Language Play And Lexical Innovation Of The 21St Century English

Language play in Scholarship

Traditionally, the term ‘language play’ is used in scholarship in a broad and narrow sense. The broad interpretation belongs to Wittgenstein ( 1985) who is said to be the first to introduce the term into scholarly discourse. He regarded language play as the system of conventional rules that the language user resorts to in describing the language ( Wittgenstein, 1985). Play is inherent in culture, the essence of the human world. One of the most significant (human and cultural) aspects of play is that it is fun. Huizinga identifies its absolute freedom, order, lack of material interest on the part of the player ( Huizinga, 2016).

Language play and Linguistics

In a narrow sense the term language play is frequently employed by linguists as “realization of the poetic function (aesthetic function)” ( Zemskaya, Kitaygorodskaya, & Rosanova, 1983, p. 172), as “any deliberate unconventional use of the language, or one of the forms of experimenting with language” ( Sannikov, 2016, p. 41), as “…intonational, rhythmic, phonetic, lexical, morphological, etc. modifications of language norms which use the same principle, of deviating from language norms” ( Crystal, 1998, p. 22). More specifically, language play could be reduced to play on words, or wordplay “A play on words can come into existence (a) through the change in meaning, and therefore from homonymy and polysemy, (b) through the change of word forms and the rearranging of sound, e.g. an anagram, the rearranging of syllables or of morphemes, (c) by blend” ( Bussmann, 1998, p. 910).

The functions of using language play may be manifold, including emotive, nominative, communicative, manipulative, phatic, aesthetic or expressive ones. But as Crystal ( 1998) observes, people play with language when they manipulate it as a source of enjoyment, either for themselves or for the benefit of others. He means ‘manipulate’ literally: we take some linguistic feature – such as a word, a phrase, a sentence, a part of a word, a group of sounds, a series of letters – and make it do things it does not normally do. We are, in effect, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it, the answer is simply ‘for fun’ ( Crystal, 1998). Therefore, the ludic function (showing off one’s wit) seems worthwhile mentioning in the framework of this investigation.

Lexical innovations: the neologist’s view

For the purposes of this study it is important that we summarize the conception of new word in neology.

According to Algeo ( 1991) “a new word is a form or the use of a form not recorded in general dictionaries” (p. 2). The form may be one that is usually spelled as a single word ( guesstimate) or a compound (sandwich generation) or even an idiomatic phrase (out of the loop) . Theoretically, a neologism is any word, meaning, or expression that is considered to be an addition to the language at a particular time ( Barnhart, 1985). The main property of new words and meanings is their relative unfamiliarity in the general vocabulary or even in a specialized vocabulary, such as slang, technical jargon, or non-standard or “uneducated” use. This idea echoes the postulates of neology in Russia: "Neologisms" are closely related to the concept of 'time', which is fixed in the minds of the speakers ( Zabotkina, 1989). Therefore, new words are those ones, which appear in the language later than the period of time determined as a starting point of neological research. These timeframes are arbitrary and different scholars choose different periods in the life of the speaking community; some scholars are inclined to consider World War II as a boundary line between ‘old’ and ‘new’, others think that space exploration which manifests the explosion of technological advancements is that borderline (See, for example, J. Algeo's Fifty Years Among New Words: A Dictionary of New Words since 1945-1991 and The Barnhart Dictionary of New Words since 1963 ); still others consider the advent of the Internet as the launching pad for the influx of linguistic innovations embracing all levels of the language structure, let alone lexis. In short, the criterion of neologism is arbitrary, yet discernible ( Zabotkina, 1989).

Changes in the vocabulary of any language are likely to take place when the relationship between the name (the signifier) and the thing named (the signified) is changed. There are 4 possible variations in this relationship: 1) the current form is used to denote a new referent (thing, object, event, idea, concept); 2) a new name is used to denote the referent which already has the name in the language; 3) a new name is given to a new referent; 4) the name ceases to be used because the referent lost its significance (e.g. ceased to exist). In other words 'neologism is a new word (or word phrase), which is new in form or in content, or both. Zabotkina ( 2012) argues that a new word is coined and/or a new word meaning develops for three rhetorical reasons: the necessity to name a thing, the necessity for emphasis, the necessity for beauty. We can assume that new word coiners are motivated by the need to name some common things in an unusual way, thus testing the limits of the language structure, and by doing so, to have fun, amusement.

