网络英语新词的构词特点及其发展趋势

摘要本文首先概述了新词的发展并给出了其定义，然后探索了网络英语新词出现的背景及原因，接着文章又从语义特征和构词两方面概括网络英语新词的特点。

本文的第五部分结合实例列举了网络英语新词的七种常见构词形式，即合成法、派生法、截短法、首字母拼音法、拼缀法、旧词新义、创新法。

第六部分提出了一种特殊的新词——表情符号，并从定义、分类、构词形式三方面对其进行讨论。

最后，本文还预测了网络英语新词的三种发展趋势。

关键词：网络英语新词；特点；构词；发展趋势ABSTRACTThis paper first describes the development of neologism and gives a definition to it. Then, it explores the background and the reasons of the appearance of Internet English neologisms. Next, it genelizes the characteristics of the Internet English neologisms from two perspectives of meaning and formation. In the fifth part of this paper, it illustrates seven common ways of formation of these neologisms combined with examples, i.e., compounding, affixation, clipping, acronymy, blending, by adding new meanings to existing words, coinage. The sixth part introduces a new special form of neologism: emoticon, which are discussed from three aspects, i.e., definition, classification and formation. Finally, it anticipates three development tendency of the Internet English neologisms.Keywords：Internet English neologisms; characteristic; formation;development tendencyContents1. Introduction (1)2. The development of neologism and its definition (2)3. The reasons for the appearance of the Internet English neologism (4)4. The characteristics of Internet English neologisms (5)4.1 Semantic features (5)4.1.1 Terse and Clear (5)4.1.2 Vivid and proper (6)4.1.3 Popular (6)4.2 Formation features (7)4.2.1 Easy to remember and type (7)4.2.2 Utilizing the symbols on the keyboard (7)5. Ways of the formation of Internet English neologisms (8)5.1 Compounding (8)5.2 Affixation (9)5.2.1 Prefixation (9)5.2.2 Suffixation (9)5.3 Clipping (9)5.4 Acronymy (10)5.4.1 Initialism (10)5.4.2 Acronymy (11)5.5 Blending (11)5.6 Adding new meanings to existing words (12)5.7 Coinage (12)6. Emoticon—a special Internet English neologism (14)6.1 The definition of emoticon (14)6.2 Classification of Emoticon (14)6.3 The formation of emoticon (16)7. The development tendency of the Internet English Neologisms (17)7.1 Internet English neologisms coming into daily usage (17)7.2 Irregular usage in the passage written by Internet English neologisms (18)7.3 A large number of neologisms springing up at a rapid speed (18)8. Conclusion (20)Acknowledgement .............................................................................. 错误！未定义书签。

References (21)1．IntroductionAll living language in the world, including the English language is constantly changing. The change that is constantly going on in a living language can be seen in the vocabulary, that is, in neologisms [1]129. After World WarⅡ, neologisms emerged in an endless stream. Each day in the English language new words are born at a speed of many thousands.In the recent 20 years, because of the rapid development of computer technology, together with the popularization of the network, Internet has already become the media that has been most widely used. Because of the comprehensive and numerous information resources, Internet has attracted the attention of the world, and as a result leads to the emergence of network neologisms, especially plenty of Internet English neologisms. Neologisms appear in such a large number and at so fast a speed that there is no such a dictionary that is possible to include all of these new entries in time. It is necessary for us to analyze the formation and their characteristics of these countless Internet English neologisms, which can not only help to acquire knowledge and broaden our horizon, but also contribute to the study and teaching of the English language [2]85. With the development of Internet technology, Internet English has already merged into people‟s daily life. On the basis of the linguistic theory of lexicology, this paper deals with the characteristics of Internet English neologisms by analyzing their formation and it also anticipates the development tendency of them.2. The development of neologism and its definitionThe term …neologism‟ originates from Greek: neos means …new‟, and logos me ans …word‟, and is in itself something of a neologism. [3]12Now, neologism is commonly called new word.Allan Metcall, a professor of English published his book Predicting New Words: the Secrets of their Success in 2002 in the United States, wrote tha t “new words have been appearing in our language regularly for over a thousand years, but most of them vanish in short order. Especially doomed to obscurity are deliberate coinages, the words people invent to address a perceived need or to make a witty addition to our lexicon… Similarly, each day in the English language at least as many thousands of new words are born. Yet after a year‟s time, only a few hundreds of these will remain as serious candidates for the dictionary and a place in our permanent voc abulary.” [4] 1-2 There are three types of words in terms of their appearance and disappearance: old words, new words, and existing words. In the course of time old words die out, new words are added and existing words change their meanings. So the vocabulary of language is in a state of almost continuous change.The rate of vocabulary changes varies according to the different periods. In the fourteenth century large numbers of French words were introduced into the English language. In the sixteenth century large numbers of new words were borrowed from Latin. In the nineteenth century the vocabulary of science and technology had greatly