REPORT 1
NEOLOGISMS
Catherine Cho
INTRODUCTION
Dear Reader,
The following information that you are about to read
is about Neologisms.
What is a Neologism?
In Greek, ‘neo’ means new and ‘logos’ means
word. Basically, a Neologism is a new
word that has been created in association with new things, new processes, new
concepts, and/or new ideas that are in need of a new name. Through Dr. Leon James’ Psychology 409 class,
I have gained a better understanding of the importance of neologisms. I’ve also come to recognize their great
impact in our lives. Recording and
keeping track of Neologisms can help to better understand one’s thought
processes at specific times of our lives.
Being able to track one’s thought processes will enable us to better
understand why people do the things they do.
Being able to identify the reasons why people do the things they do will
assist us in research across many fields: how people become successful or how
an ordinary and average human being can become criminal. Every action is preceded by a thought; every
thought takes place in the brain, and in the brain is where it all begins—the birthplace
of the Neologism.
The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in
the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere
actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a
tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or
maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does.-Ian Stewart (Chaos Theory)
NEO AWARENESS AMONG PEERS by Catherine Cho
Prior to meeting Dr. Leon James, very few of us have
ever been enlightened by the idea of Neologisms and their role in our everyday
lives. It is a simple concept, yet far
from many people’s grasp, so here we were able to expose a few,
lucky, random individuals with the idea and purpose of neologisms (neo’s).
The first 10 neo’s were produced
by Dr. James and are only a mere fraction of neo’s he has come up
with in the last 50 years; the second set of neo’s are those
which we have come up with, confirming their neo status through Google. We predicted what our peers would rate both
sets of neo’s
according to this rating scale:
1=the likelihood that this is a neo is 80 % or
higher (looks like a neo)
2=the likelihood that this is a neo is around 50 %
(hard to tell if it is a neo or not)
3=the likelihood that this is a neo is less than 30%
(doesn’t look like a neo)
Dr. James’
Neologisms from his Master
Neochart
Team Predicted Rating Neo Peer Average Rating
|
1 |
Anatomical
layers of the human mind form its consciousness. |
1.33 |
|
3 |
Beauty
is the product of love and wisdom. |
2 |
|
2 |
Both
types of loves exist in the human mind from birth. |
1.67 |
|
1 |
Every
evil love has sway over every human being—until regeneration. |
1 |
|
2 |
Love
produces beauty through wisdom. |
2 |
|
1 |
No
love exists that is not heavenly from the Grand Human or hellish from the
Grand Monster. |
1 |
|
2 |
Recognizing
the good of that love appears in the other person. |
2.67 |
|
1 |
The
beginning purpose and the end purpose of all creation is conjugial
love. |
1.67 |
|
3 |
We
are at war against our self and within our self. |
2.67 |
|
2 |
We
speak according to our motives and intentions, which come from love. |
2 |
Team Constructed Neologisms
Team Predicted Rating Neo Peer Average Rating
|
2 |
You
must love to love in order to love and be loved. |
2.33 |
|
1 |
Love
lives in both the conscious and unconscious mind. |
2 |
|
3 |
Marriage
is work before it is play. |
3 |
|
2 |
Love
is truth and follows you everywhere. |
1.33 |
|
2 |
Love
the fire that keeps you warm. |
2.67 |
|
3 |
Incessant
love that rages on. |
2.67 |
|
2 |
The
true test is the true will to commit. |
1.33 |
|
2 |
Don’t
burn in evil love. |
2 |
|
1 |
Strive
to love to reach your heaven. |
2 |
|
3 |
Love
does to our minds what food and water does to our body. |
2.33 |
DATA DISCUSSION
No love exists that is not
heavenly from the Grand Human or hellish from the Grand Monster.
–“This just sounds super original…I’ve never heard of a Grand Human or Grand Monster
before…” (Subject
gave a 1 rating.)
The beginning purpose and the end
purpose of all creation is conjugial love.
-“It sounds pretty textbook, or something a lot of
people say except for the conjugial(?) part…is that even a word?
Anyways, I give it a 2 because of that.”
We are at war against our self and
within our self.
-“Oh man, this just sounds so right. Like if I didn’t hear it from someone,
it has to be in a movie or song or something.”
(Subject gave a 3 rating.)
Marriage is work before it is
play.
-“Cliché? Yeah, definitely heard it before.” (Subject gave a 3 rating.)
Don’t burn in evil love.
-“It’s weird because one word, I think,
makes a difference when I think if it’s a neo or not. Like for this one, I think love makes the
difference—evil love, oxy moron perhaps? If it just said ‘don’t burn in evil’ I think I would’ve given it a 3 but yeah…” (Subject
gave a 2 rating.)
The true test is the true will to commit.