New information technologies triggered new ways of communicating among people. More and more often the English vocabulary is replenished with the so-called communicative lexical items which lay beyond the scope of neological studies. With the advent of social media the new word resources on the Internet register a great number of abbreviations, acronyms, graphical modifications and other ways of experimenting with the language. The lexical items of our corpus were taken from the Internet new word resource bank on the ground of meeting predominantly the last two needs, i.e. the need ‘to realize one’s linguistic-creative abilities, to demonstrate one’s idiostyle’.

Graphical level

Illustrations of language play at graphical and phonetic levels are not numerous (4% of the corpus data), yet these patterns embrace graphical and/or sound modifications of the word, which are easily observable. Interestingly, word form deviations are expected to be recognizable by the recipient because the rules of language play demand that the addressee/recipient should be able to decode the word and share the fun with the coiner of the jocular name. Modifications in spelling (presumably, intentional) suggest additional (jocular, sarcastic, humorous) senses in the semantic structure of the prototype word.

e.g. sarchasm - the intellectual gap between the person who makes a sarcastic joke and those who don't get it;

knarsty - extremely scary, dangerous, and filthy (i.e. knarsty is something that is so nasty it needs its own word)

economicky – (humorous) relating to economics, especially in a way that is difficult to understand .

In the following example, the jocular effect of language play is based on homonymy of morphemes - ment (noun suffix) and meant (past form of the verb to mean)

attachmeant - the file you meant to attach to your email but did not.

Phonetic level

On this level the coiners of new words play with sounds (alliteration) and rhymes to render the desired pragmatic effect.

e.g. grab-and-goer - n. a person who dislikes shopping, or does not have much time for shopping, and so tends to select items quickly and without much thought

she shed- a private room where a  woman  can relax, be alone and do  whatever  she pleases

Lipstick on a pig - an unsuccessful attempt to make something ugly look more attractive

yummy mummy - an attractive and fashionably dressed young mother < yummy – young mobile male+ y(ie) and mummy).

Morphological patterns

These patterns involve modifications of word grammatical categories on the basis of the so-called paradigmatic analogy, which may result in producing new word building morphemes ( Guralnik, 2006). We identified several combining forms involved in coining new words

• nazi (forming blended nouns denoting people seen as dictatorial and controlling) e.g.feminazi, grammar nazi, environazi;

• ista (forming nouns denoting one who follows a principle; an adept); e.g.fashionista, recessionista, Corbynista, Trumpista (words formed using this suffix usually have more of a pejorative connotation than related words formed using -ist);

• porn e.g. mommy porn n. (a literary genre that includes elements that allegedly appeal to mothers and housewives), property porn (informal) a genre of television programme or glossy magazine article showing desirable properties with luxurious interiors and idyllic locations.

• - (n)oir (from memoir) (e.g. femoir – a memoir written by a female comedian, foodoir - a book which is both a cookbook and a memoir. A blend of the words'food' and 'memoir')

• widow (forming nouns referring to a woman whose spouse prioritizes a particular activity over other aspects of married life) (exercise ~ a woman who does not see her husband or partner as much as she would like because he spends a lot of time on a hobby). Other examples include computer ~, gamer ~, football ~);

• vore – (modelled on carnivore or herbivore) e.g. femivore - a woman who chooses to look after her home and family as her main job, and who grows and provides food herself as much as possible. As highlighted by Carey ( 2015) in his post on Macmillan Dictionary Blog “ femivore's success as a neologism seems to hang in the balance, both because it breaks the rules of pattern-matching conventionally associated with winning neologisms, and, perhaps more importantly, because its meaning – a complex balance of attitudes to feminism, food and ecological responsibility – seems particularly difficult to unpack;

• vine (modeled on grapevine) (blogvine - the way in which information spreads quickly from one person to another through the blogosphere).

