Systemic relations in the English vocabulary. Groups of words in the lexicon. Neologisms, archaisms and international words.

Neologism is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (" coined") -- often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. Neologisms are especially useful in identifying inventions, new phenomena, or old ideas which have taken on a new cultural context. The term " e-mail", as used today, is an example of a neologism.

Neologisms can also refer to an existing word or phrase which has been assigned a new meaning.

At the present moment English is developing very swiftly and there is so called " neology blowup". R. Berchfield who worked at compiling a four- volume supplement to NED says that averagely 800 neologisms appear every year in Modern English. It has also become a language-giver recently, especially with the development of computerization.

New words, as a rule, appear in speech of an individual person who wants to express his idea in some original way. This person is called " originater". New lexical units are primarily used by university teachers, newspaper reporters, by those who are connected with mass media.

Neologisms can develop in three main ways:

-- a lexical unit existing in the language can change its meaning to denote a new object or phenomenon. In such cases we have semantic neologisms, e.g. the word " umbrella" developed the meanings: " авиационное прикрытие", " политическое прикрытие".

-- A new lexical unit can develop in the language to denote an object or phenomenon which already has some lexical unit to denote it. In such cases we have transnomination, e.g. the word " slum" was first substituted by the word " ghetto" then by the word-group " inner town".

-- A new lexical unit can be introduced to denote a new object or phenomenon. In this case we have " a proper neologism", many of them are cases of new terminology.

Newly created words entering a language tend to pass through several stages:

-- Unstable - Extremely new, being proposed, or being used only by a small subculture (also known as protologisms).

-- Diffused - Having reached a significant audience, but not yet having gained widespread acceptance.

-- Stable - Having gained recognizable and probably lasting acceptance.

-- Dated - The point where the word has ceased holding novelty and has passed into clichИ, formal linguistic acceptance, or become culturally dated in its use

Neologisms can be also classified according to the ways they are formed.

-- phonological neologisms

-- borrowings,

-- semantic neologisms

-- syntactical neologisms (morphological /word-building/ and phraseological /forming word- groups)

Archaisms are the language units that were current at one time but have passed out of use. It can be word, phrase or the use of spelling, letter or syntax. They are substituted by synonyms: # betwixt - between; hapless - unlikely. Some of them remain in a language but are used as stylistic devices to express solemnity. Used in poetry, law, etc.

Types: - literary (seek to awoke the style of older speech and writing);

- lexical (the use of words no longer in common use).

Archaisms are frequently misunderstood, leading to changes in usage. One example is the use of the archaic familiar second person singular pronoun " thou" to refer to God in English Christianity. Although originally a familiar pronoun, it has been misinterpreted as a respectful one by many modern Christians.

Used by lawyers in written form: # heretofore, hereunto, thereof

Religious context - # with this ring I thee wed

Obsolete words (lexical archaism) were once common but now are rare. Obsolete term is the one which is not in an active use any more.

Lexical archaisms: horse - steed; kill - slay; sorrow - woe.

Sometimes an archaism can get a new meaning: # fair - original meaning `beautiful'.

Sometimes roots of words remain and affixes change - # beauteous.