-“It just sounds kinda
awkward.” (Subject
gave a 1 rating.)
Above are
a few samples of the reasons provided by our peer individuals as to why they
gave certain neo’s
the ratings that they did. I found it
interesting to see that most often times, when a subject gave a 3 rating, they
gave it rather quickly, not thinking too much about the neo or repeating it to
themselves. A lot of their reasons were
because they said that the neo sounded familiar or like a universal idea that’s been shared before. Some even based their ratings on whether or
not they agreed with the neo or not.
When a
subject gave a 1 rating, they usually took longer to respond, repeating the neo
to themselves, usually focusing on a particular word or fragment of the
neo. For the neo’s that received
all 1’s from each subject, it was interesting to see
facial expressions change as if the neo introduced a new idea to them.
In
conclusion, the ratings given to us by our subjects seemed to be based on their
ability to relate to the neo and their familiarity with what the neo is trying
to say.
NEOLOGISMS by ‘Inoke Funaki
Just as I was about to begin reading the
introduction to the Master Neochart, there were many
thoughts and questions running through my mind as to why Dr. Leon James spoke
of Neologisms so much in class? What is the big deal about Neologisms that I
don’t understand? What is he planning on
doing with the thousands upon thousands of Neo’s that
he is collecting? What exactly is a
Neologism? And can I somehow make money
from collecting Neo’s the same way I could make money
from collecting cans and bottles? “Neo’s are just words and phrases. I don’t see any point in recording them and
trying to learn about them,” says my close friend Lilika
when asked what she thought about Neologisms following a brief neo-explanation,
“they are just words.” Just about every
single one of my friends that I spoke to about Neologisms had a reaction
similar to that of Lilika because they could not see
the big picture. All they saw were mere
words and phrases. “It just seems like
something too simple and actually kind of silly to have any kind of impact on
our society and affect my life,” my cousin Siale
commented after being asked if he thought that Neologisms could have some kind
of impact on our society and his personal life.
I myself like Lilika and Siale
did not fully understand the importance of Neologisms when I was first learning
about it in class. In fact, like the
others, I too had not even heard the word Neologism before coming into this
class.
A Neologism is a word or phrase that describes a
concept for the first time. Every and any person can produce a Neologism through
speaking, writing, or even thinking.
They can be short or they can be long.
I learned from this article that the practice of gathering these
Neologisms can definitely become an important and useful tool in studying the
human mind. In the beginning of the
article I learned that everyone can benefit from the practice of collecting
their own Neo’s because it can serve as a form of
“biographical record keeping.” I see it
as being kind of like a journal or diary that you can go back to read and keep
track of one’s self, one’s perceptions, and experiences. Neologistic records
are one’s inner consciousness. It really
made sense to me when I read in the article that “expressions people type out,
or think and say, is not a random event that just happens without a specific
cause making it happen. Every event we
can observe must have a cause.” So
before someone types something out, writes something down, or says something
vocally, he/she must first think about it.
And by studying these collected Neologisms, one will be able to learn
much and gain a much better understanding about human thought processes. This definitely can have an impact and play a
role in society because as we study Neologisms and gain a better understanding
of the human mind, we will be able to apply that knowledge into our society to
make it better, which is the bigger picture that I could not see beyond the
mere words and phrases in Neologisms when I was first learning of Neologisms. “I can see now how keeping a record of
Neologisms can serve as personal records of my consciousness allowing me to
reflect on my life,” said Siale later into our
discussion about Neologisms. I too have
gained a broader understanding of Neologisms and how such a small thing that is
seen by most as being very insignificant, can have such a big impact on me and
have a rippling effect on our society if we apply it into our lives.
UNDERSTANDING TRENDY
NEOLOGISMS by Adrienne Lehrer by Simon Na
Lehrer's
article focuses on the blending of words and how neologisms are formed of them.
He notes that this blending is originally not words blended together to
increase efficiency, as in “Acronyms like scuba and ID, clippings like lab (<
laboratory, labrador) and
vet (< veterinarian, veteran), and some blends like fortran
(<formula + translation) and transceiver (< transmitter + receiver)” but are instead harder to understand, at least at
their first introduction. He then continues by saying that this difficulty in
understanding is not meant for rudeness or confusion, but is used by the
speaker with the assumption that the hearer can understand what the blend is
supposed to mean. The words are used to “catch the hearer's attention.” “Many of the neologisms are witty; they involve word
play, such as puns and allusions, as well as the puzzle of novelty. Therefore,
when the hearer figures out the intended meaning, he or she is amused and
perhaps feels clever for having 'gotten' the point.”
Seeing
this, Lehrer experimented by giving various word blends that they defined for
the participants in order to find if the participants could identify the two
words used. After assorted experiments with these word blends, several
hypotheses are put forward, but the most significant is that their testing
method may have been slightly flawed. They attempted to test reaction time and
believed that blends had progressed to the point where, rather than being new
words, they would be understood by the participants as quickly as complex and
compound words. Finding this to be false, a new hypothesis was made.