Lexical –Semantic level

Ludic techniques may be identified at the lexical as well as lexical-semantic levels and may produce a desired ironic, humorous or pragmatic effect due to semantic approximation of the prototype and the resulting words:

• borrowings are not common among ludemes,

e.g. al desko (eat at one’s desk/computer;< Italian al fresco - eating outside)

• semantic shift s due to semantic analogy. These examples are quite interesting in that they demonstrate the linguistic creative capacity of the coiner based on the extralinguistic background knowledge of both the coiner and the user of the word

e.g. Facebook fasting - to reduce time spent on social networking activity;

Coffee Party - a  political movement  in the US which has  formed  in  opposition  to the Tea Party Movement ;

Mojito curtain - Cuban  equivalent  of the ' iron curtain ' ;

word-of-post – (modeled on word-of-mouth) gossip and news spread by online posts, particularly via social media or blogs.

Word-building level

It is at this level where half of all the ludemes in the corpus have been registered. Most productive word-building patterns proved to be blending, composition and abbreviations (initialisms) followed by shortenings (clippings mostly).

Algeo ( 1977) categorizes blends into 2 broad categories: syntagmatic blends (e.g. webinar ) viewed as a contraction of two words that occur consecutively in text, and associative blends which involve source words that are related in some ways (e.g. shopoholic ). Among the corpus data the majority of blends are associative, coined for emotive or expressive purposes. Take, for example, the concept Brexit (which is the most recognizable and official term for the possibility of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union; (a blend of the words 'British' or 'Britain' and 'exit'). Other examples in the Macmillan Open Dictionary show creative lexical innovations on the topic of Brexit emphasizing its various possibilities e. g. Brexodus, Bremain, Breturn (Open Dictionary, n.d.). Leherer ( 2003) in her study argues that humans recognise frequent source words more easily, especially, if there is a semantic relationship between these source words. Lexical illustrations from the corpus support this observation. e. g. neverendum – a referendum that is proposed time and time again with the aim that people will support it because they don’t want to hear more about it, wellderly – old people who are healthy .

An interesting case is a group of ludemes coined by composition pattern : a letter abbreviation + root morpheme e. g. ghit ( Google hit), noogler(new Gooogle employee), chext(record a checkbook transaction using a text message ), vool (very cool) , Frape(=facebook rape – hack into Facebook account), edress(e-mail address) . Such words pose a challenge to the recipient to decode the word. As a rule, such words belong to communicative type of lexis frequently used in social media (e.g. Twitter, whose messages are limited to 140 characters.) The other composition models a less common (e.g. mom-in-chief – in American media a reference to Michele Obama).

Stylistic patterns

Some scholars reduce language play to word play and other stylistic devices to produce a new word or word meaning. Of all the ludemes identified at this level, paronomasia or pun - a play on words through the coupling of words that sound similar but which are very different semantically and etymologically (Routlege Dictionary) – is most prolific and worth commenting.

As the lexical illustrations in Table 1 show the ludemes, which are due to pun, are coined on the basis of paronymic proximity of the prototype word and the new coinage, many of them being blends, e.g. playbourer - a person employed to play on a computer game and win virtual gold or other goods which can then be sold for real money; hairography - the  swishing  of  hair  as part of a  dance routine . Other examples demonstrate how the associative capacity of the prototype word is employed e.g. sofalizing - the activity of using the Internet or other electronic devices to socialize with people from home, rather than meeting them face to face . The Commentary article in Buzz Words says that sofalizing  was coined in 2010 by online casino company Yazino, in the context of research commissioned to determine trends in how potential users interact with one another. In other words, the play on words was to meet pragmatic purposes (Buzz Word: Words in the News, n.d.).

e. g. hus-been - a  term  which  describes  a man who is  married  to a  successful woman and who hasn't  got  much of an  identity himself , askhole - someone who  continually asks  for  advice  but never  follows  it .

Examples of other ludic techniques such as allusion - a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance, hyperbole - an unreal exaggeration to emphasize the real situation, or understatement – the opposite of hyperbole , are not numerous, yet quite forceful.

e. g cyber Cyrano - a  ghost writer  who, for a  fee; helps  Internet daters  draft  their  profiles ;

Frankenstorm - a very large and dangerous storm caused by a combination of storms and other particular weather conditions;

nanobreak - a very short holiday which involves staying away from home for one night;

copyleft - a copyright (=the legal right to have control over the work of a writer, musician, artist, etc) statement which gives any person or group the permission to freely use and/or modify a piece of work without the need for payment. The term copyleft  is of course a play on , based on the idea that  as the opposite of  captures the idea of preserving freedom of use as the antithesis of restricting it.