in a number of words, thus forming a new structural pattern of words. Thus, there are words with the second element mania (from Greek mania – “madness”) e.g. discomania, Beatlesmania; with the elements phile, philia (from Greek philos – “love”) e.g. pianophile, Francophilia. 6. Blending: mimsy (miserable-flimsy). 7. Neologisms-abbreviations of different types, such as teen, dinky (dual income no kids yet), HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). 8. Affixation: a foodie (a person fond of food), a groupie (a girl who follows a pop group everywhere), a popster – (a fan of cool jazz), and so on. So, word-building by means of affixation is still predominant in coining new words. Examples are: orbiter—“a spacecraft designed to orbit a celestial body”; lander—“a spacecraft designed to land on such a body”; missileer—“a person skilled in missilery or in the launching and control of missiles”. The literary-bookish character of such coinages is quite apparent and needs no comment. They are always felt to be over-literary because either the stem or the affix (or both) is not used in the way the reader expects it to be used. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that by forcibly putting together a familiar stem and a familiar affix and thus producing an unfamiliar word, the writer compels the reader to concentrate his attention on the new word, firstly by its novelty and sec¬ondly by the necessity of analyzing it in order to decipher the message. By using a neologism instead of the word or combination of words ex¬pected, he violates the main property of a communication, which is to convey the idea straightforwardly and promptly. Among new creations those with the suffix -ize seem to be the most frequent. The suffix -ize gives a strong shade of bookishness to new words. Thomas Pyles writes that “the -ize suffix... is very voguish in advertizing copy and its fashionableness may explain why “hospitalize”, current since the turn of the century, has recently begun to flourish.” Here are some more examples of neologisms with this suffix: detribalized (Africans); accessonez; moisturfze; villagize. Some affixes are themselves literary in character and naturally carry this property to derivatives formed with them. Thus, for example, the prefix anti- has given us a number of new words which are gradually be¬coming recognizable as facts of the English vocabulary, e. g. anti-novelist, anti-hew, anti-world, anti-emotion, and the like. The prefix anti-, as is seen from these examples, has developed a new meaning. It is rather difficult to specify. In the most general terms it may be defined as “the reverse of”. The suffix -dom has also developed a new meaning, as in gangdom, freckledom, musiciom here the suffix is used with the most general meaning of collectivity. The suffix - ее has been given new life. We have interrogate, autobiographee (“...the pseudo-autobiographer has swallowed theautobiographeewhole.NewStatesman, No/.29,1963); enrollee (“Each enrollee is given a booklet filled with advice and suggestions, and attends the lecture...” New York Times Magazine, Jan. 26, 1964); omittee, askee (“That's a bad habit, asking a question and not waiting for an answer, but it's not always bad for the askee.” Rex Stout, “Too many clients”). The suffix -ship has also developed a new shade of meaning which is now gaining literary recognition, as in the coinages: “showmanship”, “brinkmanship”, “lifemanship”, “lipmanship”, “mistressmanship”, “supermanship”, etc. In these coinages an interesting phenomenon seems to be taking place. The word man is gradually growing first into, a half-suffix and finally into part of the complex suffix - manship with the approximate meaning “the ability to do something better than another person”. There is still another means of word-building in modern English which may be considered voguish at the present time, and that is the blending of two words into one by curtailing the end of the first com¬ponent or the beginning of the second. Examples are numerous: musico-medy (music-f-comedy); cinemactress (cinema+actress); avigation (avia-tion+navigation); and the already recognized blends like smog (smoked-fog); chortle (chuckle+snort); galumph (triumph+gallop) (both occur in Humpty Dumpty's poem in Lewis Carroll's “Through the Looking Glass“). A rockoon (rocket+balloon) is “a rocket designed to be launched from a balloon”. Such words are called blends. Among voguish suffixes which colour new coinages with a shade of bookishness is the suffix -ese, the dictionary definition of which is “1) belonging to a city or country as inhabitant (inhabitants) or lan¬guage, e. g. Genoese, Chinese; 2) pertaining to a particular writer (of style or diction), e. g. Johnsonese, journalese.” Modern examples are: Daily-Telegraphese, New Yorkese; recently a new word has appeared TV-ese. It is the novelty of these creations that attracts our attention and it is the unexpectedness of the combination that makes us feel that the new coinage is of a bookish character. In reviewing, the ways and means of coining new words, we must not overlook one which plays a conspicuous role in changing the meaning of words and mostly concerns stylistics. We mean injecting into well-known, commonly-used words with clear-cut concrete meanings, a meaning that the word did not have before. This is generally due to the combinative power of the word. This aspect of words has long been under¬estimated by linguists. Pairing words which hitherto have not been paired, makes the components of the word-combinations acquire a new, and sometimes quite unexpected, meaning. Particularly productive is the adjective. It tends to acquire an emotive meaning alongside its logical meaning, as, for instance, terrible, awful, dramatic, top. The result is that an adjective of this kind becomes an intensifier: it merely indicates the degree of the positive or negative quality of the concept embodied in the word that follows. When it becomes generally accepted, it becomes part of the semantic structure of the word, and in this way the semantic wealth of the vocabulary increases. True, this process is mostly found in the domain of conversation. But the literary-bookish language, in quest of new means of impressing the reader, also resorts to this means of word coinage. It is mostly the product of newspaper language to discover new means of impressing the reader is greatest e.g. massive intention, massive blunder, crucial importance. Purists resist the unrestrained flow of new coinages of a bookish character, which greatly outnumbers the natural collo¬quial creations. For example, they think that “Among the more frequent and absurd of these linguistic monsters are condensed words ending in -rama and -thon. The former comes from panorama from the Greek pan (= all) plus horama (= a view) or cyclorama from the Greek kyklos (= a circle) plus horama again. So far so good; the next development is cinerama, still sound, from the Greek kinema (= motion) and our old friend horama. Strugglesome, informatative, connotate, unworthwhile, inferiorism, deride, to be accusated are other words which are apparently considered to be distortions”. The protest against these “ink-horn” terms is not based on any sound linguistic foundation. It merely shows the attitude of the writer towards certain …………………………………………………………………….. …………………………………………………………………….. ……………………………………………………………………..
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