Rather
than a neologism being something that is easily understood, “If the goal is to capture someone's attention with a
clever or puzzling new word, a slowed-down response is desirable; it suggests
that the hearer/reader is paying attention to the form of the stimulus.” He does note at the end, however, that “the results of these experiments should be viewed as
positive from neologism creator’s viewpoint. Hearers and readers
must figure out what the neologism means, and in the case of blends, what the
contributing words are. But in addition, the creator wants the neologism to be
appreciated linguistically and remembered. And this process takes a little bit
of time.”
NEOLOGISMS OF INTERNET
ENGLISH: SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT by Goda Rumsiene
Rumsienë speaks of neologism
creation in the realm of the Internet, a primarily non-auditory, written
language which has some differences from normal spoken English. Rather than
e-mails, instant messaging, or online journals, he studies Internet Relay Chat
(IRC) in his study of neologisms. Rumsienë notes that
Internet English is highly free in terms of its acceptance of individuality as
many of the rules of Internet English are unwritten and can therefore be
ignored, allowing for far more variety. Rather than creating neologisms for
semantic reasons due to changing rules, he states that “whole alterations are
largely introduced for the sake of alterations themselves, just as an act of
economy and amusement.”
The types
of neologism formation that he looks over are Conversion, changing the meaning
of existing words and using them in novel ways (Google going from a noun to a
verb 'Have you googled it?'), Affixation, altering
words by merely adding some type of affix (archive's opposite being simple unarchive), and also compounding words, one method of which
is “punning based on phonetic similarity or identity of the juncture sounds,
e.g. japanimation (Japanese + animation).”
The
Internet thus seems like a rich locale for new neologisms, although even then,
many of those neologisms follow fairly set rules.
ON THE THEORY OF NEOLOGISMS
AND NONCE-FORMATIONS by Pavol Stekauer
Much more
heavy going than the other reports, Stekauer
differentiates between Nonces, words that are freshly
coined, and words that are actually accepted and in use. The article attempts
to solidly seperate the two from each other, instead
of the mishmash of vague opinions that various others who have studied this
have put together.
Due to
the heavy nature of this paper, I haven't been able to get a full understanding
of the technical aspects of what he's saying, however, I can state that there
are quite a few interesting points in this article.
CONCLUSIONS
To say that the topic of neologisms has been
neglected is not something I can agree with. Whether the research is something
is something that is viewed with the level of importance it actually should
have is also debatable. However, I must state that Stekauer's
idea of a differentiation between Nonces and
Neologisms is quite significant. New words, phrases, or otherwise are always
being brought into being, however not all of them actually bring about change
in language that neologisms seem to bring about. Some are, in fact, pointless coinings of words that will not even live long enough to be
words. One could argue that a random, nonsensical string of letters,
could be a neologism despite the fact that it has no basis in language in the
least.
The study of neologisms should then be limited first
to figuring out exactly what is a neologism, or at least which words out there
are actual neologisms. Popular culture seems to play a primary role in the coining
and prorogation of neologisms, not only because television, music, movies, and
other media are widespread, but also because those who write much of this are
witty and clever, understanding what will cause people to laugh and start using
the words that they created.
Neologisms are important. With language being a
living, growing thing, the new parts of it should be noted and understood where
they come from because words and phrases that become popular are oftentimes a
good indicator of what the people of that time and that place believe to be
important.
REFERENCES
Half a Century of Science
in Psychology: Scientific Neologisms Coined by Leon James
Understanding
Trendy Neologisms by Adrienne Lehrer
Neologisms
of Internet English: Sociolinguistic Aspects of Development by Goda Rumsiene
On
The Theory of Neologisms and Nonce-Formations by Pavol Stekauer
ADVICE
FOR YOUNGER GENERATIONS
For all
the younger generations that are reading this report, my first and most
important words of advice that I would like to share with you not only applies for
this class but also for all areas of your lives—don’t procrastinate! Unless you enjoy rushing things and staying
up late, get your work done as soon as possible. That way, you will actually be able to enjoy
the class and what is being discussed, especially for Dr. James’ class(es). Take advantage of the reading presentations
and group discussions in class; they give awesome insight to the text and
subject and opens your mind and eyes to other,
refreshing perspectives. Don’t be
afraid to let your views be heard either! If you’re not all that enthused about speaking
in front of the class, this class will definitely help to improve your
vocational skills and make you more comfortable. Show up to class every day, stay on top of
the readings, actively participate, look both ways before crossing the street,
brush and floss your teeth daily, and do a good deed daily. Pay it forward. Good Luck! J