expanded. Today the vocabulary in the English language is still expanded at a rapid speed.In general, there are two main sources of new words in the English vocabulary. Modern science and technology, which is the most important source of new words, brings about the addition of countless new words. Political, economical and social changes are other important sources of new words. Their influence on the English vocabulary is as great as that of science and technology.So, what is neologism? What kind of word can be defined as “neologism”? Actually, the researchers on these questions are being heatedly pursued, yet no general argument has been reached. Researchers with different knowledge backgrounds may define neologism in different ways.The Oxford Dictionary of New Words gives the definition of …neologism‟, which is“a new word is any word, phrase, or sense tha t come into popular use or enjoyed a vogue in the given period.”[5]The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th College Edition) gives its definition like this: “1. A new word, expression, or usage. 2. The creation or use of new words or senses. 3. Psychology a. The invention of new words regarded as a symptom of certain psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. b. A word so invented. 4. Theology A new doctrine or a new interpretation of scripture.”[6]In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Engl ish-Chinese Dictionary, “Neologism” is defined as “newly-invented word”[7],and in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, “a new word or expression, or a new meaning for an older word” [8].Nowadays, the term “neologism” is closely associated with li nguistic neology, lexicology and terminology. In most dictionaries, neologism and neology are treated as synonyms and share the same definition: the act of inventing a word and a phrase or a newly invented word or phrase.Neologisms are by definition “new” and as such are often directly attributable to specific individual, publication, period or event. The term “neologism” was itself coined in 1805. In linguistics, a neologism is word, term, or phrase which has been recently create d—often to apply to new concepts, or to reshape older terms in newer language forms.Scholars usually discuss neologisms from two aspects: the time perspective and the semantic perspective. From the time perspective, neologisms refers to words within a certain period of time, as long as those words, say appeared 20 or 30 years ago, are still used today, and have deeply rooted in people‟s minds, they can still hold the identity of neologism. From the semantic perspective, neologisms refer to words that newly appear in communication and carry the new meanings. However, those old words that hold the new meaning are also considered as neologisms. So far a general criterion for defining neologisms can be found: 1) neologisms are the words which didn‟t occur before and are newly built and currently enter into the common lexicons. 2) Neologisms are the words which within a certain period of time, have been widely accepted by people and still find their applications nowadays. 3) Neologisms are those old words which carry the new meanings.3. The reasons for the appearance of the Internet EnglishneologismInternet is a global computer network, which is linked by the international telecommunication lines. Since its appearance, it is experiencing tremendous growth in the number of users, hosts, and domain names, which are the media most widely used. Internet is also known as “the net”, “the information superhighway”, and “cyberspace”.Because there is no central computer and no central authority which controls Internet, it then grew into an academic site. Now science and education fields use it as an electronic library and as a way to exchange information through discussion groups. With the growth of economy, productivity, commercial communication, etc., people widely use Internet for information exchanges because it is convenient and timesaving. Meanwhile, with the wide use of Internet, Internet English, a new language variety with its own style, is emerging. As we know, all living languages are constantly changing with the appearance of neologisms everyday, so is Internet English.The Internet English neologisms include all the new words, phrases and language usages related to the emergence and application of the computer technology and network in the information age, which can be roughly divided into three categories: the first kind is the specialized terms related to computer and network; the second kind is the specialized terms related to network, or the new words produced with the development of network, for instance, cyberlover, cybercrime, e-cash, web TV, etc.; the third kind is netizens‟ commonly used words and symbols in the chat room, e-mails and BBS, for instance, clippings, emoticons, etc.4. The characteristics of Internet English neologisms4.1 Semantic featuresMany neologisms of Internet English are often formed by deriving from some frequently used words, combining familiar words together, or adding new meanings to the existing words. Thereby, these Internet English neologisms have the characteristics of being vivid, proper, terse and clear in semantic sense, which can help us to make better expressions of the thoughts and ideas. So these neologisms are easily accepted and widely used.4.1.1 Terse and ClearDifferent from the traditional media, people