Protologism

A protologism is a new word, coined to name a new phenomenon or to fill a gap in the language.[1] Protologisms are one stage in the development of neologisms, at which a word is extremely new (or simply proposed) or not established outside a very limited group.[2][3] The term protologism was invented by Mikhail Epstein, an American literary theorist at Emory University.[4][5] Epstein coined the term by combining the Greek words protos ("first" or "original") and logos ("word"):

I suggest calling such brand new words 'protologisms' (from Greek 'protos', meaning 'first, original' and Greek logos, meaning 'word'; cf. prototype, protoplasm). The protologism is a freshly minted word not yet widely accepted. It is a verbal prototype, which may eventually be adopted for public service or remain a whim of linguo-poetic imagination.[6]

According to Epstein, every word in use has started out as a protologism, subsequently became a neologism, and then gradually grew to be part of the language.[6] There is no fixed rule determining when a protologism becomes a neologism.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Eismann, Wolfgang (2015). "Individual initiatives and concepts for expanding the lexicon in Russian". In Müller, Peter O.; et al. Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe: Volume 3. Berlin, Germany; Boston, USA: Walter de Gruyter. p. 1756. ISBN 978-3-11-037566-4. Ėpštejn's projective dictionary should be a collection of protologisms, a protologism being a new word, coined to designate a new phenomenon or to fill in blank spaces and semantic voids in the lexical-conceptual system, as he proclaimed in 2003.
  2. ↑ Gryniuk, D. (2015). "On Institutionalization and De-Institutionalization of Late 1990s Neologisms". In Malec, W.; Rusinek, M. Within Language, Beyond Theories (Volume III): Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Corpus-based Studies. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 150. ISBN 1-4438-7822-7. This process [of lexicalization] does not seem to be coincidental because neologisms themselves are prone to go through certain stages of transformation. They begin as unstable creations (otherwise called protologisms), that is, they are extremely new, being proposed, or being used only by a small subculture
  3. ↑ Aitken, James K. (2013). "Neologisms: A Septuagint Problem". In Aitken, J.K.; Clines, J.M.S.; Maier, C.M. Interested Readers: Essays on the Hebrew Bible in Honor of David J. A. Clines. Atlanta, Georgia: Society of Biblical Literature. p. 316. ISBN 978-1-58983-926-7. Linguists even have a word for such terms, protologisms (itself a modern neologism), a word that is new and not yet established beyond a small group.
  4. ↑ Humez, Alexander; Humez, Nicholas; Flynn, Rob (3 August 2010). Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of Minimalist Communication. Oxford University Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-19-975868-5. One such neologism is the Wiktionary's protologism, a term invented by Mikhail Epstein of Emory University to refer to a newly created and proposed word which has not yet gained acceptance.
  5. ↑ Moore, Andrew (January 2011). "The hypothesis' ambassador". BioEssays. 33 (1): 1. doi:10.1002/bies.201090064. Recognising the preliminary (or even want-to-be) nature of many neologisms, Mikhail N. Epstein the American literary theorist and thinker coined his own: ‘protologism’, which refers to a neologism that has not yet been accepted as a useful or substantiated addition to the vocabulary.
  6. 1 2 Epstein, Mikhail (11 October 2012). The Transformative Humanities: A Manifesto. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-4411-6094-2.
  7. ↑ Solnyshkina, Marina I. (2009). "Lexicographical Basis for Russian Naval Sublanguage Dictionary: Theoretical Considerations". In Karpova, Olga; Kartashkova, Faina. Essays on Lexicon, Lexicography, Terminography in Russian, American and Other Cultures. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-4438-0645-9.

Further reading

External links

Look up protologism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.