Linguistic Change Viewed in Terms of New Words

Abstract

Proceeding from general points of departure concerning the understanding of linguistic change, the paper concentrates on semantic change and analyzes various language-internal and language-external viewpoints of its origin. It then goes into the definitions of new words as they are presented in various foreign and domestic lexicographical and linguistic handbooks and literature. Then an overview of the literature on new words in Slovene linguistics is given. Particular attention is paid to their treatment in Slovene dictionaries. This general theoretical treatment is augmented by a concrete analysis of the word-formational characteristics of new words from the viewpoint of the source of the parts of the morphemes. In derivation all combinations are possible: 1. a native base combines with a native formant (ustvarljiv ‘realizable’, častnica ‘officer (fem.)’) or a borrowed on (lučkar ‘lighting operator’, ognjiščar ‘member of the Focolare Movement’); 2. a borrowed base is combined with a borrowed formant (golfist ‘golfer’, surfist ‘surfer’); 3. a borrowed base combines with a native formant (babysitterka ‘babysitter (fem.)’, mafijec ‘Mafia member’). In another type of word-formation, prefixation, certain prefixes with certain word classes are particulary productive, e.g., the prefix do- with verbs (doformulirati ‘to complete the formulation of something’, dooblikovati ‘to complete the making/formation of something’) and po- with adjectives (posmučarski ‘après-ski’, pobolnišničen ‘recuperating after a stay in the hospital’). In compounding, too, all combinatory possibilities are realized with respect to the source of the morphemes. Compounds with the first element avto , bio , eko , samo are especially productive. Word-formational types that live in the consciousness of every speaker contain unlimited possibilities for the production of new words. Another productive is the new word-classificational role of words already in use, especially as concerns the formation of adverbs derived from adjectives. The paper concludes with a treatment of new words in the process of grammaticalization, i.e., the inclusion of new words into the grammatical system, by which words enter the process of acquiring predictable and typical grammatical properties. At the same time there exists the possibility that in the integration into the lexica and grammatical system, irregularities arise, e.g., pomelo : pomel ‘pomelo’, aromaterapija : aromoterapija ‘aromatherapy’, Windows : Windowsi ‘Windows’.
In conclusion, new words are in a number of ways a relatively inconsistent and, from the point of view of denotational power, a relevant category of the lexicon from which the core of a given language is fed. At the same time, various cultural influences may be observed, thus this is an important source of material for sociolinguistic inquiry.