communicating on Internet want more convenience and more efficiency. Such communication does not merely require netizens to transmit information accurately and rapidly, and also to find out the useful information that oneself needs in a sea of information resources. Under such conditions, in order to get more efficient communication, the netizens surfing on line or engaging in e-commerce tend to make full use of the traditional ways of word-formation, for example, using affixes and clippings etc. and to utilize more innovative methods, such as emoticon. An emoticon is a textual portrayal of a writer‟s mood or facial expression. They can be very effective toward avoiding misinterpretation of the writer‟s intents, because we can easily know their meanings. Moreover, A lot of technical terms correlating with network and computer are tediously long, in order to simplify the text and save the time of reading, thus to meet the demand of the computer science and high-speed developing network technology, we can find acronyms and initialisms in large quantity. The common characteristic is that the two forms are succinct and the meaning of such an word is single and clear without associated and extended meaning.The new word …cybercrime‟, …cyberfiction‟, cyberchat‟,…cyberculture‟, etc. all have the affix …cyber-‟which means Internet, so the netizens know these new words all means something related to Internet. Then from the other parts of these words, they can clearly understand their meanings.Other examples l ike …IT‟ (information technology), …ISP‟ (Internet Service Provider), …WAN‟(Wide Area Network), these words are all shorter than the original words, which improve the inputting-speed and the efficiency of information exchange. But the meanings of these words are single and clear without associated and extended meaning, which is contributable to the communication on Internet.4.1.2 Vivid and properThe formation of the Internet English neologisms often comes from the common daily words. According to the study of their formation, especially from the way of adding new meanings to the existing words, the language users can find that the new things or concepts are similar to and have association with the familiar words. These neologisms are created meaningfully and vividly to describe the new things and new ideas.For example, the word …mouse‟ originally refers to any of numerous small rodents typically resembling rats having pointed snouts and small ears on elongated bodies with slender usually hairless tails. Now on Internet, it means a hand-operated electronic device that controls the coordinates of a cursor on your computer screen as you move it around on a pat, because the shape of this electronic device is similar to a mouse. Moreover, by analogy to …couch potato‟ (the one who spends very much time on a couch watching television), …mouse potato‟ is coined to mean the netizens indulging themselves in the cyber world.4.1.3 PopularNetizens need the communication in the environment of Internet to be swift and brief. And terseness and vividness, as it is mentioned above, which to some extent, determine the popularity of Internet English, i.e. it is easy to be understood. Especially, many believed that Internet English is written language with the characteristics of spoken language. Moreover, the differences between daily communication and communication by Internet are basically caused by the media, but without essential distinctions in the core. So, the majority of the neologisms in Internet English are popular, though some of the clippings, blendings seem odd to be understood, actually they are just contractions of rich meanings to fit the high speed of information exchanges online. Once the key is grasped, these neologisms are easy to understand inthe realistic usage.4.2 Formation featuresMost Internet English Neologisms are formed in a traditional way, such as compounding, affixation. There are also large numbers of neologisms created in a new way related to the computer peculiarity, i.e., its keyboard.4.2.1 Easy to remember and typeMany Internet English words are reshaped by the rules of word formation, such as roots and affixes, one can guess the meaning by studying their formation. Often, those words carry the characteristics of conciseness, easiness to understand and remember, which helps the netizens get rid of the verbose and complicated terms and jargons, improve the speed of typing words effectively, thus contributing to the dissemination of the Internet information. [2]844.2.2 Utilizing the symbols on the keyboardThe composition of new words with the combination of the symbols on the keyboard is the most dramatic characteristic in the Internet English neologisms, also in the English language. Some make use of the partial tone and numbers to form words.The partial tone is a phenomenon where the sound of letter or numeral acts as a syllable of a word, or a word itself. [9]86For example, the word …B4‟ is derived from …before‟, because of the pronunciation of the syllable …fore‟ in …before‟, which is the same as the Roman numeral 4, and it is replaced by …4‟ in writing.In a chatting room, a special form of language—emoticon is widely used now. They serve as a quick way to get messages across, whether good or bad, happy or sad. These emoti cons “show us that a way language is going back to where it all started: the use of picture to convey meaning”[10]. They complement the inability of words to express feelings exactly and conveniently.”5．Ways of the formation of Internet English neologismsOn the Internet there are innumerable neologisms coming and dying. The Internet provides a space for individuals to freely create new words. The rapid spread of information on the Internet makes those new words well known among netizens. This part will explore the formation rules that Internet English neologisms will follow.5.1 CompoundingCompounding is a process of word-formation by which two independent words are put together to make one word. Words formed by compounding are called compounds. At the beginning, some of the compounds appeared as a phrase; the components were relatively independent and stood by themselves. Now hyphens are used between some of them and more and more of the former phrase-like forms tend to appear as single words on condition that there won‟t be the similar misunderstanding which happens between …dark room‟ and …darkroom‟.There are various ways to classify the compound words. For convenience, we can study the compounds in Internet English neologisms by sorting them out into the following categories:1). Open form. Open form refers to a new expression formed by two words and there is space between the two words. Such as: key pals; mouse potato; ankle biter; forced coolness; feature creature2). Hyphenated form. Hyphenated form refers to the neologism formed by two words, which is connected by a hyphen. Such as the following words: internet-bar; computer-nerd; chat-fly; brain-dead; brick-and-mortar; drop-outs; drop-ins3). Solid form. Solid form refer to a new word formed by two words but there is no space between them. Such as: wideband; vapourware; webmaster; netcop; networm; firewall; keyboard5.2 AffixationAffixation is generally defined as the formation of words by adding derivational affixes to roots to supply grammatical or lexical information. This process is also known as derivation, for new words created in this way are derived from old forms, and the words formed in this way are called derivatives. According to the position which affixes occupy in words, affixation falls into two subclasses: prefixation and suffixation. [11]48 In Internet language, there are lots of neologisms formed in this way. And moreover, many words can be found in connection with computer, Internet or the information age.5.2.1 PrefixationPrefixation is a main type of word- formation putting a prefix in front of the base, sometimes with, but more usually without a change of word class. [12]44 For example: Cyber-: meaning “computer” or “computer network”cybercrime; cybercrub; cyberspeak; cypertheft; cyberpunk; cybersquattinge-: shortening for “electronic” and also meaning “computer”e-Business; e-Cash; e-Market; e-Shopping; e-Service; e-Life; e-Loyalty; e-Journal5.2.2 SuffixationSuffixation is the other kind of formation of neologisms by adding a suffix to the root, with or without a change of word class. [11]49 For example:-ware: computing terms, meaning “software"freeware; shareware; groupware; shovelware; donorware-ize: a verb suffix signifying to make, to do, to practicedigitize; normalize; informationize-or/er: meaning doer of the actionaccelerator; browser; hacker; surfer; spammer; scanner5.3 Clipping“Another common way of making a word is to shorten a longer w ord by cutting apart of the original and using what remains instead. This is called clipping or shortening.”[11]101A clipped word is created by cutting out one or more than one syllables of a word, which fall into four classifications, that is, apocope, aphaeresis, front and rear clipping, and syncope. “Abbreviations have always been a common type of pseudo-neologism…” [13]. For example, prof. from professor, bus from omnibus, etc. Here, “abbreviations”, in its sense, refer to the clipped word, because ab breviations, in broad sense, include not only clipped words but initialisms and acronyms as well.In Internet language, there are three types of clipped words, namely, apocope, aphaeresis, front and rear clipping.1) Apocope. Apocope refers to loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word.info---information rep--- reputation sec--- second Mac--- Macintosh2) Aphaeresis. Aphaeresis indicates the loss of one or more sounds from the beginning of a word.K--- ok Link--- hyperlink U--- you Y? --- Why?3) Front and rear clipping. Front and rear clipping, obviously, denotes the loss of front and rear sounds of a word. However, the words on Internet by this kind of formation is rare. For example, r--- are.5.4 AcronymyAcronymy is the process of forming new words by joining the initial letters of names of social and political organizations or special noun phrases and technical terms. Words formed in this way are called initialisms or acronyms, depending on the pronunciation of the words.5.4.1 InitialismInitialism is formed from the initial letters of more than two words. Initialism cannot be pronounced as a word, but letter by letter. [11]103 The initialism on the Internet is characterized by its usage in the chatting room. There are two kinds initialisms according to whether it contains numbers.1) Pure initialism without numbersIT--- information technology LOL--- Laugh out loudBTW--- By the way AFAIK--- As far as I know2) Initialism with numbers. This way to form a neologism is one of the characteristics ofthe Internet English neologisms and the partial tone, whose definition is given in 4.2.2, is a special form derived from it. In these words or phrases, the word “to” is often been replaced by the number “2” and “for” is replaced by “4”, because their pronounciations is the same. There are examples:P2P--- Peer to peer B2B--- Business to businessB2C--- Business to Consumer B4N--- Bye for nowAny1--- anyone 4get--- forget5.4.2 AcronymyT he word “acronym” comes from Greek, meaning heads of names. Acronyms are usually made from the capitalised initials of the words it represents but pronounced as a normal word.The word “acronym” comes from Greek, meaning heads of names. Acronyms are usually made from the capitalised initials of the words it represents but pronounced as a normal word.On Internet, most of the acronyms are technical terms or comupter terms. For example, the word “LAN” is a acronym of “Local Area Network”, which is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. Other examples like:WAN--- Wide Area NetworkSOHO--- small office or home officeRAM--- random access memoryROM--- read only memory5.5 BlendingThe process of simultaneously combining and shortening is blending. A Blending is a word made by joining two or more forms but omitting at least part of one. This simple process has a number of variations, some quite complex. Words formed in this way are called blends or portmanteaus.[14]10 On the Internet, neologisms formed by blending can be grouped to five categories: head + word, head + tail, word + head, head + head, word + tail. The examples are:(1). head + word: netiquette---network + etiquetteEmoticon---emotion +icon(2). head + tail: netizen---network + citizene-zine---electronic + magazine(3). word + head: webcam---web + cameraCybercafé---cyber + cafeteria(4). head + head: telco---telephone + companyinfocosm---information + cosmos(5). word + tail: webster---web + masternetcast---net + broadcast5.6 Adding new meanings to existing wordsAlthough newly-created words are especially striking, it must not be forgotten that old-established ones often take on additional shades of meaning as a result of extended technical knowledge or a changed point of view resulting from scientific or sociological causes. About 15 percent of new words are simply old words with new meanings. Actually, old words taking on new meanings are a common phenomenon in a language. There are also a large portion of Internet English neologisms formed by this way. For examples:Worm: its original meaning is a small thin tube like creature with no backbone or legs which lives in the earth, but on the Internet, it means the virus in the computer programs.Wheel: its original meaning is a circular object with an outer frame which turns around an inner part and now it is used to describe a great personage on the Internet Toast: its original meaning is to make food such as bread or cheese brown, by holding it close to heat and on the Internet it means that somebody damages a computer program which leads to its breakdown.5.7 CoinageCoinage, one of the least common processes of word-formation, is sheer invention. An outright coinage is hard to remember because it has no familiar elements to aid the memory. So wholly new coinages are born harder to make and less likely to be remembered and used. [15]37However, on Internet, because of its special traits, there is a small portion of neologism created by sheer invention. They are often terms and reflect the developmentof the computer technology. These terms are practical and gradually turn into common words that are known and accepted by masses.Among the very few certain examples is “dongle”. The word “dongle” (protection of the software) is created by the software researchers. Look at another two examples. “Matrix” and “@” a re made up by novelists William Gibson and computer engineer Ray Tomlinson respectively. The word “grrl” is the variant of “girl” on the Internet, created by the feminists.6. Emoticon—a special Internet English neologism6.1 The definition of emoticonOn September 19th, 1982 Scott Fahlman at Camegie Mellon University in American, wrote several characters on the electronic call-board at the first time: :-). Thus, the first smile face on a computer came into being. From then on, emoticons are gradually accepted by the netizens and getting their popularity on the Internet all over the world. [16]As to the definition of emoticon, it is described that an emoticon is a textual portrayal of a writer's mood or facial expression. They are often used to alert a responder to the tenor or temper of a statement, and can change and improve interpretation of plain text. The word is a portmanteau of the English words …emotion‟ (or emote) and …icon‟. In web forums, instant messengers and online games, text emoticons are often automatically replaced with small corresponding images, which came to be called emoticons as well[17].Emoticons are better known as "smileys." Emoticons can be very effective toward avoiding misinterpretation of the writer's intents. While there are no standard definitions for the following emoticons, we have supplied their most usual meanings. Most emoticons will look like a face (eyes, nose, and mouth) when rotated 90 degrees clockwise.6.2 Classification of EmoticonVarious kinds of emoticons are created to convey different meanings. It could be a facial expression, an action, a person and his/ her appearance, an animal, an object, and even the tone of the speech. Here emoticons are classified into the following。